By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Fibrant will launch a $200,000 network upgrade today that officials say will make the city’s broadband utility more appealing to commercial subscribers.
The upgrade, which will take place during the next three weeks on weeknights from midnight to 6 a.m., will add enhanced equipment to the fiber-optic network and a second Internet circuit for redundancy.
That means if Fibrant’s first Internet service provider goes down, a back-up provider kicks in to avoid an interruption of service, especially important to businesses like hospitals and clinics.
Fibrant sells high-speed Internet, telephone service and cable TV to residents and businesses in Salisbury.
“We are adding the second circuit that everybody has been anxiously anticipating,” general manager Mike Jury said. “This is taking the network to the next level.”
Jury said the upgrade will help Fibrant achieve “five nines” reliability, or a measure meaning the network would be available 99.999 percent of the time. That translates to an average downtime of about 5 minutes per year.
Fibrant has relatively few business subscribers, and the upgrade “will really be the cornerstone for us to start launching the commercial area of our business,” said Jury, a 24-year veteran of the cable industry who took the helm March 22.
Fibrant has a list of several potential businesses customers waiting for a back-up Internet provider, and Jury said he’s been in touch to inform them about the upgrades.
Customers won’t see the new equipment, which will be located in the headend, or technical center, at the Customer Service Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Fibrant staff have been planning the network maintenance for months and scheduled the work to limit the amount of downtime for Fibrant customers, the city said in a press release.
“However, due to the nature of work performed during these maintenance activities, you may experience some interruption in your service, and for this, please accept our apologies,” a letter to customers said.
No maintenance will occur on weekends.
Fibrant, which billed its first customer in December 2010, recently signed up its 2,000th subscriber, Mayor Paul Woodson announced last week.
“The ship’s turning,” Woodson told economic development leaders during a strategic planning session. “We’ve got a ways to go, but we’ve come a long way.”
Woodson said he believes Fibrant will meet his goal to break even by 2014 and earn a profit by 2016.
The network now brings in enough money to pay the $3 million annual debt service. However, until Fibrant generates enough revenue to cover operating costs, the fiber-to-the-home network will borrow an estimated $7.5 million from other city funds.
Including internal loans from other city funds and interest on $35.86 million in bonds, Salisbury will pay close to $70 million for the network.
Fibrant had maintained a rate of 30 new customers per week for several months, but sign-ups have fallen off during the summer. The network averaged 27 for the past month, Assistant City Manager John Sofley said.
Like other broadband networks, a slowdown is expected during vacation season, and sign-ups should pick up again in the fall, Jury said.
“That’s why I planned the upgrade at this point, when connects are slowing down,” he said.
To help close the gap between revenues and expenditures, Woodson has said he wants the utility to cut between $500,000 to $1 million in costs.
Jury said he’s been attempting to renegotiate contracts with service providers and missed a speaking engagement last week with the Civitans Club because he was out of town, working on a negotiation.
He is expected to present an overview and long-term strategy for Fibrant in August to Salisbury City Council.
Fibrant was a hot topic at the economic development strategic planning session where Woodson spoke. Several community leaders talked about the need to better market Fibrant and spread the word about the network’s speed — the fastest in the state — and capabilities.
Jury said he’s ready to work with economic developers to bring new businesses and more jobs to Salisbury.
“When we come out of these network upgrades, it will be time to push Fibrant and go after different businesses that could really benefit,” he said.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.