Fiber = Economic Development

Dan Rogers, Pres, Eco Dev Corp, Kendall County, TX

Kendall County, whose County Seat is the charming little burg of Boerne, and erstwhile potential wireless city (see Cisco Puts Its Best Foot Forward, Shows Leadership from November 8, 2006), is growing rapidly and is predicted to have a population of 50,000 by 2020 (which gives you an idea of the remaining rural quality of the county - very pretty indeed).

Dan described the value of broadband to his Eco Dev strategy, and all I can conclude is that he has struck up a very healthy relationship with Guadalupe Valley Telecommunications Cooperative, the resident telephone company and a strong adherent to fiber, apparently. (such a strong backer of broadband infrastructure really, really helps an economic development strategy, I do believe).

According to Dan, the key to a strong economic development strategy is to avoid being eliminated in the competition for Site Selection, when companies decide which cities they will consider for a move or expansion - make it to the Short List, and then you have a chance to negotiate. This is also a good strategy when it comes to March Madness.

Quality of Life is a huge component in Site Selection which helps Boerne and Kendall County. Working with the telecom and utilities also helps. Broadband has now become a critical component for site selection, and based on the relationship and partnership with GVTC, Kendall County is well positioned. It's also a good fit for the demographics: commuters in beltway communities require high speed connectivity when they get home, and having the FTTH option provides them with an opportunity to avoid commuting altogether. Dan sees this growing as the price of gas goes up. Have to agree.

Connectivity is becoming the key aspect to attract/retain quality employers and residents – they want FIBER! A target market for Kendall county's economic development strategy is Medical Research - and doctors and hospitals need Fiber for X-Rays and MRIs and other high data rate graphic content.

Next up, Jeff Mnick, FTTH Council member and VP Sales & Marketing, Guadalupe Valley Telecom Coop, moderated a panel discussion titled "Leading-Edge FTTH in Texas."

On the panel were:
Trinidad Aguirre - General Manager, Central Region, Verizon Telecom (Canada on down to Mexico, Oye!)
Joey Anderson - Chief Operating Officer, Nortex Communications (North East Texas)
Charlie Cano - Engineering Manager, Etex Telephone Coop., Inc.(Deep East Texas)

1. Trinidad Aguirre, Verizon

Focus on DFW area and FTTH strategy - 100% overbuild in network, so no prioritization, as everyone gets it! FIOS TV and FIOS Internet are the two key offers.

FIOS Internet
Speeds up to 50 Mbs down and 20 MBs up
1.5 M Internet customers (26% penetration)
9.3 M premises passed in 17 states
Low, low churn - monthly customer turnover rate is less than 1.5%
Ranked by PC World as best ISP in 2007

FIOS TV
Getting statewide franchise was a big deal
Access to more than 200 all digital channels
10,000 video on demand titles up to 30 high def channels
1 M FIOS TV customers
5.9 M households have access to FIOS TV
Makes them currently 10th largest cable TV provider in the US (from a start at 0 before FIOS)

By 2010, $18 B will have been invested in fiber (sound of eyes popping)
- Annual savings of $1 B
- 6-7 M Fios Internet
- 3-4 M Fios TV
- 3rd largest Cable provider in the US

Manufacturers and software development companies will take it to the next level. Key motivator to go to Fiber is Access Line Loss - POTS has well past being a commodity and Verizon cannot depend on its revenue contribution for the future and now, DSL is less and less satisfying - both Verizon and its customers need more speed.

2. Joey Anderson, Nortex

Muenster and Valley View are the two fiber communities - both small towns of 1-2000 in size

About the company:
Small rural telecom provider with 50 employees
4300 lines of voice over 400 sq mi and 2 communities
2500 Cable customers in 4 communities
Located on Red River border NE of DFW

About the deployments:
Starting with the best technology to then be prepared to meet their needs
40 percent of service territory will be covered with fiber
Cable and copper were requiring a lot of maintenance - fiber was a solution
RF over Glass = RFOG
50% complete project, emerging service improvements include expanding HD content, deploying VOD, increased BB speeds, and more manageable services
Key motivator to go to Fiber is becoming more competitive - they know that wireless and DirecTV are more and more interesting, have to build fiber or risk losing customers and their revenue - build it or they won't come anymore ...

3. Charlie Cano, Etex

Similar in size to Nortex - highly innovative cooperative with about 18,000 access lines, spread over 1,700 sq mi in E. Texas, providing a full boat of services

Started deploying FTTH about 5 years ago, and its been a learning process since then; BPON, now GPON, used all techniques to deploy, etc. Only certain areas get fiber because they have copper as well. So, have to accommodate a service offer for both technologies. Their strategy is to deploy empty conduit as neighborhoods go in, to accommodate future growth. Local content insertion is a key differentiation against the competition - local content is a big deal in small rural territories.

There's is a dynamic project with long-term deployment, where broadband was the driver

Q&A

What about an Open Network Philosophy?

Joe - (reality based) "one of the challenges is to keep the services bundled with the access - it's a reality that Open Access is coming"
Charlie - (denying reality) "will make you a sweet deal as long as I can keep it bundled"
Trinidad - (making their own reality) "doesn't make sense to open up the network to outsiders - are you kidding?" (crowd laughs)
Jeff - "the developers don't want to deal with the telecom, aspects, they want to move their dirt - sometimes we have to work with them though, where fiber doesn't make business sense because of lack of density, for instance, we suggest that they share the burden by paying the difference between copper and fiber, so I can build FTTH and provide them with the services they want - it's an Interesting subsidy angle."