G Net CommCo, Internet 2 and Governor Rendell work on advanced optical "research city" in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania for creation of jobs.

Thom Greco, President & CEO, of G Net CommCo has acquired the right of way under the streets of Wilkes Barre to run high grade fiber. Utilizing abandoned city steam pipes as conduit Wilkes Barre will penetrate 95% of all buildings within a twenty block grid to offer very affordable active broadband to create a beta community and "research city" to enable innovation for broadband digital applications, platforms and content. Governor Rendell embraces plan to create jobs and economical development. Internet 2 will be available for research purposes so innovators could collaborate with top research labs.

(PRWEB) March 17, 2004 --The Northeastern part of the state of Pennsylvania is known for the abandoned strip mines that have left an indelible and scarred image of the region. This part of the state is known for a distressed economy which drags down the states economic picture. There are abandoned towns like Eckley which now serve as a museum to show how the coal miners once lived. The core of many of the downtowns possesses abandoned retail, office and apartment buildings. There was and there might still be a spark of genius that comes from this area. At one time the nations inventions and innovative thinking sprung out of this once very fertile and wealthy part of the state. When timber, railroads and coal was king the Northeast prospered.

A Slavic priest from Wilkes Barre, Father Joseph Murgas, was credited with inventing the radio and gave his rights to Marconi to further his invention as we know it today. The lucrative cable television industry was started by the Walsons now Service Electric in the mountains of the Northeast and is still Wilkes Barres cable provider today. There is a plaque that commemorates Sex in The City" and Sopranos" HBOs birthplace of Wilkes Barre on public square. Lymon Howe pioneered moving pictures, aerial photography and the beginnings of cartoons from his studios in Wilkes Barre. MCI founder, William McGowan, who broke down Ma Bell was born and raised in Wilkes Barre and there is a business school there to commemorate his alma mater, Kings College. There is another individual, Thom Greco, taking the lead on innovation in the entertainment content and communications field. Is he another visionary that could bring a new face and hope to this region and start another economic revival?

Among the abandoned remnants of a prosperous past in downtown Wilkes Barre there is an abandoned city steam pipe infrastructure giving right of ways and access to 95% of all the buildings within the twenty block grid of downtown. Can this be a valuable asset and advantage over other cities in America? The steam pipe infrastructure was rebuilt in 1978 after the flood and the authority only lasted for ten years due to the bad economic conditions. Can he take the remnants of the past and revitalize a distressed city and region?

Greco realized the value back in 1996 when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed and opened competition between local phone providers. Success is turning a negative into a positive so he came up with an idea to run high grade fiber through the abandoned pipes and create an advanced community -- beta community -- research community to give very affordable broadband at speeds only available in university labs and give the private community the opportunity to innovate. This project, G Net CommCo, is just not about fiber optics, it is about the partnerships he has forged with some of the top technology corporations to partner and test their new technologies in this research environment. Greco has furthered his idea and put his money behind it. He has obtained the rights to the city steam pipes, the central office and has several millions of dollars into this project. It has not gone unnoticed. Governor Ridges administration had a feasibility study done that was undertaken through DCED utilizing the guidance of Wharton Emerging Technology graduates, Henkels and McCoy, a Harvard Economist, KPMG consulting and Cisco Systems to produce a lengthy document that states Grecos project is just the medicine Wilkes Barre and the Northeast need and certainly the direction the State of Pennsylvania should follow to lead once again.

Senator Santorum, Spector, Congressman Kanjorski and various state legislatures have embraced this vision. Greco met Governor Rendell on the campaign trail and agreed with his platform to turn the core of the cities around through technology and investment in downtown infrastructure. The Governor asked Greco to look into Chapter 30 and give some input on the legislation that was to sunset in December of last year. (Since 1993 the state of Pa. allowed the deregulation of the large telephone companies and allowed them to spin off some of their profitable entities like the Yellow Pages without any profit restrictions in exchange they were to make Pa. one of the most advanced and broadband connected states). Greco soon became an advisor on Broadband to the Governor, his office and several senators. Governor Rendell supports this project and is currently looking for the funding to help complete the recommended public/private partnership to bring this project to fruition. Not only will this project create the sorely needed 250 high paying technology jobs to Wilkes Barre, but, it creates a community that does not exist like this elsewhere in the nation. This will bring innovative software writers and broadband applications still in research laboratories to Pennsylvania.

This project creates an opportunity for the private community to partake in the riches of creating software platforms, content and digital applications for the way cities will exist 5 years from now.    University of Pennsylvanias Internet 2 (MAGPI) project manager, Greg Palmer, has chosen this Wilkes Barre project to be the aggregation point for all Internet 2 traffic in the northeast. Giving access to the projects twenty block grid will serve as a model for the rest of the nation giving opportunities for the private individuals or companies to innovate in a laboratory environment and give valuable access to the best minds in the nation to collaborate. This could be the beginning of allowing access to the Internet 2, the next generation of the Internet as we know today, as the new Internet, Lambda Rail, is being built.

This certainly is a challenge to the Governor Rendell administration as the project embodies the essence of his plan to revitalize the distressed downtowns. Can he improve the image, the economic numbers and create high paying technology jobs in the Northeast while improving Pennsylvania? Can he duplicate the success in other Pennsylvania cities and invest the taxpayers money more success than the last administration did in Pittsburgh? If this works, it could be a model for the nation to follow.

   Norman Tarantino
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