Bloomington has 12 potential partners for citywide broadband initiative

The 12 entities — Allo Communications, AT&T, Axia Connect Ltd., Centric, Comcast, Fujitsu Network Communications, Macquarie Infrastructure Developments, Metronet, SiFi Networks, Smithville Fiber, Ting Fiber and WideOpen Networks — range from local to international, and responded to a request for information the city issued earlier this year inviting potential partners to respond.

City officials on March 31 issued the request, which put out a call to both for-profit and nonprofit entities interested in forming a public-private partnership with the city to provide broadband across the community.

The request is meant to gauge interest and learn about proposed approaches of potential partners. lt asked companies to provide general information such as their business model and experience, a high-level summary of the technological and operational approach they would use for the project, an estimate of how long they think it would take to implement, and a description of pricing and expected financial requirements for the city.