SpectraNet to Build Fiber-Optic Network

In an agreement that will give Anaheim a telecommunications superhighway, the City Council this week approved a contract with SpectraNet International of San Diego to design and build a fiber-optic cable network for businesses, residents and government offices.

The system will provide a high-speed and high quality fiber-optic link among telecommunications customers, both residential and commercial.

Mayor Tom Daly hailed the move to provide the “universal telecommunications system” as an “idea whose time has come.”

“The system will be a great benefit to the city,” Daly said, noting that it will be developed with at least $270 million in private funds.

Other city officials said that joining forces with SpectraNet should lower the cost of providing telecommunications and help the city attract businesses that require high-tech capabilities.

Final details of the SpectraNet agreement will be worked out by year’s end, officials said.

The first customers could be online by spring 1997, with completion of the first phase set for for September 1998.

Edward K. Aghjayan, general manager of the Public Utilities Department, said the city has been working with SpectraNet for more than two years on plans for the telecommunications network.

Aghjayan said the system will be built in phases, starting in January, and continuing through the year 2002. The system will be able to provide a number of services, such as voice, video, data, and multimedia communications, high-speed access to the Internet, as well as local and long-distance telephone calls at a lower cost.

The first phase of the network will cost up to $100 million and serve about 6,000 government, industrial and commercial users, including the east Anaheim business area, downtown, and tourism and sports recreation areas.

Estimated investment for the second phase is up to $250 million and would extend the network to the rest of the city, including residential users and the remaining government customers.

Aghjayan said there will be no cost to the city for the system.