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Thursday, May 15, 2008
City Didn't Check Into Provider
By Sean Olson
Journal Staff Writer
John Brown has a colorful past when it comes to Internet companies.
He was in charge of Internet service provider iHighway when the network lost connection in 2001, leaving Lovelace Health Systems, St. Joseph Healthcare and Southwest Multiple Listing Service without Internet service for days.
Last week, Brown secured a franchise agreement with Albuquerque to build a Downtown fiber optic network.
Brown said his Citylink Fiber Holdings of Albuquerque is financially stable and ready for expansion.
“Connect the dots. I’m still here. I’m doing cool stuff in the community,” Brown said Tuesday.
Assistant City Attorney Carolyn Fudge, who helped broker the franchise agreement, said the city did not check Brown’s background before reaching the agreement. The deal would have been done anyway, she said, because the city has no risk in the franchise agreement, and policies dictate the city accept reasonable offers for telecommunications work.
The city will receive 2.5 percent of the yearly profits from Citylink. All city buildings, schools and up to 20 higher-education buildings will be connected to the fiber network free of charge as part of the agreement, as long as they are within 200 feet of the network.
The city buildings will be connected by fiber and can send their own signals between one another, city communications manager Dane VanPelt said. If it chooses to add more Internet service than it already gets, the city would have to go to Citylink first to ask for the service, he said.
In return, Citylink can build its network using any city rights of way without further charge.
The agreement is not exclusive, so other telecom companies could be granted franchise agreements.
“There’s no downside,” Fudge said. “If Citylink does not build out like they hope and plan to, we aren’t out anything.”
Brown said the 2001 iHighway incident has been blown out of proportion.
Brown said he was in Australia when the network went down. He said the failure was caused by a technical problem with his network service provider, Worldcom.
iHighway shut down shortly afterward.
A Worldcom official said in 2001 that the service had been shut down because Brown had not paid his bills.
Brown said that was a “rumor” that was later cleared with Worldcom.
“What we have is a series of unfortunate events,” he said.
Brown said his current project would not have the same problems because his company owns the network people will be using.
“We are not dependent on very many outside vendors that could cause us problems,” Brown said.
He said he will lease fiber to anyone who is interested.
Brown and the fiber network have already been at the center of two lawsuits.
In one filed in 2006, Brown’s former partner in acquiring the network, Mike Mattioli, alleged Brown owed him money.
Brown countersued, alleging Mattioli owed a separate debt.
Brown said the case was settled through mediation, but a gag order prevents him from commenting.
Another 2006 lawsuit, by Prism Group Inc., alleged Brown illegally entered its building to shut off Internet access. Prism had been getting its connection from IXNM, an Internet service provider co-op that gets its signal from the fiber network. Brown is the managing partner of IXNM.
Brown has said Prism had not paid its bill. He said this week that he had settled out of court at Prism’s request.
IXNM also provided a wireless signal for Sandoval County’s broadband project, a bust that ended up costing $1.3 million for a system that did not work.
IXNM was not culpable in the system’s failure, however, and was one of the first to sue Sandoval County Broadband, a public-private partnership set up to fund the project.
The county also sued a contractor, the Dandin Group, and won the right to collect $830,000.
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