by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
The industrial age bowed to the technology age Monday as City leaders announced the creation of a Telecommunications Master Plan for Jacksonville.
Citing the growing technological needs of the future, Mayor John Delaney, City Council president, Matt Carlucci, General Counsel Rick Mullaney and City Council member Alberta Hipps unveiled a plan that would roll out a county-wide high speed communications infrastructure. The infrastructure would include fiber optic lines, hybrid fiber/coaxial cable and wireless technologies.
“We have a once in a generation, perhaps a once in a century opportunity to make a quantum leap ahead with a telecommunications infrastructure,” said Delaney. “We’re doing a lot of water, sewer, road and drainage work over the next few years. Now is our chance to develop an infrastructure that would allow a high-speed, county-wide network to improve all areas of technology: fiber optic to wireless to cable.”
The telecommunications infrastructure would be a municipally-owned network, which could make it a potential revenue generator for the City. Individual companies could lease bandwidth on fiber optic lines from the City. The large capacity of fiber optic lines gives it the flexibility to accommodate several services over the same line, which would promote competition and offer more variety to consumers. Carlucci hinted at the prospect of cable television competition.
This framework will make competition for cable and other services economically viable,” said Carlucci. “Change is sometimes tough, but it is sometimes necessary to keep up.”
A review will be conducted of Jacksonville’s current infrastructure and a feasibility study will be conducted to determine how to implement the project. Findings and recommendations will be presented in six months.