Los Angeles Wants Bidders for a New Fiber to Home Network Serving all Businesses and Homes

The Los Angeles City Council has been looking at ways to provide a metro Wi-Fi network providing free service to residents.

But the Council now apparently will issue a request for proposals for vendors willing to fund and build a fiber to the home reaching every home and business in Los Angeles, with wholesale access requirements as well, to be funded entirely from private sources.

The network would be required to offer free access at rates between 2 Mbps and 5 Mbps, but would be allowed to offer paid service at speeds up to a gigabit per second.

The issue is whether any entities want to take on the challenge of doing so, and overbuilding AT&T, Time Warner, Verizon, Cox, and Charter Communications, all of which offer triple play services in some parts of the city.

According to Steve Reneker, general manager of the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency, the network could cost  $3 billion to $5 billion.