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Department of Technology to Become Internet Service Provider to Sacramento

The Department of Technology in April agreed to extend the department's fiber ring to the city of Sacramento in an arrangement that the department says will save the city and the state money over the long term.

The Department of Technology in April finalized an agreement with the city of Sacramento that will extend the city's existing fiber network to the department's Fiber Ring Service. The California Department of Justice, CalEPA and other state agencies will use the new connections. The arrangement will save the city and the state money over the long term, the department said.

"This agreement will replace leased, vendor provided, critical network FRS circuits with city fiber, saving CDT approximately $20,000 per month. Although CDT was required to initially spend approximately $117,000 to build out seven sites, the cost will be recouped in less than 6 months once the CDT vendor fiber contracts are terminated. In return, CDT will become the Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the City of Sacramento, allowing the city to eliminate costly vendor-provided ISP services," the Department of Technology announced on its blog April 28.

The department also says the partnership will enable the state to become a service provider to other local entities, such as Sacramento County and California State University, Sacramento. The agreement with the city of Sacramento will help the state connect to the California Research Network (CalREN).

"This CalREN connection will allow K-12, community colleges, universities, and libraries to use CENIC to subscribe to CDT services," the state said.

The connections are expected to be finished this summer.

The Department of Technology has been pursuing educational institutions as potential customers that would help the state scale up its private cloud and other hosted services. The California Department of Technology became an E-rate provider as of March 24.

"The Schools and Libraries program, also known as the E-rate program, makes telecommunications and information services more affordable for schools and libraries in America. Mandated by Congress in 1996 and implemented by the FCC in 1997, E-rate provides discounted telecommunications, Internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries, funded by the Universal Service Fund," the FCC explains.