But while Stokab's directors knew infrastructure, they quickly realized that fielding telecom services was a totally different game. So Stokab made the crucial decision to zero in on infrastructure. Stokab's focus on dark fiber creates a clean interface between what it does and doesn't do. Also, the decision promotes trust, in that it keeps Stokab from competing against its customers. Stokab provides a physically separate fiber for each customer, designing each customer's network to individual specifications.
Customers light their own fiber, and provide all service layers above that.
Other cities, other models Comstedt has seen other municipal telecom ventures stumble as they climb the value chain. They get outsmarted by other people. They don't develop the way they initially had in mind. Billy Ray, manager of the Glasgow, Ky. municipal Electric Power Board, debates this observation. For eight years Glasgow, population 14,000, has operated one of the most visible U.S. municipal information services.