Efforts to bring high-speed, fiber optic internet service to more businesses, and later residences, in Atlantic, are becoming more organized, with approval Wednesday night by the Atlantic City Council, of a feasibility study and costs analysis agreement. The agreement, between the City and Oak Hill Consulting, Inc., will cost the City $18,000. Councilman Bob Cord said the study is expensive, but “None of us are authorities on what’s gonna happen…It’s an opportunity to answer a lot of questions that currently being ‘solved’ at the coffee shop.”

There is fiber optic internet service to the City now, but businesses need higher-speed service. Mayor Dave Jones and others have said a back-up provider is necessary, as evidenced by a widespread outage earlier this week caused by a severed MediaCom fiber optic cable near Carroll that took out all phone and internet service in and about 15 other cities.

Atlantic City Council discusses fiber optic study, Wed. (Ric Hanson/photo)

City Administrator John Lund said he and the Mayor have been working since the fall of 2015 on ways the City can move forward with fiber optic connectivity. That includes talking with MediaCom and Centurylink, partnering with other cities in the County, and getting grants for the project, but Lund says Atlantic doesn’t qualify to grants because of its size.

A project in Waverly, which would be similar in scope, cost that city around $8-million. The Mayor says the feasibility study is the best way to move forward, right now. John Lund agreed, saying the City couldn’t afford to take on the type of debt necessary to set-up the infrastructure on its own. Lund says his understanding is Atlantic is too large to be treated like a charity by the federal government to receive a grant to get the city connected, and too small for the private sector to look at Atlantic as a profit.

The cost of the study will be paid for through the Local Option Sales Tax progress fund.