Smart City Telecom Services

The new age is marked by the need for greater bandwidth necessary to fuel consumers’ Smart phones, tablets and computer applications and a community’s need to be a “Smart City” with safety, security, quality of life for its citizens and economic development for its businesses.  This demand is being met by existing and emerging technology such as 5G and the use of E-Band.  Communications companies are positioning themselves for this by launching new initiatives and platforms that will transform the telecommunications landscape.

This is where we steps in with established relationships, affiliations and alliances that it can tap into, bringing you quicker and more successful network services with innovative ideas for deployments, expansions, connectivity and interconnection options that drive down your costs for colocation, peering, backhaul and Middle Mile.  In fact, if you want us to establish new or better backhaul of Middle Mile options, we can do that too!

Network, Market and Business Development

Need customer buildings to connect to or need to expand your portfolio of property owners to have positive relationships with?  Well, iNeighborhoods has established relationships already with the nation’s leading real estate owners, developers, property management companies and brokerage firms for you to take advantage of.  And, if you are a property owner or property management company that wants to join this exclusive “club” and let the industry know that you have tenants and/or assets that could benefit them, as well as benefit your financial “bottom-line”, iNeighborhoods is there to assist you!

Yes, in this time of high infrastructure demand, iNeighborhoods provides building owners and property management companies, cities and utilities a portfolio of consulting and representation services that addresses the need to maximize real estate, rights of way and infrastructure assets (such as conduits and poles) wherein we negotiate on your behalf contracts and collaborative agreements with the telecommunication service providers wanting access.

Who have we been successful with?  Well, take a look at just some of the entities iNeigborhood’s lead consultant has had success with, with many of these transactions valued at over $1M!

  • Telecom AT&T, Charter, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, CenturyLink, Level(3)) and all major U.S/ Canada CLECs
  • Cities

U.S.: Tucson, AZ, St. Louis,MO, Dallas, TX, Albuquerque, NM, Winston-Salem, NC, Providence, RI and NYC

Canada: Toronto and Vancouver

  • Utilities Toronto Hydro, Tucson Electric, SDG&E., Duke, El Paso, KUB, PNM, PEPCO, NES, TXU, Detroit Edison, Ameren
  • Academia National LambdaRail, SURA, MCNC, SIUC
  • Transit DART, LACTC, MTA, MBTA, SEPTA

For he has supported and advised them on networks consisting of long-haul, backhaul, Middle and Last Mile, wireless (both fixed and 4G cellular and metroWiFi) as well as right of entry (ROEs), licenses, colo and peering arrangements, Node, Carrier Hotel and data center development.  And, in all this there has been all the business planning, market studies and Return on Investment (ROI), funding and CapEx/OpEx analysis needed for successful network builds and launches of new services.  Further, schools and higher education benefit from our ability to provide connectivity solutions to expand existing and new academic community network facilities that reach the nation’s high capacity research networks

And, we are prepared to address for you the coming age of 5G and its nationwide deployment needs!

Telecom/Broadband Laws, Regulations and Public-Policy Development and Responses.

If you are a government (city, county or State), iNeighborhoods can help you address your citizens’ need to manage all the above through well-thought-out public policies, regulations and ordinances that not only protect and use wisely your public assets in ways that best serve the public’s interests, but also in ways that provide for your community the needed engines for economic growth by addressing both unserved and underserved consumers of broadband.  Take for example your infrastructure of rights of way, street structures (lights, traffic signaling and signage, etc.) and conduits.  How will you establish carrier neutral use of excess and underutilized public or utility infrastructures of dark fiber, conduits, poles, rights of way, building entrances and wireless sites?   How will you manage and yet encourage its use? What usage fees, if any, will you or can you assess?

If you are a utility, iNeighborhoods can help you address your needs to manage your right of way, utility pole attachments and conduit use with well-thought-out utility policies and standards that not only protect and use these assets wisely, but also in ways that can withstand the tests of user and public policy challenges that are going to occur in the ever-changing competitive environments we live in.  Again, how will you manage and yet encourage its use? What usage fees, if any, will you or can you access?

And, regarding all the above, if you are a telecom service provider or property owner iNeighborhoods can provide you impact analysis, lobbying and positioning recommendations best suited to your strategic business needs.  And, you will need this as governments and utilities are preparing themselves for the onslaught of infrastructure use demand and siting requests resulting from 5G’s (and its associated fiber backhaul) high dependence on its use to be successful.

Finally, iNeighborhoods also represent its clients’ business, sales, corporate and legal interests before government agencies, regulatory and franchise authorities, professional and trade associations, standards and policy development organizations and at industry conferences and provides expert witness testimony.  And, with respect to governments, schools and utilities, we also recognize the need for RFIs, RFPs and grants to process.  iNeighborhoods provides you the project management services needed to successfully create, manage, solicit, review, track and award to those that respond to network RFI/RFP/Grant opportunities provided.

Use of Infrastructures.

However, in order to make all this happen and common to all the above stakeholders is the need to use infrastructures, whether they be new or existing, to support the placement of the equipment installations making these advanced services possible for the years and decades ahead.  And, if you are a property owner, city or utility you must ask yourself; How should I address the desires of those seeking to use my infrastructure assets when I am approached for its use? Or how should I respond when I am told that I have valuable and usable assets that can or should be used as support infrastructures that allow telecom service providers to service their customers and expand their network’s market presence?

Well, iNeighborhood’s team of seasoned Smart City telecommunications professionals can guide you in making the right decisions respecting why, how and when your infrastructure assets can and should be used to allow service providers or cities or utilities (or combinations thereof) to install the coming wireline or wireless systems facilitating a new age in advanced communications, both human to human and machine to machine.

Our guidance to both infrastructure users and those providing the needed assets will include partnership and contract development of infrastructure rights to use agreements for the use of.

  • Building access (internal and external, including rooftops for wireless)
  • Node, POP, MPOE or colo space in building(s)
  • Conduit use – Building, city and utility
  • Riser use – Buildings
  • Billboards
  • Street lights
  • Traffic signals and signage
  • Utility poles and towers
  • Vault placements (both on public and private lands)
  • Public rights of way and easements
  • Backhaul and/or “Dark” fiber use

This includes agreement document reviews, preparations, interpretations, requirements development and redlining (with commentary).  These agreements most often take the form of a:

  • License
  • Lease
  • Right of Entry (ROE)
  • Permit (City)
  • Ordinance (City)
  • Attachment agreement (Utility poles)
  • Conduit Use agreement
  • Easement
  • Master Service Agreement (or MSA) (Providers)
  • Site Surveys and construction Scopes of Work (SOWs)

Included in this would be the insertion and/or obtaining of all needed Exhibits, amendment rights, indemnifications, insurance coverages and certificates, waivers, releases, satisfactory curing, renewal and assignment rights and contracted party attestments.

We will also ensure the process of processing your agreements to full execution runs smoothly and with full transparency internal to you regarding the risks and benefits and with us providing you the ability to distinguish between all required business and legal decision-making.

And, we will do this in ways that makes life simpler for you, whether you are the provider or the user of these assets, in ways that are innovative and in ways that form long-lasting win-win relationships between the parties.

Contract Administration

Once you have developed the best and most appropriate agreements (the “paperwork”) what happens next?  Well, a well-run organization will want contract Best Practices followed and industry-leading policies and procedures implemented that track, administer and manage the post-execution phase of agreement flow.  This includes using your accumulated knowledge to document and develop Lessons Learned, which must include your having and maintaining all the winning terms, conditions and approaches that made you successful.  In this way all your future business and network expansion and improvement endeavors will benefit from your success and all your hard work in ways that can be replicated, saving you both time and money.

All this is called Contract Administration and as such also includes the all-important post-signing agreement functions of retention, database entry, compliance monitoring, search, retrieval and accounting functionality and renewals, expirations and terminations capabilities.

Infrastructure Management.

Once you have maximized the appropriate use of your infrastructures for telecommunications and broadband networks what should happen next?  Well, your fiduciary responsibilities, (whether they be to your owners, stockholders, customers or citizens and whether or not you are a seller or buyer of infrastructure assets), would be to have and maintain wither an inventory and awareness of what you have and what you need to have (seller) or have and maintain as awareness of what you need to have for scalable future network growth (buyer).  This includes using your accumulated knowledge to inventory and document what assets you have and retain iNeighborhoods to assist in knowing when and how to:

  • Launch and implement new municipal broadband and WiFi networks, under government grants and/or public/partnerships
  • Launch new business and network implementation policies and procedures
  • Inventory and perform due diligence on your infrastructure assets (fiber, conduits, poles, buildings, signage, ROW, etc.)
  • Maximize and optimize the use of your infrastructures
  • Make your assets available and how and when to market them
  • Sell or lease an asset, with appropriate valuations and appraisals to ensure maximum returns on investments made
  • Turn an asset over to a broker
  • Allow your asset to be consider part of a party’s inventory
  • Provision your assets for end-user services, i.e. “Provisioning Plans”
  • Determine what peering and interconnection arrangements need to look like
  • Determine access/use pricing through market research, competitive analysis and cost, benefit and methods analysis
  • Audit your infrastructures, perform site surveys (new and existing), risk assessments and ensure user compliance on an on-going basis