Homes and businesses across metropolitan Bakersfield would get the option of contracting high-speed Internet service as part of a $400 million fiber-optics system that a Delaware-based company is negotiating with Kern County and the city of Bakersfield.
At no cost to taxpayers, SiFi Networks proposes to lay fiber-optic cable along every street in the area within four years. The company would sell access to private Internet service providers that would, in turn, offer the service to individual customers. Residential customers would get access to 10 gigabytes per second of data for about $60 per month, while businesses would have the option of paying $99 per month for Internet service as fast as 100 gigabytes per second.
“It’s going to be great for all of our residents,” said Zack Scrivner, chairman of the Kern County Board of Supervisors. A vote on whether to enter into a formal development agreement with SiFi is expected next month; it would be followed by further discussions with the county and city, potentially allowing construction to begin in spring.
Fiber-optics infrastructure allows data to move at the speed of light, free of conventional broadband limitations. Driven by escalating demand from users of Internet-connected devices, it exists at some businesses and institutions but has not been broadly available to consumers in Kern.
County staff say the system SiFi proposes could drive down costs, promote innovation and introduce competition in an industry that has, in some instances, been limited to a small group of localized service providers.
SiFi’s vice president of government affairs and business development, Shawn Parker, said the company offers subsidies that make the service available to low-income residents for about $30 per month, a discount that can be combined with federal and state subsidies that bring the cost down further.
The company is deploying, or has already set up, fiber-optic systems in more than two dozen U.S. cities. In Kern, SiFi would own, maintain and operate the fiber-optics system. But if it walks away, the infrastructure would belong to the county or the city, depending on where it’s located.
The general idea is that SiFi would dig “micro-trenches” along street gutters in public rights of way, making progress of about 2,500 feet per day. If a resident or business wants to contract the service, a line would be connected from the street to the interior of the property.
There would also need to be at least eight cabinet-like shelters built across the metropolitan area to house equipment to serve the network.
As proposed, the Delaware company would not have exclusive rights to install fiber optics, meaning another company could come in with a plan to install its own network alongside SiFi’s.
© 2022 The Bakersfield Californian. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
