Tyler "Rose" to the Occasion

And these smaller towns are where it's at when it comes to metropolitan broadband. Ironically, while so much press time is offered to the very large cities that capture the public's imagination (Philadelphia, NYC, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco), it's these smaller cities, with from, oh, say, 15-200,000 in population, that tend to enjoy mulitple benefits from wireless networks, offering great ROI profiles and rapid payback, yet with a network size that is amenable to a low-risk, high-success network deployment.

Cities smaller than 15,000 in population, too numerous to count, can also benefit significantly, but their networks will be much simpler in design, the market opportunities less rich for private players, and they often lack the developed city government departments to fully benefit from the potential cost savings that the larger cities can enjoy. But that's not to say there is no benefit, I just think they will need to approach this opportunity from a little differnt angle. That's the subject of a different blog, coming up.

I'm convinced this market segment of "Tier 2 & Tier 3" cities, and those Tier 4 cities with a different business model, will be the future of metropolitan broadband. As the giant projects slog their way forward, these projects will be able to start up and get finished in a reasonable length of time, and start offering great results and positive public feedback.

Meanwhile, a few words about Belton. These road shows have taken me out of my comfort zone, and out of my hometown, out to neighboring communities, many of which I have only driven past in my many years in Central Texas. I've been consistently impressed and have enjoyed this process immensely. To a city, these representatives, from public safety to city managers to city council members are actively investigating wireless options and the potential of bringing a citywide network to their community. I found that in Belton on Wednesday.

I had a long conversation with the director of the Bell County communications center (coordination of communications for public safety organizations), where I learned that they're a leading, best-practices, center-of-excellence-type player when it comes to regional coordination, held out as an example to other regions - nationwide! Are you listening, Homeland Security? Clearly, this type of cooperation does not come easily or without significant effort; this gentleman explained to me that it had taken years to reach this level of cooperation, but that now his efforts are supported by regular communication and institutional connections at different functional levels. They've reached a sustainable level.

Taking this first step bodes well for the four major towns in the county as they consider regional wireless infrastructure - they have a real asset to leverage that other regions will have to start to build. If they so choose, they will be able to accomplish much more with a shared approach to a metropolitan wireless network than they ever could separately.

Imagine the possibilities (thanks for letting me borrow that phrase, Cisco!) when Killeen (100K), Harker Heights (30K), Temple (55K), and Belton (15K) go in together with Bell County on a joint project for their Metropolitan Statistical Area (ranked 138 nationally, with close to 330K as measured in the 2000 Census) to bring in a regional wireless network. Such collaboration and cohesion are greatly appealing to a potential private sector partner, which would then be looking at a much larger and more economically efficient project - all would win in an approach like this. The challenge for local governments is to get over the initial hurdles that often inhibit such regional cooperation, still rare in this new wireless industry.

Back to Tyler, or at least the drive up here... Driving up there in the wee hours yesterday morning, I passed innumerable towns along State Highway 79, which runs parallel to a railroad track for much of the way. Driving east, you pull away from the urban sprawl of Round Rock along I-35, past the Dell Diamond, and out into the country. It's been a while since I was up so early, so I had a front-row seat to witness Nature's daily wonder: dawn breaking over the countryside, revealing dew-covered meadows, fog-tinged creeks, and grazing cattle, where only 30 minutes before there had been only darkness. it took about 30 minutes for the show to unfold as I drove along, and I enjoyed it more than most man-made entertainment! Passing three trains along the way, my mind wandered to the way in which our society managed to connect our broad landscape, first with simple roads and paths, and then in rapid succession, a railroad network, highways, electricity, Interstates, and telephones. Broadband is just one more network to tie our towns together.

Reaching Palestine, which became for me the promised land as it marked the first major turn in hours, and only 60 miles to go, I turned onto Highway 69. All along the way on that journey, I thought that each one of those towns would be a candidate for at least one access point. Imagine the possibilities if I had pulled through a Hot Zone every twenty miles, with the option of pulling to the side to get gas, use the facilities, buy a Coke and a snack, AND check emails or even make a VOIP phone call. That reminds me of the network of payphones that used to dot the landscape before cellular phones became ubiquitous - add that network to the list above. We still have a long way to go to connect ourselves.

Now imagine if the county sheriff or Texas Dept of Public Safety officer could do the same. The evacuation of the Texas Gulf Coast would have been aided by such a network of Hot Spots and Hot Zones. We've got to push Texas in this direction - with so much ground to cover, this challenge truly brings to mind that analogy I often use - the best way to eat an elephant is to take small bites. This is a vision that Homeland Security should latch on to, using Texas as a test bed and then engaging local governments nationwide. We need to unwire these small towns that line our highways, so that everyone everywhere in the US is never more than a few miles from a broadband Internet connection - it's time to start taking some small bites.