The CA Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD)'s Special Push for Broadband

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A Q&A with Garrett Dunwoody, who oversees the Information Systems and Technology Department at the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD), which manages and protects 63,000 acres down the middle of the San Francisco Peninsula into San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in California. 

The issue of connectivity and access to broadband remains persistent through many swaths of rural America. Groups overseeing natural lands also encounter connectivity struggles as they navigate the day-to-day difficulties of managing open space. The MROSD was formed in 1972 and is charged with building and managing a regional greenbelt in perpetuity. Dunwoody has been leading efforts to improve connectivity among the organization’s various offices."A lot of our field offices are in remote locations within our preserves. So we’re in the process right now of working with Comcast Solutions to implement what we’re calling a districtwide fiber-optic network. We’re connecting all of our field offices with fiber-optic cabling," he said. "This project is twofold. One is the capital project to actually run the fiber-optic cable to those various locations. And then the second part of the project is more services-based. What we’re building is what Comcast calls Ethernet Network Service. We’ll basically be connecting our field offices all within a virtual private network [VPN]."


The CA Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD)'s Special Push for Broadband