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Columbiana Port Authority Gets Grant for Fiber Optic Cable
EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- The Columbiana County Port Authority will receive $875,000 from the state's capital budget to purchase strands of high-speed fiber optic cable, according to Tracy Drake, chief executive officer.The port authority will spend the funds to buy two strands of fiber optic cable and the exclusive commercialization rights in the 260-mile Sonet ring under construction in Columbiana and Mahoning counties, Drake said. Those two strands will be leased to B-Telecom Inc., Cleveland, which is building an operations center in the World Trade Park just outside of Leetonia and will market the fibers to businesses.The Sonet ring is being built by the Access Council, a consortium of local schools that is providing the other 10 strands to 26 public school systems in Columbiana and Mahoning counties, Drake noted. Three of the four loops are providing high-speed Internet access to all school districts in Mahoning County and northern and middle Columbiana County. Only the schools in the southern tier of Columbiana County remain to be connected, he added.Construction of B-Telecom's operations center should begin within a month and be completed in June. Besides providing services to the high-tech enterprises the port authority wants to locate in Columbiana County, the operations center is expected to serve as a back-up to East Coast financial institutions' data banks, Drake said. Each lot in World Trade Park will have access to the Sonet ring, and each fiber can serve the high-speed Internet needs of a city of 12,000 residents, he reported."