Fremont City Council Meeting: 07/19/22 07:00 PM
3300 Capitol Avenue Div/Dept: Information Technology Services Fremont, CA 94538 Category: Plans, Policies and Studies
SCHEDULED
Sponsors:
STAFF REPORT (ID # 4623) DOC ID: 4623
Updated: 7/14/2022 6:14 PM by Susan Gauthier Page 1
CITYWIDE FIBER OPTICS MASTER PLAN - Adopt a resolution adopting the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan and make a finding that the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per Guidelines Sections 15262 and 15378(b), and no further environmental review is required at this time.
Contact Persons:
Name: David Yu Sanford Taylor
Title: Infrastructure Services Manager IT Director
Div/Dept: Information Technology Services Information Technology Services Phone: 510-494-4826 510-494-4802
E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]
Executive Summary: In September 2020 the Information Technology Services Department (ITS) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a City-wide fiber optic master plan. ITS selected and partnered with a broadband engineering and consulting firm, Magellan Advisors, to assist with the development of the Fiber Optic Master Plan. Magellan conducted interviews with City departments, performed a market assessment, and issued a community survey to identify how the City’s current assets and infrastructure can be used to create a city-wide fiber optic ring to address the needs and goals of the City and its community now and into the future. The Fiber Optic Master Plan encompasses strategies for the use and deployment of broadband infrastructure for government facilities and commercial and industrial corridors, as well as analyzes options for expanding broadband assets to the City’s residents. This report recommends adopting a resolution to adopt the CitywideFiber Optic Master Plan.
BACKGROUND: On January 20, 2021, the City of Fremont selected Magellan Advisors as its partner in the development of a City-Wide Fiber Optic Master Plan through a competitive bidding process. Magellan Advisors assisted the City in developing a strategic plan to facilitate increased broadband infrastructure in the community, which will enable economic development and ‘smart city’ initiatives in the years to come.
Magellan Advisors assisted in inventorying existing infrastructure, identifying unserved and underserved areas, and developing phased deployment strategies that correspond with planned projects, allowing Fremont to maximize efficiency and cost effectiveness in preparing for future technologies. A needs assessment was translated into a high-level network design (HLD) for a robust municipal fiber network to connect all City facilities and to serve as a platform for the deployment of smart city technologies, such as a city-wide Wi-Fi network, high-resolution security cameras, intelligent traffic management system, and pre-emptive traffic signaling for public safety vehicles. Additionally, the fiber network will provide important infrastructure for innovative economic development and to promote digital equity in underserved areas in the community.
The Fiber Optic Master Plan includes financial and business modeling enabling Fremont to pursue shovel-ready projects for deployment of fiber-optic infrastructure. The long-term goal of the plan is to position the City as a broadband-rich environment for attracting, Staff Report (ID # 4623) Meeting of July 19, 2022
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retaining, and serving businesses and residents as well as supporting future broadband applications jointly with private sector investment.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS: As technology advances, municipalities are embracing new innovations to improve existing services as well as to provide new services to its community. A vast network of internet-connected devices can transform an ordinary city into a “smart” city. These include sensors and automated devices known as the Internet of Things (IoT), online permitting, bill paying, and even remote field work. In addition to municipal uses, local governments acknowledge the need to ensure high-speed internet connections are available within their cities, allowing for economic development by retaining businesses and attracting new entities in order to have thriving economies with low unemployment and a strong tax base.
The new systems require high bandwidth internet connections with low latency, otherwise known as broadband, defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as high- speed connections that exceed speeds of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. However, the federal definition is not adequate to support modern networks and smart city applications. Fiber optics is a scalable medium that can address the higher bandwidth requirements for future City initiatives.
As a result, in January 2021, the City of Fremont selected Magellan Advisors to prepare a detailed, actionable Fiber Optic Master Plan. The plan serves as a guide for Fremont to implement a City-owned fiber-optic network that serves as a critical investment in the community’s future.
The City’s Fiber Optic Master Plan is a comprehensive document intended to serve as the blueprint for the City’s fiber and broadband expansion goals for the next twenty years.
City Department Interviews:
Magellan’s team began by collecting data and interviewing City departments to gain an understanding of the City of Fremont’s broadband usage and existing infrastructure. These interviews provided insight about the current City broadband infrastructure that could be used, the need for additional bandwidth, and the goals for future applications.
Magellan Advisors interviewed 31 representatives from City departments and representatives of three external organizations: Alameda County Transit, Alameda County Water District, and Fremont Unified School District. The discussions revealed a wide range of needs and opportunities, many related to Fremont’s substantial base of advanced manufacturing companies and its relatively sophisticated approach to traffic management.
The City’s plans to develop its Downtown, develop mixed use nodes in its neighborhoods with affordable housing and small business, and concentrate economic development in the Warm Springs Innovation District also create distinct needs and opportunities. Fremont’s diverse, technologically advanced industry is both an end and means for much of this development, including broadband.
Several City facilities, particularly community centers and the co-located Public Works Corporation Yard and Emergency Operations Centers, are prime candidates for better connectivity, including fire stations and numerous parks. Other public entities in Fremont have similar requirements, particularly for transit and utilities. All these needs complement Staff Report (ID # 4623) Meeting of July 19, 2022
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opportunities for economic development and transportation. Stakeholder input indicates it will be important to capitalize on the City’s broadband opportunities to include seniors, persons experiencing homelessness, and low-income families.
City Fiber Assets:
Existing assets assessed include conduit, fiber optic cables and equipment, rack space, towers, and antennas, among other things. Capital improvement projects (CIPs) that involve work in the public right-of-way, such as road work, intersection upgrades, and water and sewer projects, were also identified and incorporated into the Plan to reduce construction costs. Magellan’s team also reviewed existing privately-owned assets to identify opportunities for reducing costs and forging partnerships.
The City has approximately 41.89 miles of existing fiber. This fiber is owned by Fremont’s Public Works and ITS Departments. The fiber cables vary in size and strand availability, with 96 fiber strand count being the most common. The existing fiber is sufficient to use dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) with up to 400 Gb technologies to get the utilization that is needed to support City operations and business service offerings.
In addition to City-owned fiber, the Silicon Valley Intelligent Transportation System (SV- ITS) is a fiber optic network running through Fremont. Completed in the early 2000’s, it was a system built to connect an intelligent transportation from southern San Jose to Fremont through all the cities along the path. The cities it passes through, including Fremont, have access to six fibers strands, and can request more if needed. The fiber strands are managed through the City of San Jose IT Department. According to San Jose, these fibers are free for the City of Fremont to use. San Jose is responsible for the management, assignment, and documentation of the network.
Lastly, Caltrans owns a fiber route along I-880 which contains a 288-count fiber running through Fremont. The City has use of four of these fiber strands.
Summary of City’s fiber assets:
• Approximately 200,000 linear feet of City-owned fiber • 113,000’ of 96 count
• 16,000’ of 12-48
• 60,600’ of 4 Strands on Interstate 880 currently unused • Approximately 178,000 feet of existing conduit
• 162,000’ of 2” conduit (68,000’ is interconnect)
• 22,200’ of 1.5” (all signal interconnect) existing traffic signal conduit needs to be proofed, validated, and retrofitted to accommodate fiber optics
Broadband Survey:
To gain further insight into the need for additional broadband options in the City of Fremont, a survey was conducted to collect information from residents and businesses about their current service and needs. The survey was open for approximately eight weeks and received 498 total responses.
Staff Report (ID # 4623) Meeting of July 19, 2022
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The responses were broken down as follows:
Households: 460
Small or medium organizations: 22
Large enterprise organizations: 16
More than two thirds of organizational responses came from the Technology-Manufacturing sector, followed by Health Care and Technology. These sectors tend to be heavy users of broadband, so their responses provide key insight into the current state of internet and future need. Due to the low number of organizational responses, it is difficult to say that the results are statistically valid, although they do provide anecdotal information about the needs of these commercial users.
Most respondents reported that they had high-speed broadband connections, with only about 6% reporting slow-speed connections through cellular, dial-up, or satellite and just one respondent reporting no internet service at their location. About 2% were unsure.
Xfinity/Comcast was the predominant internet service provider, serving about two thirds of respondents, followed by AT&T, serving about one quarter. A handful of respondents reported having service through Sail Internet (9) and Wave (6), while other companies like Tekify and Cruzio served one respondent each. These numbers suggest that the incumbent telecommunications providers – Comcast and AT&T continue to dominate the market, although there are some smaller companies offering service to some areas of Fremont.
Finally, respondents were asked to share what better broadband would mean to them, their family, their organization, and the area. Many responses included concerns about a lack of competition or affordability. While some respondents took the opportunity to confirm their satisfaction with current services, others expressed a desire for new options to drive down prices and increased reliability and speeds.
High Level Fiber Infrastructure Design:
Given the information gathered on the City’s fiber assets along with the community survey, Magellan developed a high-level design (HLD), or ‘blueprint’, for the City’s broadband fiber needs. The HLD not only includes current City assets such as existing fiber optic cables, conduits, and space inside of City facilities, it capitalizes on capital improvement projects to reduce the overall cost of the network build out. The plan calls for including new fiber in capital projects that involve excavation of the public right of way. The HLD specifies an additional 70,000 feet of new fiber and 80,000 feet of signal conduit that will need to be retrofitted for this project. This will create fiber rings throughout Fremont and greatly increase availability, capacity, and resilience of this critical infrastructure.
As part of the Fiber Optic Master Plan, the goal is to recruit internet service providers (ISPs) and other technology companies to use the network. This will generate revenue to the City even as it supports economic recovery and growth, and provides a platform and partnerships for government innovations, digital inclusion, and quality of life improvements.
The new fiber network also enables the City to reduce connectivity costs by replacing leased circuits with city-owned infrastructure. Investments by ISPs will further enhance the network to create diverse, robust wired and wireless infrastructure for the City to be the Staff Report (ID # 4623) Meeting of July 19, 2022
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home of new, advanced applications, such as autonomous vehicles, while benefiting disadvantaged and underserved residents and businesses.
Phased Fiber Plan Implementation:
The expansion of the assets is planned to be done in three phases and based on funding availability:
Phase 1 creates a City-owned fiber ring that will supply services to the City facilities, fire stations, and two diverse internet connections. Phase 1 also creates a redundant ring around the City using existing infrastructure, upgrading signal interconnect conduit, and filling in the gaps with new construction to connect all City facilities, fire stations, and most traffic cameras.
In addition to this new ring, leveraging an existing agreement with Silicon Valley Intelligent Traffic System (SV-ITS), allows Fremont to create a designated internet access (DIA) connection to data centers in San Jose to the emergency operations center at the Public Works maintenance yard. Another DIA is recommended to connect to BART fiber at the Fremont BART station and lease fiber from BART to connect to DAC in Oakland. BART fiber is very cheap if used for City use only. This connection requires a short new underground build bridging the gap between existing City fiber and BART fiber.
The last goal of Phase 1 is to create diversity between City Hall and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). During an emergency, it is critical that City Hall and the EOC can communicate; therefore, it is recommended that two diverse routes be created from City Hall and EOC. One DIA located at City Hall and another at the EOC creates an extremely diverse routing that is nearly outage-proof. These routes require a diverse entry to be constructed into the EOC and splicing existing City fiber to create these paths.
Phase 2 will focus on interconnecting traffic signals and support the City’s Traffic Signal Modernization project. Fremont has heavily invested in connecting all traffic signals to the traffic control center, with the goal of reducing congestion and enhancing traffic safety. The Traffic Signal Modernization project incorporates the use of existing infrastructure, upgrading signal interconnect conduits, and new underground. The signals on the map as identified in the Plan that do not show a construction method are on paths in Phase 1. The routes constructed with Phase 2 will also be used for the furthering of the economic development goals of the City by allowing for connections to businesses along these routes.
Phase 3 will incorporate new underground construction to place new fiber-optic cables to fill gaps in the network and create redundancy throughout as well as to support business services and a possible deployment of a citywide Wi-Fi network. Networks that support business services need to have a redundant path to limit the amount and lengths of outages. Businesses rely on broadband and internet for many purposes, including data transfers, online accounting, business monitoring, among other processes. When the internet services are not working, it is detrimental to their operations; therefore, all business service agreements include compensation from the provider if that service is interrupted for an extended period of time. It is referred to as (4) 9’s or 99.99%, in a given month that is only 4-5 minutes of outage, outside of maintenance windows, before costs are incurred. For this reason, it is important for the network to have redundancy built into it with automatic transfer equipment to re-route data traffic around the outages. Finally, this Staff Report (ID # 4623) Meeting of July 19, 2022
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design provides a robust fault tolerant network to help withstand accidental breaks or cuts to infrastructure, earthquakes, or other acts of Nature.
Cost Estimation:
Magellan’s costing estimations for this project are based on the same experience and knowledge of local construction companies, standard pricing, and including prevailing wage on all labor as is required by California State Law. It is important to note that the project timeline is over a period of at least 20 years. The plan is to work on each of the 3 phases as funding becomes available.
Cost Summary by Phase
Construction Cost Equipment Cost Buildings Totals Phase 1 $ 7,388,362.42 $ 2,549,047.58 $900,000.00 $10,837,410.00 Phase 2 $ 11,928,386.95 $ 849,682.53 $ - $12,778,069.48 Phase 3 $ 2,480,150.03 $ - $ - $2,480,150.03 Totals $ 21,796,899.40 $ 3,398,730.10 $900,000.00 $26,095,629.50
GRAND TOTAL $ 26,095,629.50
Public-Private Partnerships:
On February 8, 2022, Information Technology Services released RFP#22-013 titled Broadband Public – Private Partnership Opportunity.
In the RFP, Fremont seeks private sector partnership(s) to provide the necessary expertise and resources needed to develop a fiber optic network to support current and future needs of government, businesses, anchor institutions, and residents. The goal of this RFP is to select a partner or partners who will leverage the City’s existing and planned broadband infrastructure to support smart city initiatives, economic development, telework, telehealth, and remote learning. The selected vendor(s) will be tasked with managing the proposed fiber and wireless networks. The fiber network will offer robust and competitively priced internet services to businesses and residents. Additionally, the fiber network will support Fremont’s Traffic Signal Modernization program, which provides smart traffic controls at intersections to enhance the safety and efficiency of multimodal travel, as well as to support public safety, intelligent/autonomous transportation, code enforcement, video, and other smart city applications.
On March 1, 2022, the City received 6 proposals from the following vendors:
• Tekify Fiber
• Smartwave LLC
• Smart Fiber Networks
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• Etheric Networks
• Comcast
• Astound Business Solutions
Currently Information Technology Staff along with Magellan Advisors, are reviewing and evaluating the vendor proposals to determine the ideal vendor(s) that best meets the requirements of the City.
FISCAL IMPACT: While there is no fiscal impact as a result of this presentation and adoption of the resolution adopting the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan, staff will return to City Council for review and approval for any project that will further the phases outlined in the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan, including but not limited to state or federal grants for both Phases 1 and 2 and Public–Private Partnership opportunities. Current State and Federal priorities focused on broadband are generating important funding opportunities that align with this Master Plan and staff has already begun to identify specific opportunities to pursue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: The Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per, without limitation, each on a separate and independent basis, (1) CEQA Guidelines Section 15262 as the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan is only a planning study for possible future action that have not been approved or funded; and (2) CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b) as the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan is an administrative activity that will not result in an effect on the physical environment and parts of the plan are too speculative at this time for reasoned analysis and details will be more fully developed later with the appropriate environmental review.
ATTACHMENTS:
• Presentation - City of Fremont Fiber Optic Master Plan • Draft Resolution Fiber Optic Master Plan
• City of Fremont - Fiber Master Plan
RECOMMENDATION: Adopt a resolution adopting the Citywide Fiber Optic Master Plan included with this report and finding that the action is exempt from CEQA.