A growing coalition of Connecticut cities and towns that wants to attract gigabit-speed Internet service received 11 responses from providers and investment banks who might be interested in providing or funding that service, the Office of Consumer Counsel announced.
But the documents are confidential, OCC said, so while the identities of the companies that responded are known, the contents of the responses are not.
Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz, who is helping to coordinate the effort, said in a statement that the responses were encouraging.
“We received some very serious, thoughtful responses from some well-respected players in the telecommunication industry,” she said.
She added that the CTgig Project now has more than 100 interested Connecticut communities.
The respondents to the RFQ included Stamford’s Frontier Communications, which bought AT&T’s Connecticut wireline business last year, as well as Brookfield’s Fibertech Networks.
Others include Lightower Fiber Networks, Macquarie Capital USA, Netaccess Futures, Nova NextGen Solutions, SiFi Networks, Spot On Networks, Tilson, Veloz Broadband, and The New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, according to OCC.
The responses don’t contain specific proposals, though the coalition — called CTgig Project — hopes to ask for those at a later stage.
Rather, the coalition asked respondents to assess Connecticut’s market potential for a gigabit-speed fiber networks, regulatory or policy concerns and possible incentives.
The coalition is offering its members’ endorsement of whatever partners it chooses, help with securing grants, and cooperation and assistance during the design and build-out phase.
The group said it also has a number of interested colleges, healthcare facilities, government agencies, developers and others who may be interested in being a part of the network.
