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South Bend Redevelopment Commission Regular Meeting —June 14, 2011 extended conduit around the city. It's very expensive to connect to the Metronet. Large, industrial /commercial /institutional/ educational users who have Metronet connection are physically connected with a 12 -cable fiber (lateral). Construction of that type costs about $10,000 for each facility. There are further costs for the company to have its own internal wiring for its connections. The proposal that Radiant has made is to see if we can make those connections by radio instead of with fiber cables. The operating costs would be much higher, but the initial installation to connect with the Metronet would be relatively inexpensive. So this service would be for smaller users who could connect without that $10,000 initial cost. They'd have a subscription fee, then a monthly service fee. It would be a service for more than just the casual gamer or individual e-mail user in a downtown apartment. It is for small businesses that need the broader bandwidth, but cannot afford the initial outlay of $ l OK for the Metronet. We would hire Radiant to do a radio atmosphere /environment assessment to see how many radios would be needed to give adequate coverage to the large downtown area and at what expense that might be. Mr. Varner asked if the Metronet will then look to the Redevelopment Commission to provide the funding for installing the radios. Mr. Littrell responded that that is not expected. The Metronet was looking for a location where they might try such a system out. Gary Gilot, who is on the Metronet Board, suggested downtown South Bend as the initial place where this service could be offered. So, rather than provide that benefit to one of the industrial parks or office parks 33