Waterloo's Municipal Telecommunications Utility board and the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance asked for the Waterloo City's Council's support during a work session Monday for the fiber-optics infrastructure to provide open-access broadband services in Eastern Iowa.

"Our concept is to run fiber from Iowa City ... to Waverly," said Steve Dust, GCVA president and chief executive officer.

An open-access system would allow any service provider to use the broadband capacity to provide services and, therefore, increase competition. It could connect educational institutions from the University of Iowa to the University of Northern Iowa and, Dust hopes, would attract new businesses and industries.

Under the proposal, organizers would apply for a federal grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Iowa Jobs Program to build the fiber backbone. Portions of those economic stimulus programs were earmarked to fund broadband and wireless grants for unserved or underserved areas.

Doris Kelley, chairwoman of the MTU board and a state representative, said the IJOBS program includes $25 million to match any federal stimulus grants awarded for such projects.

Meanwhile, Kelley and her colleagues on the MTU board encouraged the City Council to exercise its option to use a portion of PAETEC's 30-mile fiber-optics ring in Waterloo. Under a 1997 agreement with McLeodUSA, which had owned the ring, the city has a right to use four fiber strands on the system.

Kelley noted those fibers, which the city could buy outright for $150,000, could be connected to the I-380 corridor project to allow open-access broadband service throughout the city.

"I don't see the city actually operating a retail system," she said. "I see them actually owning the infrastructure and having open access" that others could utilize to serve the community.

MTU board member Jim Waterbury said Waterloo businesses need the additional speed and capacity to be competitive.

"Waterloo has very little broadband competition now," said Waterbury, noting the city's information superhighway now is "the equivalent of dirt roads."

In related business, the City Council did vote to signal their intent to work with Mediacom, the city's primary cable television and Internet service provider, to move public access channels from the analog lineup to a digital channel. That would free up broadband capacity for Mediacom to roll out a product providing residents with Internet download and upload speeds 2 1/2 times faster than current levels.

Mediacom officials hope to launch that service to homeowners this fall, with a similar business service within six months.