By Lookout Staff

February 14 -- Eyeing a new high-tech revenue stream that could generate as much as $60,000 a year, the City Council Tuesday night approved the rental of physical rack space for equipment that supports fiber-optic cables leased from the City.

As in other cities, Santa Monica has built a Municipal Fiber Network (MFN) -- used for voice, video and data communication -- aimed at improving performance and lowering costs of telecommunications services for City facilities and fostering economic growth.

Within that network, the City has an overabundance of fiber strands, known as "dark fibers," available for lease, according to City officials.

The first such leasing of the fibers was awarded last April to Google, a move that could have opened floodgates with several vendors expressing similar interest, City officials said.

In addition, companies asked to rent a City-owned rack that resembles a shelving structure, "where various hardware devices such as servers, switches, hard disk drives and other computer equipment can be stored," according to a staff report.

"Fiber optic cables, including dark fiber, will then be connected to these various hardware devices to transmit data to and from the vendor location," the report said.

"By leasing rack spaces, the City will provide businesses in Santa Monica with more flexibility to install high speed networks, connect their offices in Santa Monica or to connect their offices to other businesses in the city and beyond."

The cost to interested companies would be $700 a month for one full rack space or $17 a month per one unit rack space and two annual renewal options.