Cumberland and the Allegany Board of Education are collaborating to improve educational, municipal, and business connectivity in the city’s downtown area, reports GovTech.
The district’s 23 schools are all connected, but the Maintenance and Facilities Warehouse is not yet connected. The location of the facility and the proposed fiber route will create an ideal opportunity to install fiber in a commercial corridor where ISPs can tap into the infrastructure, notes Cumberland’s economic development coordinator Shawn Hershberger:
“It will expand upon the solid resources we already have and make us more competitive for future economic development projects,” said Hershberger
The project will cost approximately $220,000. Half of the funding will come from a federal Appalachian Regional Commission grant. The school board and the city will split the remaining cost.
The city will connect its public service buildings and provide splice points for ISPs, who will be responsible for the cost to connect the last mile to the customer.
“Providing additional options for high-speed Internet service in Allegany County can only be a positive move for economic development and growth. The downtown area specifically will benefit from competitive pricing available to private entities with reliable and redundant high-speed service,” said [Chief Information Officer for the school board Nil] Grove.
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“It helps us toward the jobs we are trying to compete for and helps us keep the jobs we have here now,” said Hershberger.
This article is apart of MuniNetworks. The original piece can be found here
