YOUNGSTOWN Backers: Network will help area grow

A high-speed computer network linking 28 area school districts is being opened up to businesses and perhaps homes.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- A fiber-optic network now being installed will bring the future of high-speed computer connections to Mahoning and Columbiana counties, backers say.
The 250-mile network is being built for 28 school districts in the two counties and the public library system in Mahoning County, but it also could be opened to businesses, government agencies and homes.
Supporters list these potential uses:
* Videoconferencing with smooth, instantaneous transmission.
* Monitoring of remote business locations in real time.
* Rapid transfer of large computer files to another location on the network.
* Sending of building floor plans by wireless connections to police and fire vehicles responding to emergencies.
* Transmitting college lectures to high schools, allowing students to take courses without traveling to universities and to review the digital lessons whenever they want.
* Creating a telephone system that would link school districts with one another and with state agencies without toll charges.
Focus on installation
Bob Long, who has been working on the project for the school districts for two years, said the focus has been on getting the $7.2 million network installed. Developing uses will follow.
"We haven't even begun to scratch the surface for uses yet," he said.
Fiber-optic lines are being installed along telephone poles in some areas now. The project was to be completed next May, but it could take until the end of next year, Long said.
Fiber optics are the key to the project. These glass strands transmit data with light signals, so information travels at the speed of light.
The network will provide high-speed Internet access similar to DSL service provided by phone companies and cable access provided by cable television companies.
The advantage to being on the network, however, is that data being sent from one point on the network to another would not have to travel on the Internet and so would not be subject to bottlenecks that can develop.
"You have to have a big imagination to imagine what this will mean for those who are inside the ring," said Ralph Zerbonia, general manager of Cboss Community Network in Boardman.
Who's paying for it
Paying for the system is ACCESS Council of Governments, a governmental body created by all school districts in Mahoning and Columbiana counties except Lisbon and Southern. Those two are part of another group, as are districts in Trumbull County.
ACCESS provides Internet access, e-mail and software services for the schools.
Long, executive director of ACCESS, said the network is being created for no additional cost to the districts. He is combining the money already being paid for Internet access with a federal grant to pay back a bank loan.
Schools will not be able to use all of the data-carrying capacity on the fiber-optic lines, so ACCESS is opening up their use for others.
The ACCESS board recently granted conditional approval for Cboss, which provides Internet access and other services, to lease part of the lines for 10 years for $1.2 million. The deal is contingent on obtaining funding and developing an acceptable business plan.
Investors
Zerbonia said he intends to put together a group of local investors to obtain the funding. Long said the board will have to approve any partners that Zerbonia brings on board.
Zerbonia said his group would link businesses, government agencies and perhaps homes to the network and recoup that cost through fees charged. Cboss is proposing using wireless connections to link smaller users to the network.
Zerbonia said he thinks demand will be great for the network from businesses, especially in parts of the two counties that don't have access to high-speed Internet access through telephone and cable companies. The network will be widely available because it is traveling to 100 school buildings, plus the libraries in Mahoning County. Columbiana County libraries are not included because they are not part of a central system.
Zerbonia said the network also will make the area more attractive to outside businesses, but he doesn't expect companies to relocate here immediately because a poor national economy has dimmed companies' expansion prospects.
Long said ACCESS is working separately with Fiber Media, a company which intends to use fiber optics to attract computer centers for large companies to an industrial park in Leetonia. Fiber Media is paying for part of the network.
shilling@vindy.com