DOVER, Ohio, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Uptown Services, LLC (Uptown) has completed fiber to the premises (FTTP) designs for the City of Dover, Ohio. Uptown's designs were delivered to the City in late 2009 and a summary of the results will be presented to the City Council in Dover tonight.

The City of Dover has been exploring the possibility of deploying broadband capabilities for over five years. They originally hired Uptown in 2004 to complete a broadband feasibility study. The results of that study were promising, but the City chose to wait for the economics to improve as the technology matured and costs came down over time. Uptown completed a refresh of the original study in 2008. The case had improved, but the City wanted to fine tune the cost estimates through the completion of an actual system design prior to making any final decisions on a City wide deployment. Uptown was selected in 2009 through an RFP process from a slate of qualified proposals to complete this design.

According to Mayor Richard Homrighausen, Uptown brought a unique combination of experience to the project for the City. "We chose Uptown because they a proven track record and depth of knowledge of planning, engineering and implementation experience in the two areas that are critical to the City's strategic plans – broadband and smart grid. They designed a fiber to the premises system that would meet the long term needs of the residential, commercial and municipal communities and did so in a way that will save the City a significant amount compared to our original budget expectations. Uptown has consistently provided us with unbiased professional services that will arm us with the information we need to make the right decisions that will benefit all residents, business and industry in the City of Dover. They have proven a valuable asset in Dover's long range planning."

Uptown worked with City staff throughout the design process in an effort to utilize as much of the existing City fiber system as possible for the new network. "We were pleased to see that Uptown balanced the economic and technical factors in making design decisions for the FTTP system. The design process was timely, efficient and leveraged the fiber backbone that we already use to serve commercial and governmental customers in Dover," said Matt Arnett, Dover's Technology Administrator.

In addition to presenting the results of the design process, Uptown will also be demonstrating some of the primary building blocks of the proposed FTTP system at tonight's City Council meeting. The City of Dover has not yet committed to deploying a FTTP system, but the completion of the detailed designs will serve as a critical milestone in their ongoing decision process.

About Uptown Services, LLC

Uptown Services, LLC is a broadband and smart grid consultancy that delivers planning, engineering, and implementation support services to municipal and utility clients. The firm specializes in the study and deployment of advanced broadband and smart grid systems that clients can use to support municipal and utility operations as well as triple play services for consumers and businesses. Uptown has engineered FTTP systems for the City of Wilson, North Carolina and the Town of Concord, Massachusetts and is currently completing designs for Cedar Falls Utilities' (Iowa) FTTP network. The firm is also highly qualified to assist in the planning and implementation of the latest Smart Grid technologies. Uptown has worked with more than 70 municipal broadband clients and completed over 45 broadband feasibility studies. The firm was founded in 1997 and has offices in Boulder, Colorado, and Duluth, Georgia.

SOURCE Uptown Services, LLC