Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, visited the city of San Leandro recently to praise their high-speed fiber optic loop known as Lit San Leandro. The chairman’s visit shed light on the fact that thanks to local software entrepreneur Patrick Kennedy, San Leandro is creating an Internet “superhighway” to match up with those of the more popular U.S. technology communities. GeoTel Communications provided the GIS telecom infrastructure data for the city of San Leandro in part for their efforts to expand the city’s connectivity.
As you may remember from our previous blog post entitled “The City of San Leandro Gets Wired!”, San Leandro’s state-of-the-art fiber optic loop allows Internet service providers to deliver an ultra-high-speed Internet communications network. Mr. Genachowski’s visit (and speech) acted as a high profile endorsement of San Leandro’s efforts to make itself known for being a place of high Internet connectivity.
This 11 mile fiber optic loop gives San Leandro a chance to compete with the high tech meccas of the country such as Mountain View, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. “The combination of high-speed fiber and relatively inexpensive industrial land could lure tech businesses across the Bay from the more costly Peninsula,” says Deborah Acosta, San Leandro’s Chief Innovation Officer.
Fiber network maps, fiber optic maps, fiber lit buildings, and other telecom GIS products can help local governments, city officials, and urban planners to make informed decisions for planning new networks. If you are interested in obtaining telecom GIS data sets for a particular city or metro area, contact GeoTel Communications at (800) 277-2172.
