By T. Scott Boatright
Ruston is officially planning to unplug itself from its fiber optic network following a City Council during Monday night’s monthly meeting.
The City Council unanimously passed a resolution authorizing the sale of its fiber optic network, which has been in place since 2010.
Ruston built the fiber optic network and the city has provided internet service to approximately 300 business customers.
Potential buyers have until April 25 to make an offer on the network. During a City Council meeting in March, Mayor Ronny Walker said that more than 10 companies are interested in buying the city’s underground and fiber optic network.
“The city will accept proposals (from companies that want to buy the network), evaluate them and select the proposal that meets the best interest of and provides the best value to the city,” said City Attorney Bill Carter.
Walker said changes in internet availability are a big factor behind the decision to sell the network.
“Six years ago we did a study and thought about getting into the private/home internet service,” Walker said. “We were moving along that track and then four years ago, when the federal government starting putting so much money into broadband across the United States — billions of dollars to the state of Louisiana — that’s when we decided as a staff it was time to exit that business because there were so many other large companies doing that.
“So that’s where we are today.”
Carter said that what customers the existing network will provide service to — homes, commercial businesses, or both — will be determined by what proposal ends up being selected by the city.
“The proposal will determine that,” Carter said. “We have sent out certain criteria and questions. One asks if the criteria is the company letting the city know what they’re criteria would be for providing service to homes.
“So we can’t control what the plan would be, but that is a criteria that will be heavily weighted in our decision and we’ll just have to wait and see. But we do feel that some of the proposals would include providing additional services to homes. That’s what we think, but we will not know until we see the proposals.”
Walker stressed that the city will be looking out for homeowners in deciding on a proposal.
“That’s one of the seasons we wanted to expand our service —,we need more competition in our city,” Walker said.
Ruston’s City Council unanimously voted 5-0 to authorize the city to begin accepting proposals and sell its fiber optic network.
