City's IT still building BPL

answer is

fiber optics

By BECKY BROOKS

Enterprise Editor

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

Although citywide municipal Internet service has been long in coming, members of the city's new IT department reported the long wait will put the City of Clyde ahead of the game in coming years.

"This is a project that takes a lot of trial and error," according to Clyde Information Technology technician Justin LeBenne.

When the City of Clyde signed a long-term contract with American Broadband & Telecommunications, plans called for the Broadband over Powerlines system to be up and operating by spring of 2007.

It is mid-2008 and ABT customers have only in recent months started being billed for their Internet service. As for Voice Over Internet (digital phone), city Network Systems Administrator Amy Wobser said ABT is still working on offering that service.

Right now there are 80 BPL Internet customers on the city system and Wobser hopes that number will triple by winter.

"We have service connected to poles for 1,000 homes," she said about building out the BPL hardware area. "We've added a couple customers a week."

Those customers, however, cannot have underground utilities as the IT department discovered it is not cost effective to try and install BPL service in those areas. The long-term answer will be citywide fiber optics, according to Wobser.

LeBenne explained that Broadband over Powerlines "was the quick system we wanted". That "quick system" has never quite worked the way engineers originally told the city it would work, the IT staff admitted.

"Under the advice of the original engineer, we promised too much too soon," Wobser admitted.

She added that Clyde citizens have been mostly patient and in the long term they will benefit from the results of the new city Internet services.

As BPL is being hooked up it is comparable to Roadrunner and DSL speeds, she said. "It's fun to see," she said about working with new customers who have only had dial-up Internet in the past.

"It's enjoyable to see them use high-speed Internet," Wobser commented, noting they also get the service at a fraction of the cost of other systems.

But the city's IT people explained that as BPL is going online, they have had to had to adapt hardware customer by customer.

Wobser, who was the city's zoning inspector prior to being trained as the IT systems administrator, said implementing BPL into homes is a house-by-house event.

Streets, which have underground utilities, need a different system than homes with overhead wiring, she noted again.

Homes' electrical wiring varies and systems have to be adapted house by house, Wobser said about BPL hardware.

At businesses like Glenna Stout, E.A., on West Buckeye, the city had to have a fiber optic hook up due to high power line interference, while others in downtown like Dewey and Dewey on North Main Street can operate on BPL units, she added.

Wobser and LeBenne explained there has been no simple cookie cutter installation for the BPL system.

"We have a handle on the regular BPL," Wobser pointed out. As the city Internet system has been expanded to businesses and homes, the IT department has had to incorporate boosters, wireless transmission and fiber optics.

"Time permitting we can connect a lot more BPL people right now," she said. Wobser said Clyde Light & Power employees had to also be trained to splice fiber optic lines.

"All our employees are trained on splicing," she said, noting the whole BPL system is built on a fiber optic backbone.

The entire city will benefit in future years from a fiber optic service that will be built out from the proposed new $1.5 million Clyde Light & Power plant on Premier Drive. Due to dropping costs in fiber optics and related equipment that may happen sooner that first planned, according to Wobser. The fiber optic build out is still in the design stage, she added.

They now have the experience needed and are ahead of many other cities trying to deploy the new system.

"It's hard to find engineers who have more than one deployment under their belt," Justin LeBenne said about looking to others for advice and guidance.

Wobser pointed out that getting the new system in place is similar to when Clyde first deployed Clyde Light & Power.

It took time in the early years and today it is nearly a seamless operation.

She believes the staff is up to the task, but now the city's IT team has more demands on it than it did a year ago.

The new Clyde IT department - which did not exist until Clyde City Council decided to add BPL - also must be concerned about Internet security for city BPL customers.

The two city IT workers also are in charge of installing backup servers for the various city departments - especially since the passage of the state's new public records law. Many more electronic records such as e-mails must be protected. Earlier this year, the IT employees installeda servicr in the city manager's office, for example.

"Every computer in the city will have access to a server and they will have backups," Wobser said about one project they completed this year.

LeBenne explained that the IT department's job is now "anything technology" in the municipality.

"Three of our utilities have SCADA systems," Wobser said, noting those must be maintained for electric, water and wastewater. SCADA is a "computerized monitoring system or supervisory control and data organization", she said.

Wobser commented that the city's original goal was to implement BPL as "a quick way to get the Internet" for city customers. In the long run, the city will most likely switch to a fiber optic system.

"Fiber optics is more time consuming," she said about the implementation. But it will allow for faster expanded services in the future over the Internet.

In the future, as BPL and fiber optics become more standard throughout the city, residents could have TV programming by Internet and city Internet could become a major utility for future companies who rely on low-cost, high-speed service, she said.

The creation of the IT department and implementation of BPL has already had unexpected benefits. One is the operation of the city's two LED Matrix Welcome Signs on U.S. 20.

Because the city had begun its fiber optic installation, the two signs can be remotely controlled over the Internet, Wobser said.

Originally the signs were to have been controlled and changed by a laptop computer hook up at each location. By controlling them over the Internet, Wobser and the Clyde Police can make changes remotely.

Wobser has been able to add photographs for the upcoming Aaron Tipton concert, the Fliers Basketball team after it won the Sandusky Bay Conference title from her home even before the team came home from the game. She can also change each sign separately from the other.

The Clyde Police have also been able to flash traffic warning signs in minutes on U.S. 20 and have for major accidents, icy roads, and trains blocking the highway.