Thursday, February 13, 2003

DEALS Five Colleges Consortium Seeks to Buy Its Own Fiber Cable, Rather Than Lease Local Circuits By FLORENCE OLSEN Who is looking: Five Colleges Inc., the consortium comprising Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The colleges are located in rural western Massachusetts. What they are looking for: To buy existing and new fiber-optic cable and install it to form a "ring" connecting the five institutions, with a "leg" connection from the ring to the city of Springfield, Mass., to the south. The four colleges and the university expect to take advantage of the current downturn in the fiber-optic industry to increase their data-network capacity, add redundant links to handle network outages, and reduce their local-circuit charges for data-communications services. The four colleges have been paying what a technology official describes as "exorbitant" rates for local telecommunications circuits to connect their campus networks to the University of Massachusetts, which serves as the data-communications hub for the consortium. When the deal is finished, the colleges will no longer need to lease local circuits. "We're moving out of the era of leasing services and into the new era of owning our own assets," says Rosio Alvarez, associate chancellor for information technologies at UMass. UMass, which has a 10-year lease on a fiber connection from its campus network to Springfield, no longer faces the same local-circuit costs as the colleges, but it is interested in the higher-bandwidth connections to the colleges and the redundant connectivity that the ring and new leg will provide. How they are going to use it: The five institutions, which have cooperated on information-technology projects since the 1980s, will have new capacity for "all sorts of high-bandwidth applications among the campuses," including high-quality videoconferencing, says Ms. Alvarez. The colleges expect to pay less for their connections to the Internet and to the Internet2 research-and-education network because they will get volume discounts when they combine their network traffic. From Springfield, the consortium will use the services of fiber-optic carriers who provide access to the Internet and Internet2 backbone networks. Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and UMass each have faculty members who collaborate with researchers at other institutions over the Internet2 network. The ring the colleges expect to create will have a perimeter of approximately 50 miles. College officials hope to have portions of it "lit up," or activated, by next spring. Bidders: Five large fiber-optic carriers have submitted confidential bids and are in price negotiations with the consortium. Cost: The four colleges had anticipated having to spend a total of $2-million on local-circuit charges over the next five years. Information-technology officials at the colleges think that the fiber-ring project will pay for itself in about the same time, and it will greatly expand their network capacity. By how much, officials do not yet know. "We haven't settled on how many fiber strands we will own," says Ms. Alvarez. What industry analysts say: Now is a good time to be buying fiber, says Sterling Perrin, a research analyst for IDC, a technology-consulting company. Prices for fiber-optic cable have been dropping "50 percent-plus every year" over the past couple of years. But colleges that get cheap deals on fiber still face the challenge and expense of acquiring and managing their own optical-network equipment, he says, "and when you're talking about optical speeds and optical equipment, it's very, very complex stuff." UMass officials say they have network engineers on staff who can work with such equipment. Know of any significant information-technology deals in the works? Let us know. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Congress's final budget package for 2003 includes small raise for Pell Grants, big boost for NIH Bush administration seeks more active role in opposing race-conscious admissions in Michigan Education Department wins a clean audit -- its second in 23 years Accreditation body holds firm on probation for Temple U. medical school Five Colleges consortium seeks to buy its own fiber cable, rather than lease local circuits