Staff recommends that the City Council approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the sharing of fiber infrastructure.

The City of Billings and Yellowstone County mutually own fiber connections that connect our main facilities for sharing of network services.  The City owns fiber connections from City Hall to the Miller Building.  We have plenty of capacity to share two (2) fiber connections with Yellowstone County, so they can easily establish a fiber network connection to the Miller Building.  Yellowstone County has established fiber connections from the Courthouse to the Stillwater Building.  Yellowstone County has the capacity to share two (2) fiber connections with the City, so we can establish a fiber network connection to the Stillwater Building. 

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlines how each of us can mutually benefit from the sharing of our existing fiber infrastructure.  The City and County, working together, can easily establish fiber connections to our new buildings therefore allowing each of us to deliver network services including internet, phones, Wi-Fi, printing, access control, access to enterprise software systems, access to file servers, video conferencing, and more. This is a win for the City, the county, and the citizens of Billings.

Long term, we plan to bore conduit between our existing fiber conduit on the south side of 3rd Ave N into the Stillwater Building and install fiber to connect this building into our fiber network. 
 

City Council may:Approve; or, Not Approve

The City and County will mutually benefit from this Memorandum of Understanding and will not incur any costs associated with approving this agreement.