1. Case Study – Building A Regional Optical Network (RON) The Quilt Fiber Workshop June 21-23, 2004

2. Presentation Objective To share the issues involved with implementing a RON and the associated container corporation with The Quilt Fiber Workshop participants To provide workshop participants with examples of how SLR dealt with and continues to deal with these issues

3. The Vision Southern Light Rail (SLR) –Regional access to Atlanta National LambdaRail (NLR) node –International Connectivity –O&M of National Science Foundation (NSF) Atlanta Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) hub –Southern Crossroads (SoX) operations

4. GT Campus 56 Marietta 345 Courtland SLR Southern Light Rail (SLR) Spheres of Influence

5. Getting Started – Governance Issues Board Directors of vs. Board of Trustees Advisory Board –Non-voting –Voting –Hybrid – Advisory Board elects Board seats

6. Getting Started – Business Plan Budget –Pro-forma –Detailed Leadership –Sponsor (champion) –Directors & officers Source of Funds (especially seed funding)

7. Getting Started - Business Plan Bandwidth Pricing Models –Costs Marginal vs. Market based Equipment replacement - fully loaded Cost center – rate study –Other telecom services New service offerings Marketing

8. Getting Started – Business Model Affiliate or cooperative corporation vs. independent corporation (i.e. LLC) Sources of funds Flow of service and charges Capture total costs

10. Next Steps – Fiber Acquisition IRU / Lease / Trade / Donation –Metro –Rural Strategic Alliances –Private sector – I/CLEC / IXC / CATV / utilities –Public sector State Board of Regents Education and Research Consortiums

11. Next Steps – Equipment Procurement SONET Ethernet CWDM DWDM

12. Other Issues Politics (the science of relationship building) –Multi-level selling (top-down and bottom-up) What do I get for my money? What, no vote? Paradigm Shifts –Shared network infrastructure vs. dedicated point-to- point connectivity –Sales & Marketing (Business Development) Campus Network Infrastructure –Dedicated fiber connectivity to the lab

13. Other Issues (paperwork, paperwork & more paperwork) Organizational –Articles of Incorporation & Bylaws –IRS 501(c)(3) filing Procurement (pre-selection) –Fiber & Equipment RFP (Mandatories / Desirables) Vendor relations (post-selection) –Contracts MSA (Collocation & IRU) Vendor Members (Participants) MOUs / MOAs

14. SLR Distributed GigaPOP Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta 56 Marietta – Carrier Hotel –Abundance of fiber –Carrier neutral 345 Courtland Street –NLR Atlanta node

15. SLR Distributed GigaPOP

16. SLR - NLR Access Georgia – Access Network #1 –Emory –Georgia State University –Morehouse School of Medicine Georgia – Access Network #2 –University of Georgia - Athens –Medical College of Georgia – Augusta –Georgia Tech Savannah SoX Universities –Access Network #3 – South Carolina –Access Network #4 - Alabama

17. SLR - NLR Access Network #1

18. SLR - NLR Access Network #2

19. Strategic Alliance Proposal The Deal –SLR or educational entity provides optronics –NOC / O&M To be negotiated / contracted with fiber provider –Bandwidth Shared between both parties to the deal in direct proportion to their financial contribution Current Status –Fiber Providers Approached (CLECs, Cable Providers, Utilities, etc.) –Utility has agreed in concept that proposal is feasible – next steps vendor involvement & technical issue assessment

20. Other Regional Locations – SLR-NLR Access Networks #3, 4…#N Southern Crossroads (SoX) –South Carolina Qwest fiber? –Alabama Level 3 fiber? –Tennessee / Kentucky Qwest fiber? Leased Waves? (commercial or private network)

21. NLR Access Network #3 & #4

22. Thank You Questions & Comments