Edmonds is looking into providing services not traditionally associated with city government: high-speed Internet access, telephone and TV.

A panel of residents and officials has been studying ways the city could take advantage of fiber-optic cable already installed under some streets.

Bart Preecs, a technical marketer for Washburn Communication in Bellevue and a member of the Edmonds committee, envisions a scenario in which the city could contract with a private company to provide services, including wireless connections. The city would get a cut to bolster its bank account, the company would expand its market, and customers would get service roughly 25 percent cheaper than they do now, Preecs said.

The city is exploring a partnership with Edmonds Community College, the University of Washington and the city of Lynnwood, said Dan Clements, city finance director.

The state has installed 24 strands of fiber-optic cable, considered state-of-the-art in communications transmission, between the Edmonds ferry dock and Highway 99 at 210th Street SW for terrorism security purposes, Clements said. Also, Seattle and the University of Washington have installed six strands on Highway 99 north to 234th Street SW, he said.

Many strands are available for city use. It would cost about $50,000 for the city to “light up the fibers,” Clements said. Another empty conduit capable of carrying fiber-optic fibers, which would be more expensive to develop, runs along Highway 99 in Edmonds, he said.

The services the committee envisions would be cheaper because of competitive bidding and because the company would not have to pay to install the cable, Preecs said.

The city has yet to decide on a particular type of service, but is considering options such as television, telephone and high-speed Internet.

It could get a cut either wholesale through the contractor or from a percentage of the retail business, Preecs said.

The city could make up, and maybe exceed, the utility tax revenue it could potentially lose from land-line phone customers switching to cell phones and other wireless forms of communication, Preecs said. The city receives about $1 million a year in utility taxes from phone customers, Clements said.

Other cities and jurisdictions could get into the fiber-optic business as well, Preecs said, adding that Tacoma has done it. “You would have a revenue source that would not shrink in the future but would grow in the future.”

One potential customer, EdCC, currently uses T-1 phone lines for Internet access, which is getting expensive, said Rachel Solemsaas, the college’s vice president for finance and operations. With long-distance learning becoming more common, the college is looking for more economical ways to increase its electronic capability, she said.

“We do need to transfer to fiber-optic,” Solemsaas said.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.