COLUMBUS, Ind. — Efforts to create a fiber-to-home network in Columbus could get started as early as next week.
The Columbus Board of Works has approved a master license agreement and a master easement agreement with Meridiam Infrastructure North America Corp. The company has agreed to create a fiber-to-premise network that officials say will reach at least 85% of Columbus and is also creating networks in Bloomington and Shelbyville.
City Director of Finance, Operations and Risk Jamie Brinegar said Bloomington already has “shovels in the ground,” and Meridiam has indicated that it would be able to start work in Columbus two weeks after the approval of the two agreements.
“The hope is first quarter of next year, they will be working on fiber to the home for people to sign up,” said Brinegar.
The licensing agreement approved by the board gives Meridiam access to the city’s conduit.
“You approved the master agreement with Meridiam, so what we’ve done is incorporated some of that language, then, to allow licensing and easements to get in the right of way, essentially,” said City Attorney Alan Whitted. “So in order to implement this agreement for the conduits and then also other areas where conduit isn’t located they’re going to use, we’ve given them that approval.”
He added that while much of the city’s approval was included in a master development agreement that the board voted on in June, officials wanted to run it by the board again in the interest of transparency and covering all the bases.
The master easement agreement is also a subset of the master development agreement, said Brinegar. He added that Meridiam will still come to the city’s engineering department with special use of right-of-way requests as needed.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
