ACADEMIA

City Council Unanimously Approves Deal, Supporting NLR’s Mission to Build a National Healthcare Information Infrastructure

National LambdaRail (NLR) has entered into an agreement with the city of Phoenix to license its unused, excess fiber optic capacity. The five-year agreement, approved unanimously last week by the Phoenix city council, will help in the development of the multimillion-dollar data center, a high performance computing and bioscience hub at Phoenix’s Barrister Place Building and Sky Harbor Center. The licensing of the city’s unused fiber capacity will help NLR support the information technology needs of all these, and other, Phoenix area projects.

“Once again, the city of Phoenix has shown its commitment to support our efforts to develop state-of-the-art communications in the area of healthcare,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO of NLR and the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health (CSS), which funds NLR and is developing a significant presence in Phoenix. “We are delighted by the strong support we have consistently had from the city council and other city and state leaders.”

Arizona State University Michael Crow, who heads the Chairman’s Advisory Council at National LambdaRail, welcomed the news. “This is good for the research and education community here in Phoenix, and not just for healthcare. NLR serves all science projects requiring the transport of very large data sets. This development will help Arizona universities stay ahead, as leaders in both research and economic growth.”

“Making Phoenix a hub for research and healthcare is critically important to our economic future,” said Mayor-elect Greg Stanton. “This agreement is a huge step in the right direction.”

Outgoing Mayor Phil Gordon announced on November 16 that he would be joining the non-profit CSS Institute in the New Year, to be based in Phoenix to oversee the Institute’s growing presence in Arizona.