Fiber-optic network connects city government buildings

The future is impossible to see, and in the case of Bloomington's Digital Underground, the planning is too.\nThe Bloomington Digital Underground is a 5.4-mile underground circle of fiber-optic cables and conduits that connects all major city buildings, the Monroe County Community School Corporation administration building, the library and several other Monroe County government offices into one software-integrating network.\n"The BDU was an investment really in its own future, with the idea in mind to save money," said Rick Dietz, information and technology services director for the city of Bloomington. "It was something to leap frog to a more state-of-the-art network."\nOne way to think about what the BDU does is to imagine your own in-house network. Even with a pile of ethernet cables, there can be no connection without each end being plugged in somewhere. The BDU is roughly just that. Underneath Bloomington's soggy soil run cables and conduits that are the groundwork for the city's computer network. The city is already plugged in, and soon it may be possible for other businesses to plug in.\nThe BDU's purpose is to save taxpayers' money, encourage competition among telecommunications providers and potentially provide for economic development opportunities, Dietz said. \n"The network really saved money over the cost for the same network if AT&T were to have built it out for the city," Dietz said. "Just by virtue of the city having this, it encourages other providers to be more aggressive in building their client base."\nUltimately, the BDU will span all of Bloomington. In accordance with policy requirements, every road reconstructed since 1999 has fiber-optic cable and conduit laid beneath its cement surface, said Dietz.\nThe reason that Monroe County government buildings are able to use the BDU is because an excess of cables and conduit was laid initially. The excess was laid in part for the possible future Bloomington-wide network, but also with the expectation that it could be opened to private entities, Dietz said.\n"At this point there aren't any commercial businesses using the BDU," Dietz said. "We have some policies that we're reviewing to open up the BDU to be more accessible, but they wouldn't go in front of the council in February or March."\nDietz says the city is in the progress of establishing pricing schedules that would make it possible to create user agreements that would allow the BDU to be used by private businesses for their own networks. The restrictions and prices of these agreements may be decided upon by late February or early March.\nDietz said many cities have fiber networks like the BDU for the same reason that Bloomington decided to make the investment.\nFor the time being, the only people who will notice progress are those who run the network. \n"I may be the only person who says, 'Oh, that's a whole lot better than it used to be!'" said Alan Schertz, systems administrator at the city of Bloomington's information and technology services department. \n"The BDU doesn't have a direct impact, but more of an indirect impact on private citizens," Dietz said.