Urban Communications CEO Edmund Urban (left) with Dr. Don C. Williams at the Chicago Southland Fiber Network June 4th grand opening event.
The Chicago Southland Fiber Network hosted nearly 90 supporters at a June 4th grand opening reception and tour at their new $3 million Urban Communications Data Center, at 5320 W 159TH Street, in Oak Forest, IL. The event featured Urban Communications Chief Executive Officer Edmund Urban, Executive Director Rusty Winchel, CSFN Board Chairman Tom Mick, and special guests Cook County Chief Information Officer Simona Rollinson and Don C.Williams, Ph.D. from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the United States Department of Commerce.
“The project here is a great example of one of the administrations majors focus which is on PPPs,” Williams said. “Public Private Partnership primer, which provides a basic introduction to a variety of partnership models for communities considering new broadband projects, The primer provides a high-level overview of steps to establish partnerships, and presents case studies of successful public-private broadband partnerships.”
Dr. Williams is a senior specialist for broadband development for President Barack Obama’s new BroadbandUSA initiative. Prior to NTIA, Dr. Williams was chief operating officer and director of research for Rice Williams Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm serving more than 175 client cities, counties and state governments.
The CSFN is managed and operated by Urban Communications, Inc. in cooperation with the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association. It provides a high speed Gigabit Fiber Optic Network that serves the Chicago South Suburbs. The network initially constructed with State of Illinois “Illinois Jobs Now” funds it is a state-of-the-art carrier Ethernet fiber optic network. As a public-private partnership Urban Communications invested nearly $3 million into the data center which is the head-end of the distribution network that provides ultra-high speed redundant connections to the nation’s Internet backbone.
The network is capable of providing multiple 10 Gbps internet connections to over 30 distribution points in the Chicago South Suburbs.
For more information, visit http://www.csfn.us or download the brochure here. For more photos, click here.
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