ATLANTA IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AGE: THE FIBER-OPTIC INFORMATION NETWORK

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of the Atlanta metropolitan area as a telecommunications center based on the use of fiber optics. The major focus is on the intrametropolitan layout of this network, including fiber-optic access points, downtown and suburban fiber loops, and the location of data service and teleservice centers. The aim is to identify congruence between high-technology firms and fiber-optic lines that produce clustering within the metropolitan region. Atlanta has a dense fiber-optic infrastructure in place in the CBD-Midtown area and in several corporate clusters in the suburbs. A number of fiber-optic carriers compete in the Atlanta market—including BellSouth, with approximately 400,000 miles of fiber-optic cable—giving Atlanta more miles of optic fiber than any other metropolitan area in the United States. This extensive fiber network bestows fresh advantages to old downtown property and businesses and creates burgeoning opportunities in the suburbs as it literally undergirds the growth of edge cities at such locations as Perimeter Center and Cumberland-Galleria. Long-established Atlanta firms such as Coca-Cola have drawn fiber sites to themselves, whereas sites on fiber-optic loops attract new businesses seeking ready backbone and broadband access to other metropolitan areas in the United States and cities around the globe. This study also focuses on Atlanta's position within the U.S. intermetropolitan telecommunications hierarchy, where the metropolitan area ranks sixth in total number of backbone connections with other U.S. Metropolitan areas. [Key words: Atlanta, fiber optics, telecommunications.]