THE GROSSE POINTES — A new fiber optic ring, bringing one gigabit, high-speed internet to the Pointes, is in the works.

The municipalities and school system are working with Rocket Fiber, a Detroit-based, Quicken Loans-backed, internet service provider, to construct the ring. It initially would be used solely by the school system and municipalities to connect their buildings, cutting internet access costs.

“For a district like ourselves,” Grosse Pointe Public School System Superintendent Gary Niehaus said, “we spend about $225,000 a year for our internet services. In essence, for us, it would be an opportunity not to have to pay that on an annual basis.”

The plan is to have Rocket Fiber construct the ring and the five Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods and school system enter an intergovernmental agreement to pay for it. The network then would be owned by the school system and municipalities.

The project currently is in its due-diligence phase, said Marc Hudson, CEO and co-founder of Rocket Fiber. They are figuring out final costs before bringing formal presentations before the Pointe councils. If the numbers make sense, the project can move forward.

According to Niehaus, the construction of the new ring would cost approximately $3.5 million.

The school system, which is spearheading the project, would be able to take advantage of E-Rate, a federal subsidization for educational technological advancement, Niehaus said.

“In our case it’s awarded off of our title,” Niehaus said. “We get about a 40 percent payback from E-Rate. This whole project would qualify for E-Rate at 40 percent.”

Hudson also said Rocket Fiber would invest an undisclosed amount in the project and put its own fiber in the ring to potentially expand service to residences and businesses in the Grosse Pointes. Right now, according to Hudson, residential and business service isn’t in the scope of the current project, but it’s an option it would like to keep open. Rocket Fiber currently only serves downtown and midtown Detroit with residential and business internet, but it is eyeing the suburbs.

“It’d still be a significant capital investment,” Hudson said. “There would still be a lot of things that would need to line up for us and we would need to continue to grow in our business core in Detroit to have that opportunity. But it is certainly something we would want to work with down the road.”

If it does work out on Rocket Fiber’s end, it would give Pointers another option. Right now, only AT&T offers a fiber optic network in Grosse Pointe.

Not only would it give another option for high-speed internet, but Hudson said access to a fiber optic network could boost real estate values and economic development.

“There’s been a number of studies done that show that high-speed gigabit fiber networks increase residential values an average of 3 to 5 percent,” Hudson said, “and we are actually seeing those numbers increase over time as the value of those networks is recognized.”

Hudson points to Chattanooga, Tenn. and Kansas City, Mo., as prime examples of the impact fiber optic networks have on local economies.

In 2012, Google Fiber installed a fiber network ring in Kansas City. Hudson said he watched the project closely as it developed. When it went live, Hudson said, “all of these really interesting things started happening. Startups started moving to Kansas City, technology companies started moving to Kansas City.”

In Chattanooga, the same thing happened when the public utility created its own ring.

“The city of Chattanooga had a lot of similarities, a lot of parallels to Detroit,” Hudson said. ”Post-industrial city with a declining economic base. The city-owned utility company, Chattanooga EPB, decided to build their own fiber network, right after the recession actually. They were really looking for ways to differentiate themselves from other communities and so they built their own high-speed gigabit fiber optic network. You saw the same thing you saw in Kansas City with Google Fiber, which was an influx in investment and economic development.”

According to Hudson, Volkswagen located a multi-billion-dollar plant in Chattanooga and a big reason was the fiber optic network.

While the Pointes may not be looking for big investors like Volkswagen, they are jockeying for position as being the place for young families to settle down and raise their families.

City of Grosse Pointe City Manager Peter Dame said access to fiber optic internet would be a “game changer.”

“I think it would be a great attraction for people to live and work,” Dame said. “For our communities to be able to say that would be a huge game changer for our community. It would be a very positive thing. It feeds into the premise that, as long as good things are happening in Detroit, it almost always benefits the Grosse Pointes because of our proximity.”

While the final numbers aren’t in yet, Dame said, “I know there will be a positive return on our investment for the City of Grosse Pointe. I’m confident there will be. We don’t have the final numbers, but I am very positive that this would pay off over a period of time.”

But, first things first. There’s a lot to be done before the project can move forward.

Right now, Rocket Fiber is “going deeper on the network planning and (finalizing) all of the locations that would actually be connected to that fiber ring,” Hudson said. “Seven partners all with different requirements from the connectivity stand point. So a very big project, very ambitious, but exciting and a lot of details we are still working through.”

Hudson said he hopes to have presentations to councils in the next few months and if the numbers look good and all goes according to plan, the ring could be lit sometime in 2019.