Published on June 19, 2009

Effective July 1, 2009, the private fiber policy at Penn State will be simplified and private fiber costs will be largely reduced. ITS is refining its private fiber policy and pricing structure due to the availability of “single mode” fiber and the increased interest among colleges and departments in creating and managing their own private networks. Private fiber has become popular among institutions and businesses, because it can be directly purchased to build a local private network - allowing departments to have dedicated point-to-point network linkage between separate buildings in their areas.

Previously, private fiber installation procedures at Penn State included costs for cable and pathways on a per-foot basis, making the process very complex and often cost prohibitive. Under the new policy, however, departments and colleges can simply choose to use University fiber purchased through Central funding (whenever this is available) or fund the installation of fiber directly themselves. In addition, if an academic or administrative unit requires supporting hardware to connect and complete their private network (via private fiber) the unit will be responsible for the acquisition cost of the equipment, plus a monthly maintenance fee equating to 0.5% of the acquisition cost.

More information about the private fiber pricing structure is available at http://tns.its.psu.edu/wiring/index.cfm?wiringID=price#a.

For more information about private fiber, colleges and departments may contact Telecommunications and Networking Services at (814) 865-1696 or submit an inquiry at https://www4.tns.its.psu.edu/generalInfo/inquiryForm.cfm.

For more information, please contact Dave McCobin, Brent Korman (dbm15@psu.edu, brentk@psu.edu).

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