Chapel Hill Unveils For Upgrade High-Speed Fiber Optic Network.

Business Management Director Ken Pennoyer told the town council on Monday that the upgrade will have a significant impact on town operations.

“What this provides for us is much, much higher speeds, about a thousand times faster than the conventional copper technology,” said Pennoyer.

By switching from leased data lines, the town will save $73,000 annually, and the new system will be able to handle much larger amounts of data.

Originally town leaders had envisioned that the system could be used to provide broadband access for private homes and businesses, but a recently enacted state law prohibits municipalities from competing with corporate service providers.

However, telecom experts told the council there may be ways to work around that law.

Cynthia Pols is legal counsel for the SouthEast Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors. She said that while the town can’t offer retail broadband service, there are still opportunities to collaborate with other partners.

“It does not prohibit you from taking the facilities you own and leasing it to third parties,” said Pols. “That third party could be any kind of a partner that you might choose.”

One of those collaborations could involve working with UNC to create high-tech hubs throughout town, as part of a program known as the University Community Next Generation Innovation Network, or Gig-U.

UNC’s Chief Information Officer Larry Conrad says the Gig-U project could draw in the private sector as well.

“What we are looking to do is incentivize, in some way, the private sector to make investment in some number of high-speed test beds in the immediate vicinity of these large research universities,” said Conrad.

Another project would use crowd-sourcing to bring wireless internet access to underprivileged families. Orange Networking Chairman and Founder Brian Russell said the initiative could increase technical literacy throughout the community.

“NetCorps will be an in-home service mentor program that will prove training to university and high school student mentors, and through them, wireless internet service training to grade school students and their families,” said Russell.

Council members also plan to use the network to improve internet access at town-owned public housing. Chapel Hill’s fiber optic network will go online in August.