|
|||||
FEATURED TOPICDigital Transition -The term "Digital Transition" describes the process all organizations must go through in the 21st Century, as they leverage new technologies that provide new options for Applications, Equipment, Processes, and Networks that make them more effective. In contrast, the term "Municipal Wireless" is limiting. It puts the network technology ahead of the application and process changes that drive the business case. ORIENTATION |
« Gaze into the Crystal Ball to See the Future of Broadband | Weblog | FCC 700 MHz Auction passes a threshold » Rural Fiber: 21st Century Barn Raising
Up in Vermont, they get it. I'll say it in bold, because I'm hoping more and more communities start to catch on to this approach practiced by the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network. This recent article on a Vermont rural fiber initiative - see Rural towns bundling a blueprint for broadband - emphasizes that a community working together can be self-sufficient. In this case, they're looking at raising the capital to build a fiber network, and potentially following that up with a wireless overlay network. This is a very good article worth browsing, as it raises several points I've been trying to get across here on the site: - opportunities for regional collaboration, including pooling of efforts within a region for mapping, surveying, standardizing approaches to ensure interoperability, planning, purchasing, and operations This is a model, believe it or not, that holds great potential in dense urban areas like Orange County in Southern California as well as out in underserved rural areas. The critical element is whether there is a spirit of community present in the region, which will drive the hard work of forging a collaborative agreement. See the article excerpt after the jump. Steve Willbanks, chairman of the Strafford Selectboard and a key player in the emerging network, said commercial broadband providers could not meet the needs of rural Vermonters. "These fiber-optic connections are absolute necessities; not luxuries," he said. "We need them for our economical and cultural development. We've had seasonal residents tell us they'd move here in a heartbeat; they'd telecommute if they had access to broadband. "There are people out there who would kill - almost - to have reliable broadband service." More than 1,000 residents in his area have registered for service, Willbanks said. About half of the population targeted by the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network have no broadband service. Tim Nulty of Jericho, who left Burlington Telecom in the fall to join the East Central group as chief consultant, said Burlington Telecom's business model would work well in a confederation of smaller, more thinly populated towns. Nulty said low-interest loans would allow the $70 million, subscriber-funded network to achieve a positive cash flow in four to six years. Communities, not technology, would shape the size of rural networks, Nulty said. "Localized service is a huge, competitive advantage," he said. "You're calling on your neighbors for service, and you're serving a common interest. All we really need is a critical mass of about 25,000 - or about 6,000 paying customers." Earlier attempts to serve rural areas with broadband, including state-funded pilot wireless systems, have fallen short of fiber-optic's technical advantages. The East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network, Nulty said, would permit an "overlay" of wireless coverage that could accommodate data or voice transmissions. "It's feasible when you have an infinite number of antennae sites," he said. "Every phone pole is an antenna site. Perfect cell phone coverage, everywhere in the system, is one of our goals. And we can do that." Paul Giuliani, a Montpelier-based bond lawyer for East Central, said the project has "only three moving parts": an agreement between towns; an agreement to design, build and operate the network; and a capital financing lease. The latter procedure has precedence in towns' collective purchase of snowplows and school buses, Guiliani said. "If this is a better mouse trap, maybe someone else will pick it up as a template," he said. Posted on January 30, 2008 at 11:19 AM CommentsPost a comment |
METRONET VENDOR DIRECTORYMY OTHER BLOGSMetroNetIQ E-Store - Be sure to visit the MetroNetIQ E-Store and pick up a copy of The ABCs of Community Broadband: How Digital Transitions Will Transform America's Communities, One at a Time. The E-Store will offer special discounts on this valuable guide for community leaders, discounts that won't be available to the general public on Amazon! |
|||
| Powered by Movable Type | ©2006 MetroNetIQ.com | Website Design by zilkoweb | |||
