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DURHAM, Jun 23, 2010 (The Herald-Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Duke University's plan to spend $1 million to link its downtown office space more tightly with the campus computer network ran into a bit of a roadblock this week, thanks to the City Council.

Members agreed to postpone until at least July 22 a vote on whether to give the university a license allowing it to install and maintain fiber-optic network cable within the right of way of a number of key streets.

The vote came after local activist Victoria Peterson and a longtime consultant on telecom issues urged members to take a closer look at what Duke's is proposing and how it might benefit the city.

Mayor Bill Bell said he'd also like to see "a bit more thorough work" from Public Works Department staffers and other members of the city administration to explain the project and its implications.

"This is a public matter, [in] public right of way and I want to be sure we're doing things correctly," Bell said, adding that he thinks elected officials may well accept what Duke proposes.

Duke officials took the delay in stride.

"We will look into the questions posed by council and respond as quickly as possible," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.

The fiber project targets buildings Duke owns and rents downtown that Schoenfeld said are housing about 2,000 employees who work in support and administrative jobs.

Duke's plan calls for it to spend about $420,000 laying fiber and another $580,000 to refit the affected off-campus offices, he said.

When the project's complete, the offices will have the same "efficient and secure data connections" that on-campus workers enjoy, Schoenfeld said, adding that they should see improvements among other things in video conferencing and voice-over-IP capabilities.

The proposed license would allow cable installation on parts of Main, Roney, Foster, Jackson, Duke, Blackwell, Peabody and Fuller streets, Rutherford Road and Fernway Avenue.

Duke spokesman Keith Lawrence said much of the project is working "within existing Verizon infrastructure." But the university needs to fill some gaps with new cable installations, requiring it to ask the city's permission.

Licensing decisions are normally routine, and Public Works engineering boss Ed Venable said his department's main concern in this case is to make sure nearby water and sewer lines are protected.

He could shed little light Monday night on Duke's plans. Department officials have "not explored the use" with their university counterparts, Venable said, adding, "Our only interest is to make sure the right of way itself is protected."But Bob Sepe, the telecom consultant who attended Monday's meeting at Peterson's urging, said officials should be asking a lot more questions.

Similar types of deals, he said, can include sunset clauses requiring renegotiation after a decade or two. Some require the group receiving the license to pay an annual fee.

Sepe also urged officials to look into whether other groups or businesses would be able to tie into Duke's network, at the very least to avoid "subverting any kind of revenue the city might acquire."Peterson, meanwhile, said she'd like to see city leaders encourage Duke to cooperate with public, private and nonprofit network users to improve connection speeds and business opportunities.

She added that officials should look into whether Duke intends to hire locally or bring in workers from other states to complete the project.

Peterson runs a local nonprofit, Triangle Citizens Rebuilding Communities, that's landed state and local grants to train ex-convicts and other people in fiber-optic technology.

Sepe has worked with city and county governments on cable-television issues -- a business that has dried up a bit since the General Assembly in 2006 passed a law that took franchising decisions out of local hands and made them a state matter.

Schoenfeld said he didn't know if Duke officials had set a firm launch date for the fiber project.

The affected offices, because they're involved in support and administrative work, are "not dependent on the academic calendar" and so aren't necessarily under pressure to get the work done before fall classes begin in late August, he said.

That said, the project "is something we'd like to get done as quickly as we can, while dealing with all the approvals from the council and elsewhere," Schoenfeld said.

 

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