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Broadband is Smokin', From Sea to Shining Sea

Hot. Red Hot. Those are the words I've heard in the past week during my informal poll of the municipal wireless industry. When I eased into the conversation with one industry wag by suggesting, "well, it looks like things are starting to heat up," the response was a derisive snort and a "are you kidding?? More like 'smoking' " When I asked another if he thought the hockey stick turn was coming up (referring to the Tipping Point we've all been anticipating somewhere in the future), he said, "I think we're right in the middle of it and we just don't know it yet." These are the consummate insiders who are living and breathing and sleeping new age broadband day in and day out ... so I'm listening to what they have to say, and trying to figure out what that means for us all.

I was out in Boston early last week, at the American Public Power Association (APPA) Community Broadband Conference, where all the attendees had keen interest in implementing broadband for their cities, and then I switched coasts to attend the World Internet Institute (W2i) Digital Cities Conference in San Francisco. Needless to say, it was a lot to digest in one week, but an interesting contrast as well. The overwhelming message from both conferences is that this is an industry poised to take off, indeed, already taking off. So, if the ship has already sailed, what course have we charted?

And the wind in our sails? Growing momentum generated by ever more community broadband projects, and the projects are growing in ambition and scale. Just take a short look at these events in the background: 1) East: Philadelphia's recent selection of Earthlink to build its city-wide network (along with team members Motorola and Tropos Networks); 2) West: San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsome flirting with tech titan Google to build a wireless network for all of San Francisco; 3) Center: Madison, MIlwaukee, Chicago, Kansas City, Houston...the list goes on and on.

Broadband options are under the microscope and not just in the big cities. While the man on the street may be stumped, those who track this budding business will quickly recognize what cities such as Braintree, Bristol, Chaska, Corpus Christi, Lafayette, Manassas, Moorhead, Oklahoma City, Owensboro, Sallisaw, and Scottsboro have in common - these are some of the pioneers in this new community broadband movement. While major cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco garner press attention, city leaders everwhere are plugging away, taking control of their own destinies. As Corpus Christi's project leader Leonard Scott said at last week's W2i Digital Cities conference, words to this effect, "It's not a matter of if, but when, for city leaders. This is quite simply the network of the future for cities, and the sooner they get started on one, the sooner they will be on the road to real progress."

The high level lessons learned from my travels last week?
1) Cities that move sooner will cut the best deals with private sector partners - those who wait will have less to offer potential partners.
2) It is far more important to engage in a project than to defer activtiy while getting just the right technology to put in place - these networks are dynamic and will ultimately include whatever technologies make sense for business purposes, and will evolve to get it right.
3) Wireless mesh technology is like plastic - very malleable. It is viewed by some cities as sufficient for their networks, by others as complementary to their wireline networks, by others still as complementary to their wireless point to point networks. Either Or discussions miss the point that these are integrated networks.
4) Costs are coming down, and the costs of alternate broadband are miniscule in comparison to traditional telecom costs.

More on this topic soon. Good to be back posting!

Posted on October 19, 2005 at 10:14 AM

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