The plan is to deliver high-speed fiber to create an “intelligent infrastructure economic zone,” according to a news release. FiberLight will build a 100-mile fiber network to provide high-speed Internet and connect Public Infrastructure Network Nodes (PINNs).
As FiberLight Chief Strategy Officer Ron Kormos told Fierce Telecom, PINNS are small data centers to house equipment that can connect autonomous vehicles and agricultural technology.
“The use of autonomous trucks will increase production and reduce downtime, it will create tremendous economic opportunity for the area,” Kormos said in the article. “Also, there will be secondary advantages from the increased connectivity and bandwidth, state-of-the-art wireless, 5G, Wi-Fi 6e that will fuel economic, commercial and residential growth to more rural and underserved areas.”
FiberLight is working on the engineering portion of the project, Fierce Telecom reported. Once that’s done, it will apply for permits from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to build the “multi-duct fiber system.”
SH 130 is a toll road running parallel to Interstate 35, starting east of San Antonio and ending north of Georgetown. It is owned by TxDOT and operated privately.
It connects multiple smaller cities that have big economic development plans for attracting tech companies and residents, who are filling in the area.
Among high-tech arrivals and coming attractions:
- Samsung Austin Semiconductor, with facilities in Pflugerville and Taylor
- Skybox Datacenters and Prologis’ 400 million-square-foot data center in Hutto
- Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas in Austin