The Champaign City Council voted 9-0 Tuesday to accept a professional agreement with Columbia Telecommunications Corporation, allowing the consulting firm to assist the Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband project in exploring potential expansion options.

Beginning in February, the cities of Urbana and Champaign, along with the University, will pay CTC up to $100,000 to assist UC2B, a high-speed fiber optic network, in evaluating potential businesses interested in expanding the network’s service area within the community.

It was not a surprise that the resolution, which didn’t have any council discussion or technical questions, was unanimously approved, said Champaign Mayor Don Gerard.

“A lot of (UC2B) is funded by the federal grant, so it’s a lot easier to vote 9-0 because it’s more of a housekeeping (agenda item),” Gerard said. “When we’re working under the constraint of a federal grant, we have to meet certain milestones at certain times. It’s not something we are going to quibble over.”

This is not the first time CTC has worked with UC2B. According to a city memo, UC2B hired CTC in June 2012 to help prepare a response to a request for information from Gigabit Squared, a consortium interested in helping expand high-speed fiber optic infrastructures in university communities. Since then, CTC has also worked with UC2B to develop its own request for information to “solicit proposals from other potential expansion partners.”

As a result of its past collaboration with CTC, UC2B has received interest from four potential expansion partners, Gigabit Squared included. The approximate 600 hours of upcoming work with CTC will help UC2B evaluate each potential partner with the goal of eventually entering a contractual agreement with one.

Deb Feinen, council member at-large and a policy board member for UC2B, said the previous work CTC has done with UC2B is one advantage to doing business with them again.

“We have used them previously, so we are familiar with them and they are familiar with us,” Feinen said.

CTC is also registered with the state of Illinois as a Female Business Enterprise.

The partnership will fuel the city’s initiatives to collaborate with minority- and female-owned businesses on large city projects, the goal of the “Minority and Women Business Development Plan,” which was discussed at last week’s study session.

“(Being a female-owned business) does set them apart,” Feinen said. “Although, in this area, there just aren’t that many (minority-and female-owned) businesses. We’re really lucky. We have two female-owned businesses … that have been involved with the development and management with UC2B.”

Emma can be reached at [email protected].