San Leandro fiber-optic loop back on fast track

"We were stopped at Davis and East 14th, waiting for Caltrans to approve permits. We have them now, so we will be pulling fiber around the rest of the city," said Patrick Kennedy, who is bankrolling the $3 million project. The loop, called Lit San Leandro, could be finished before the end of summer.

Kennedy's company, OSIsoft, and F.H. Dailey Chevrolet on Davis Street already are connected to the loop, which will be 11 miles when completed.

The city's main library on Estudillo Avenue and police station on East 14th Street should be hooked up by the middle of July.

"This whole project is going remarkably fast," said Judy Clark, a telecommunications consultant working with Lit San Leandro, a public-private partnership. The loop project will next head down East 14th Street, she said.

Rayan Fowler, San Leandro's information technology manager, said the project will dramatically improve Internet speeds at the main and Manor libraries. Both libraries will be operating off the same wireless connection, she said.

"The wireless that we have right now is extremely slow," Fowler said. "When the library is being used fully, which is 90 percent of the time, the response time is not adequate.

"I plan on going to the library the first day and see the smiles instead of the frustration I see today," she added.
The cable is being pulled through city-owned conduits that were already in place. "We use the conduit for communication through city facilities and some traffic signals," Kay said. "It was a fortuitous loop."

Kennedy said the existing conduit was a major boost for the project.

"I could never have afforded to put in conduit," Kennedy said. "Our cost in San Leandro is less than 10 percent of what it would be in another city" where conduit would have to be laid.

The longtime San Leandro resident started the project because his growing international company needed more Internet bandwidth. OSIsoft is the leading maker of software for monitoring heavy industry. It employs about 300 workers in San Leandro and 850 worldwide in 115 countries.

"It seemed a logical thing. I would lease the city conduit, and I would put in the fiber," Kennedy said.

Several businesses in the city have signed up for the fiber-optic service, Clark said. "If we can get businesses to share cost of bringing the network to their area, that makes it tremendously affordable."

Steve Song, owner of F.H. Dailey Chevrolet, called the decision to hook up to the loop "the best investment I've ever made." The dealership was added to the loop about a month ago.

"The difference between our Internet speeds before and after is like night and day," Song said. "This has increased the efficiency and productivity of everyone. It's been a huge morale booster.

"Everything we do is Web-based. We were getting choked because of slow Internet speeds; people couldn't do their work," he said.

San Leandro administrative analyst Jeff Kay said the city has applied for a federal grant to build an additional 7.5 miles of conduit. Part of that would extend north on Doolittle Drive. "That would give us a potential connection with the city of Oakland and the Port of Oakland. That could make the project more regional, with a possible link to the airport."

Another section would extend to the city's shoreline area. "Providing fiber optic would transform our ability to get an exciting, high-tech campus to that site," Kay said.

A third extension would be a loop through the Teagarden area downtown, where there is a concentration of businesses.

"If they get that grant and extend the conduit, we'll come right behind them and add fiber optic," Kennedy said.

The cables will provide the kind of fast access and upload speeds needed by many companies. "We're almost the speed of light," Clark said.

"As the loop is completed, we're looking forward to attracting a new group of cloud revolution companies to come to San Leandro and at the same time help our existing business," said Mayor Stephen Cassidy.

Kennedy said that his interest in the loop is not completely altruistic.

"Fiber is a very profitable thing. Eventually I hope to get my money back," he said.

Kennedy predicts that within five years, businesses won't rent sites are that are underserved in broadband. "Copper-based broadband won't be to handle it."