sr-063009-1aCity Council Meeting: June 30, 2009
Agenda Item: A' ~}
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Jory Wolf, Chief Information Officer
Subject: Dark Fiber Lease
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and
execute a contract with Abovenet Communications Ino. for the lease of dark fiber in an
amount not to exceed $302,700.00 over a five year term.
Executive Summary
The City currently requires additional internet bandwidth to support City services. An
increased demand for City Wi-Fi services in the City Libraries and Wi-Fi hot zones has
compounded the need for additional internet bandwidth. Furthermore,. the City requires
a broadband connection to enable disaster recovery to an offsite location. The dark
fiber lease will connect the City to an Internet Service Provider interconnect point at the
One Wilshire carrier-neutral data center in Los Angeles, California. The dark fiber
connection will allow the City to obtain additional bandwidth at discount rates 67% less
than current offerings due to access to over 200 Internet Service Providers at the
location. The additional bandwidth will also allovv the City to offer new services such as
streaming City TV programming over the internet, and expand City Wi-Fi into new hot
zones. To support these services at affordable .rates, the City must lease. dark fiber.
Following a competitive process, staff recommends awarding the contract to Abovenet
Communications Inc. for a total amount of $302,700.00 over a five year term. The costs
of the lease and installation for the initial year will not exceed $62,700.00 and is
available ih the current fiscal year budget.
Discussion
The City's existing internet bandwidth is transported over dedicated circuits from several
providers. The current provisioning model has proved cost prohibitive for the City to
accommodate the higher demand for free internet services at City Wi-Fi zones and to
provide live streaming of video, such as City TV content over the internet. The City also
requires a redundant connection with greater bandwidth for its disaster recovery
systems to be located out of state.
1
After releasing an RFP; Information Systems Department staff received and reviewed a
proposal from one vendor, Abovenet Communications, Inc. Only a limited number of
vendors have the infrastructure to lease dark fiber for the requested route. Three
vendors refused to respond due to the RFP requirement that grants the City rights to
use the dark fiber for providing services to other agencies and businesses in the
community.
For comparison purposes, the City obtained two quotes outside the RFP process for a
dark fiber lease that would provide comparable bandwidth for City services only. The
two comparison quotes were priced higher than the proposal from Abovenet
Communications, Inc., which met the requirements of the RFP.
Upon completion of the comprehensive review process, City staff selected Abovenet
Communications Inc. as the vendor that best met the City's specifications for a dark
fiber lease. Abovenet Communications Inc. is also highly recommended by their
reference agencies, including the Corporation for. Education Network Initiatives in
California (GENIC) and the City of New York.
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
The dark fiber strands and installation costs for the five year term will not exceed
$302,700.00. The annual cost will not exceed an amount of $60,000.00, and will be
requested in the budgets for the next four fiscal years, corresponding to the renewal
terms. Funds are available in the Information Systems Department CIP Account #
M55000609.589000.
2
Prepared by: Gary Carter, Administrative Analyst
Approved:
Forwarded to Council:
Jo olf
ie Information Officer
Reference Contract No.
9081 (CCS).