liNKCity Lighting Ceremony September 21, 2007 from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at The Cable Building located at 1321 Burlington in North Kansas City.

Construction of First Municipally Owned and Operated Fiber-to-the-Subscriber Network in Missouri Complete:  North Kansas City Officials Proclaim “Let There Be Light”

North Kansas City, MO – September 14, 2007 – Mayor Gene Bruns and Council will proclaim “Let There Be Light” when they officially “light” the city’s fiber-optic network, liNKCity, in a ceremony to be held from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Friday, September 21^st in The Cable Building located at 1321 Burlington in North Kansas City.  The network is the first municipally owned and operated FTTS (Fiber-to-the-subscriber) network in the state of Missouri and one of only a few nationwide.   

The light to which the Mayor and Council will be referring actually consists of pulses of light traveling down hair thin strands of glass fiber which are capable of carrying packets of data, voice, or video information over long distances which can be transformed at the other end into Internet, telephone or television.  These pulses of light are indeed “lighting the way” for significant economic development, rich educational and employment opportunities, advanced health care, and many other benefits which contribute to a high quality of life and an outstanding environment for commercial activity.  The high capacity bandwidth provided by the fiber-optic network is capable of transmitting large amounts of data at super fast speeds providing North Kansas City businesses access to cutting-edge technology applications which are critical if they are to compete in today’s global marketplace.  And, best of all, it’s affordable.  

The network has actually been operating and providing internet services for a little over a year with the first residential and business customers going online in late August 2006.  “We completed the backbone of the network in May 2006,” said Paul Rader, Director of the Communication Utility, liNKCity. “We then started the process of installing drops to all customers who had signed up.  Unfortunately, delays in construction extended the drop build-out period.  We decided to minimize marketing efforts until all customers that had signed up were installed and receiving service.”  Rader and his installation crew finalized those installations in July.  New customers are now joining over 300 residential and business customers currently receiving liNKCity services.

Much as the Mayor and Council envisioned at the beginning of the project, the network is stimulating transformation in the commercial district.  A prime example of this is the building in which the lighting ceremony will be held.  Mike Carney and Todd Burnidge, representatives of BBC Ventures, LLC, the company that owns the property, were quick to recognize the opportunity the network presented to attract a different type of tenant for a better use of the space.  “After we became more familiar with the network and the technology, we decided to convert the property into small spaces that would be attractive to technology companies,” said Burnidge.  “A lot of our tenants chose this location because of the fiber.” 

One such tenant is Virtual Building Logistics.  The company develops comprehensive
3-D virtual models of construction projects for customers locally and internationally.   “The fiber-optic network was an overwhelming factor in our decision to relocate and expand our business in North Kansas City,” said Derek Rolfe, co-owner of VBL.  The company needed infrastructure that would meet their technology demands.  North Kansas City and the liNKCity network met those demands.  As part of their expansion, the company plans to bring $5 million in investment and 195 new jobs to the North Kansas City area over the next five years.

Textcaster, sipVine, Handshake Communications, and NexGenisys are other high-tech companies that have located in The Cable Building and utilize liNKCity’s fiber-optic internet service.  During the lighting ceremony, guests will be able to visit with representatives from each of these companies to learn how the availability of the City’s fiber-optic network impacted their decision to do business in North Kansas City. Guests will also be able to tour The Cable Building for a first hand view of the transformation of empty office and warehouse space into attractive high-tech office space.

September 2006 - First Business and Residential Customers Go Online!

NKC Opens Fiber-Optic Center
First customers expected to be connected by the end of this month

By MIKE RICE
The Kansas City Star

North Kansas City, MO -- June 7, 2006 - North Kansas City officials on Monday opened a customer service center for the city’s highly touted fiber-optic network, which will be available for residents and businesses later this summer.

The center for the network, called liNKCity, is at 312 Armour Road. It will staff five people who will handle subscription start-ups, billings, work orders and service calls, said Paul Rader, the city’s communications director.

“We want to let everybody know that we are here,” Rader said.

The $8 million fiber-optic network, according to city officials, will provide Internet service at speeds higher than those offered by DSL or cable modem services.

The utility employs a “fiber-to-the-subscriber” technology that can carry larger amounts of data and is likely to experience fewer slowdowns. It also will allow users to upload files at the same speed as downloads.

The city is paying for the fiber-optic system with gaming revenues from Harrah’s North Kansas City Casino & Hotel.

Rader said “close to 200” customers have signed up for the network.

“We have had an overwhelming response from the community,” he said.

The first customers could be hooked up by the end of the month, he said. Six of the seven network’s underground nodes are in place. Once all of the nodes are connected, Rader said crews can begin hooking up subscribers.

He estimated that 30 percent of the residential subscribers and 40 percent of the business subscribers should be hooked up by the end of the year. The rest will be hooked up in 2007.

liNKCity Holds Grand Opening Ceremony for New Office and Operations Center at 312 Armour Road Spring 2006

North Kansas City Announces "The Wait Is Over" as they Break Ground for liNKCity, the First Municipally Owned FTTS Broadband Utility in Missouri

North Kansas City, MO -- November 30, 2005 -- North Kansas City Mayor, Gene Bruns, along with City Council Members and City Administrator, Pamela Windsor, will officially break ground on the city's much-anticipated liNKCity fiber optic network Thursday, December 8th at 18th & Erie Street.  The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.  Atlantic Engineering Group, one of the project partners, will demonstrate the underground installation technique being used for liNKCity's communication lines.  A reception will be held at Finnigan's located at 503 East 18th Avenue, immediately following the ceremony. 

Utilizing the city's broadband network to expand city services to residents and businesses has been one of North Kansas City's top priorities over the last several years.  City officials recognize the importance of providing high-speed robust telecommunications connectivity at an economical rate and consider it a fundamental and necessary element of the city's infrastructure. 

"When I ran for this position, I had the opportunity to tell the citizenry and businesses that this City Council was going to be making some of the biggest, boldest decisions in the history of the city," said Gene Bruns, Mayor of North Kansas City.  His prediction was accurate.  "I am a non-technical person," Mayor Bruns further stated.  "I have a pencil in my billfold and a calendar; that's how I operate.  But I know when I hear people my age saying ‘My grandchildren are already working with this technology in kindergarten and I don't even know how to turn it on,' and other similar comments, it is the future."

The network represents a significant investment in the economic well being of the community.  Enhanced quality of life for residents and availability of cutting-edge technology applications for businesses will further position North Kansas City as a fierce competitor in the economic development arena. 

While liNKCity's groundbreaking ceremony represents a momentous milestone for North Kansas City, it also signifies a noteworthy accomplishment for the state of Missouri.  North Kansas City's fiber-optic broadband utility is the first municipally owned FTTS (fiber to the subscriber) broadband utility in Missouri. 

Fiber to the subscriber technology carriers significantly larger amounts of data and therefore is not as likely to experience declines in capacity during peak user periods compared to older DSL, coax, or wireless technologies.  In addition, the underground installation technique being utilized for liNKCity's communication lines provides greater reliability than overhead installation virtually eliminating outages caused by ice, wind, tree limbs or other interferences. 

Service of this quality and speed has not been offered in the North Kansas City area by competing Internet services even though residents and businesses have repeatedly expressed the need for such enhanced services.  The liNKCity fiber-optic broadband network will provide faster and more reliable service at economical prices.  The superior bandwidth and pricing schedule of the liNKCity network will provide one of the most affordable high bandwidth systems in the United States.  

Since it's inception, residents and those in the business community have remained staunch supporters of this project.  As construction moves forward, the first customers are scheduled to begin using the system's high-speed Internet data services this spring.

KCSmallBiz Article, July 2007

Broadband Properties, April 2006

Telecommunications Online, February 2006

Broadband Business Forecast, February 2006