Cincinnati Bell to purchase Springboro fiberoptic conduits

With the Cincinnati Bell contract, Springboro will recoup much of the $2.4 million cost for the fiberoptic construction project. Pozzuto said Cincinnati Bell will pull its own fiberoptic cable through the empty conduits.

The city is constructing the fiberoptic loop in partnership with the Warren County Port Authority into the city’s neighborhoods, with internet providers connecting homes and businesses.

Earlier this year, the city sold one empty fiberoptic conduit to Point Broadband for $465,000 to provide internet services to residents and businesses in the city, Pozzuto said. He said the technology upgrade is designed to provide better city safety and public works services as well as provide higher internet speeds.

Pozzuto said Cincinnati Bell plans to use three of the empty conduits as transmission lines to expand its services in the Dayton area, and the fourth empty conduit to provide internet services locally. The city has said the fiberoptic conduit project will cover the entire city and provide more competition that could lower prices for residents and businesses.

The agreement with Cincinnati Bell are expected to be signed later this week, he said.

City officials originally anticipated the return on investment would take two to three years.

“This shows there is a great demand for fiber(optic) to provide higher internet speeds with a private partnership,” Pozzuto said. “We wanted competition here and usually creates better service and lower prices.”

Point Broadband said it will provide up to 1GB service to any city household looking for internet choices and higher internet speeds. Point Broadband is currently working in various city neighborhoods in proximity to the City Building and its network should be available to the entire city by the end of next summer.

The sixth and final fiberoptic conduit will be used by the city to connect all of its traffic signals, public buildings along with water and sewer infrastructure to provide better monitoring of the city’s infrastructure, Pozzuto said. He said the city’s conduit will hold 288 strands of fiberoptic cable.