Riverside's open access muni fiber network is open for business

6 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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Municipal dark fiber is now available for lease on an open access basis in Riverside, California. Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) – the City of Riverside’s municipal electric and water utility – has gone live with its dark fiber webpage, which sets out the rates and terms for leasing strands on its 120 mile network.

The base rate is $125 per strand-mile per month (one mile minimum, by tenth of mile after that), which can fall to $70 with term and volume discounts. Drops, laterals and end points cost $150 per month each.

Dark fiber is available to any business that wants to make use of it, including Internet service providers, mobile carriers and other telecommunications resellers. There are no plans to offer lit services or Internet bandwidth to businesses, or provide residential service of any kind.

Security is always a concern for any public utility. The fiber strands that RPU uses for its own operations will not be shared with any customer. The only strands that will be terminated at a customer’s location will be ones that are either leased to that customer or used to monitor network continuity.

Like RPU’s electric and water systems, the fiber network has a citywide footprint and is particularly dense in the downtown area, where several office buildings are already on-net. It’s interconnected to Southern California Edison’s 5,000 mile regional fiber network, Charter Communications’ local network and to the County of Riverside’s RC3 data center, where connections to other major fiber and telecommunications companies are available. RPU’s fiber route also passes several other potential interconnection points, including an AT&T central office, a Level 3 data center, UC Riverside, and Metrolink stations.

If a connection to a particular building or area of the city isn’t already available, RPU will build laterals and extensions to order. Terms for new construction and information about planned projects are also on the new webpage.

Full disclosure: Riverside Public Utilities is my client and I’m working on their behalf (although what’s posted on my blog is purely my responsibility). Take it for what it’s worth.