Sacramento is taking steps to make it known that it’s ready to help companies build out the city’s wireless broadband capacity.
On Tuesday the City Council approved an amendment to a city ordinance that officials say should streamline red tape and enable Sacramento to negotiate long-term lease agreements with telecommunication service providers wishing to co-locate equipment on city-owned assets such as light poles and conduit.
Sacramento says its infrastructure currently is “underutilized” for this purpose.
Tuesday’s action comes a month after the City Council approved a partnership with an Irvine, Calif.-based company called 5 Bars, which will develop a wireless master plan for Sacramento, “proactively market" city-owned assets and negotiate agreements with service providers on behalf of the city, according to the agreement.
Under the contract terms, 5 Bars won’t charge Sacramento upfront for its services; instead, the company will take 35 percent of gross revenue from all new leases and 25 percent for leases on existing towers that they implement. Under the partnership, 5 Bars is tasked with impartially marketing Sacramento to all vendors. The initial five-year partnership could be extended to as many as 25 years.
Sacramento CIO Maria MacGunigal told Techwire on Wednesday morning that there's a lot of potential for growth in this area and it will be interesting to see what kind of contracts might come to fruition during the next year or so. One idea is to build out a distributed outdoor antenna system located in Sacramento's downtown core that could be used by multiple carriers. But it remains to be seen if the market will support that kind of arrangement, she said.
In any case, the partnership with 5 Bars could generate new revenue for Sacramento while at the same time helping to manage the visual clutter that small-scale networks can create, MacGunigal said. Someday, if there's enough traction, the contracts might include free public Wi-Fi to some extent, she added.
MacGunigal said the arrangement with 5 Bars should result in a streamlined process for vendors that want to co-locate their infrastructure on city property. One of their complaints is that the current system takes a long time to get approval for.
“We are delighted to work with the city’s progressive leadership to contribute technologies and a smart infrastructure that will positively impact its citizens for many years to come,” said Karen Sessions, 5 Bars chief external affairs officer, in a statement. “Smart infrastructure is the backbone of a progressive city economy, and urban development projects such as this create a smart network, help integrate hardware, software and data that work holistically, to improve quality of life, sustainability and efficiencies in metropolitan areas.”
