Fiber is coming to the South Bay

By Laura Emdee | July 19, 2019

South Bay Cities Council of Governments Leads 21st Century Connectivity Effort with Selection of American Dark Fiber to Build a South Bay Fiber Network

The South Bay Cities will soon become even more closely connected as they join forces to offer faster and less expensive broadband connectivity to their facilities with an investment in a next-generation dedicated fiber network. The South Bay Cities Council of Governments (“SBCCOG”) has awarded a contract to American Dark Fiber (“ADF”), a Southern California broadband company. They will build and provide gigabit, scalable broadband connectivity to the Joint Powers Authority for the 16 cities and County of Los Angeles that comprise the SBCCOG. The announcement was jointly made today by Councilmember Christian Horvath, SBCCOG Chair, Jacki Bacharach, SBCCOG Executive Director, and American Dark Fiber CEO, David Daigle.

The project’s “Fiber Ring” will connect the cities of Carson, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, and Torrance. In addition, the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, LA BioMed, Beach Cities Health District (BCHD), LA Metro, and LA County Public Works are participating in the project.

“The SBCCOG led this initiative and investment in critical broadband infrastructure that will bring the most secure next-generation technology to the South Bay. This will allow us to serve all our residents better and improve their quality of life on so many levels including Real-time Transportation/Traffic Control Connectivity,” said Horvath. “We are grateful to have the initial capital costs funded through
the SBCCOG with Measure M Sub-regional funds, and the monthly costs by participating agencies at much reduced prices with enhanced services… saving taxpayer dollars.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with ADF, a leader in the fiber-optic development space. Their depth of experience and cost-effective approach was unmatched during this competitive bid process,” said Bacharach.

The purpose of this project is to construct the regional fiber-optic broadband infrastructure to support enhancements for mobility and accessibility systems and networks that serve South Bay residents through services offered by their municipalities. The network will provide the necessary infrastructure to support:
• Inter- as well as intra-city connectivity improvements; to transportation systems management;
• Enhanced signal synchronization within and between participating cities;
• Future transportation systems management applications for Autonomous Vehicles (AV). (High-speed and resilient broadband capacity will be necessary for vehicle-to-network and vehicle-to-vehicle communications for a safe and reliable AV transportation system);
• Transportation demand management applications aiding “trips not taken” which can include: telecommuting (work-from-home for governments), “Smart” City Halls (municipal services for residents could be virtually provided), telemedicine (remote diagnostics, distributed doctor- patient video and audio interactions, transmission of large files, such as MRIs, scans, etc.), distance education (distributed, interactive instruction and video-intensive learning), and others.

Implementation of these solutions will be driven by the individual cities and the two healthcare entities.

American Dark Fiber’s track record of people-first technology solutions has made it Southern California’s leading company for telecommunications infrastructure development. Dark fiber is dedicated and “unmetered” connectivity and provides virtually unlimited bandwidth options once in place. SBCCOG and its member cities are in a unique position to benefit from the cost savings and scalability of this type of network infrastructure by creating an integrated and fiber-based regional network. This coordinated effort is far more cost effective and provides a safe and secure system that will benefit transportation systems across the region. As the system matures schools, families, hospitals, businesses, and critical agencies supporting public safety and emergency management will also benefit.

ADF’s management team has over 30 years of experience developing critical telecommunications infrastructure and has developed nearly 3,000 miles of fiber in Southern California. This new project will put the power of that experience to work for the South Bay, delivering more secure, high-speed capacity to more people in more places within the region than ever before.

“A network’s real value is connecting people to the things they need most – our goal is to drive “digital literacy” across the South Bay. Improving communications for transportation, emergency management, schools, libraries, and so much more, will improve the quality of life for residents and businesses in the South Bay for years to come,” ADF’s CEO, David Daigle said. “Our approach to telecom solutions for municipalities is to provide dedicated and scalable bandwidth that is secure and will dramatically lower costs. ADF builds the bandwidth bridges to help eliminate the ‘digital divide’ to empower those who need it the most.”

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