Page 43 - GCN, March and April 2017

paces in July 2016, when local Hilton and DoubleTree hotels were given ear- ly access to accommodate the influx of visitors attending the Republican Na- tional Convention in Cleveland.
“This connectivity is appreciated by all our guests, but millennials tell us it’s the most important service we deliver,” said Rennick Andreoli, presi- dent of RDA Hotel Management Co., in a statement. “Without question, Fair- lawnGig gives us a local competitive advantage.”
Keeping and attracting business- es are the city’s main goals for the network, so officials are not seek- ing to recoup the $10 million cost of building it.
“We’re looking for those businesses to stay in town,” Staten said. “We’re looking for other businesses to come into town, and we’re looking for the
tax base more so than we’re looking for the infrastructure to get repaid.”
To that end, users who sign up dur- ing construction get free installation. City officials, however, are hoping to cover the costs of maintenance and operation, which Fujitsu handles. To do that, it will sell access to other providers.
“If we do well enough that we can cover the cost of the build over years to come, that will be great,” Staten said. “That will be exciting for the city, but our look on this was this was nec- essary infrastructure — no different than a road, no different than a water line or a sewer.”
City officials spoke with incumbent internet providers Frontier Communi- cations, AT&T and Time Warner Cable about their plan for FairlawnGig, but although the companies did not raise
any objections, they were not interest- ed in participating.
City officials are also working with Fujitsu on a plan to put Fairlawn un- der a wireless umbrella so it could sell internet services to visitors.
“The city of Fairlawn is a little dif- ferent than most communities,” Staten said. “At night we’re 7,500 residents, but during the day we can swell to 40,000 or 50,000 residents” because of the city’s hotels, offices and retail operations. Rather than make those daily visitors use up the cellular data on their personal devices, he’s hoping they’ll turn to FairlawnGig.
The design is still in the works, but the plan is to use a large tower in the city’s center and smaller access points throughout the region. That project is also expected to be completed this fall. •
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