Atlanta-based AGL Networks (AGLN —www.aglnetworks.com), an offspring of the utility Atlanta Gas & Light, offers an option for customers who have high-bandwidth, high-speed data requirements but do not necessarily want to own the infrastructure. Employing professionals with experience in telecommunications, optical fiber, and underground construction, AGLN builds and offers optical-fiber infrastructure to customers in the Southeast.
"We own the fiber and lease the indefeasible rights of use [IRUs] for up to 20 years, for unrestricted use of the fiber," the company explains. AGLN offers complete fiber and conduit infrastructure, managing all operating and maintenance functions, and providing the consolidation of network services to a central hub.
Customers can interconnect to the carriers of their choice, and AGLN builds lateral lines to connect customers' buildings to the network. Recently, AGLN built and now maintains an optical-fiber network for Emory University. The infrastructure connects several of Emory's buildings, including medical centers and academic buildings, which are physically separated in urban Atlanta.
Part of AGLN's business initiative is to sell potential customers on the idea of leasing dark fiber. The company makes its case by pointing out that customers have the flexibility to choose hardware-equipment providers; AGLN handles fiber maintenance and repair; and, elimination of ILEC local-access charges reduces local-loop telecom costs.
One of the technologies that AGLN uses when taking on an underground fiber-network construction comes from Kudzu Technologies (www.kudzutech. com), which is also based in Atlanta. The technology, called ClickB4Udig, is a GIS map-based end-to-end solution aimed at the utility-infrastructure service industry. The technology helps AGLN, or any other Kudzu client, locate the sites at which it is planning to dig. Clients can plan new facility routes, screen potential conflicts with existing facilities, ensure compliance with applicable utility-protection laws, and manage projects, crews, and equipment. ..
—Patrick McLaughlin