District 4 County Commissioner Steven Abrams, serving as chairman
of the Palm Beach Broadband Coalition, announced the successful
expansion of the county’s role as a provider of Internet services
to other government and nonprofit agencies at discounted prices. County commissioners were recently briefed on the service at their workshop meeting.
“Our ISS (Information Systems Services) staff found a way to provide
Internet service for less and reap revenues for the taxpayers,” said
Abrams.
The county’s broadband network has grown to more than 340
miles of county-owned fiber optic cable serving over 6,000 county
employees at 321 sites. The existing network infrastructure is now
being used to connect numerous public sector agencies including the
Palm Beach County School Board and municipalities such as West
Palm Beach, Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens.
In 2007, Palm Beach County became the first local government in
Florida to connect to the Florida LambadaRail (FLR), a statewide
fiber-optic network operated by a not-for-profit corporation
established by the state university system. In an agreement with
the state, the county became the first local government to resell FLR
services.
To promote the concept of shared services in the public sector,
ISS continues to sponsor IT Partnering Seminars for municipalities,
education, health care and nonprofit agencies. Once connected,
the customer agencies receive increased network bandwidth at
wholesale rates while generating revenue to the county and reducing
overall costs to the taxpayer.
Palm Beach County saves approximately $10,000 a month by using
FLR services rather than a private Internet service provider.