| News - Friday, January 12, 2007
A dearth of bidders on PA fiber
Two firms, out of more than 100 initially expressing interest, submit bids by Tuesday deadline.
Only two companies stepped up by the Tuesday deadline to provide broadband fiber to Palo Alto residents and businesses, according to Joe Saccio, the city's deputy director of administrative services.
"We were assuming that we were going to get more than that," Saccio said.
The dearth of bids prompted the city to delay discussing the evaluation process at its Jan. 16 City Council meeting. Instead, the council will take up the issue in February, Saccio said.
The deadline was pushed back several times for the more than 100 companies that expressed initial interest in building and operating a 100-megabit-per-second service with data, video and telephony capabilities -- with the city maintaining ownership of the physical system.
Palo Alto businesses gained access to a fiber network in 1998, but despite a four-year trial of residential service in the Community Center neighborhood, efforts to connect the bulk of the city have been undermined by costs, complications and competition from other pressing city issues.
.-- Molly Tanenbaum |
Send this story
Print this story
