Reporting from the Intelligent Community Forum in NYC…

According to the Intelligent Community Forum, an intelligent community invests in broadband, knowledge workers, innovation, digital inclusion and marketing. Seven communities from around the world will be honored for their efforts and success.

I attended a pre-conference session yesterday. One of the highlights was learning about the regional initiative in NE Ohio. This is a 21 county effort on economic development, education and health care. Some 1500 organizations are connected via fiber. Schools have 2 Gb connections. Over 20 hospitals are working together and sharing costs on an electronic medical record.

It is a competitive world….how are doing in this race in Minnesota?

Broadband on the Aran Islands

While you all were working yesterday, I was on a boat to Inishmor the largest of the Aran Islands. It is off the west coast of Ireland. The population is 760 people (300 homes). The island is 9 miles by 2 miles and home to the largest Celtic fort built on a cliff. It’s an hour boat ride from Doolin on the mainland (maybe 30 minutes from Galway). Tourism has to be the largest industry – although AT&T used to have a factory there for developing wires or something like it. The sweaters are also famous.

It’s a very rural area – roosters on the front stoop, loads of cattle, and the tour guide showed us the donkey that was born last week kind of rural.

Inishmor got electricity in 1975. They generated their own electricity until 2000 (or 2003, I wasn’t taking great notes). Now they have an underwater connection to the mainland. They have broadband – well I saw at least one sign for Internet access and at least one hotel that offered free WiFi. (I didn’t actually bring my laptop – but I kept my eyes open.)

I just thought that was so telling – that a land that was so remote that they waited until 1975 to get electricity hopped on the broadband bandwagon relatively quickly.

In fairness the connection installed for electricity in 2000 made it easier to get broadband out there – but still kind of worth noting, I thought.

Wired in the West (of Ireland)

Most of the time, I have access to broadband; so most of the time, my interest is more academic than practical. This week my parents are visiting Ireland and we are in Lehinch, a golfing/surfing town on West Coast of Clare, near the Cliffs of Moher.

We are renting a house with WiFi – but I didn’t get the network key for the first 24 hours. I got dizzy and kind of shaky – but I survived. I did contact the keep of the net key twice and visited the library in that first day.

At the library I learned that public access to broadband is tough to come by here. There was no WiFi access in the library but I could use their computers to check email. (No help when/if I needed to update a web site.) The librarian thought that there might be a coffee shop in Lisdoonvarna with WiFi. That’s about 30 minutes away.

I was kind of surprised. There are plenty of signs for residential broadband here –so it is available, but not for visitors. I don’t know the numbers but I have to think that tourism is a huge chunk of the economy here – and I have to think that both golfers and surfers are a pretty wired group.

If I knew that Lisdoonvarna was the “most wired city” in the area – I would have focused my attention on accommodations there. It got me thinking of the Get Broadband communities back home and the number of resorts I work with in the area and how much broadband is a selling point for a visitor like me. And I like to think I’m a desirable visitor. My kids are too young to be too much trouble; I have too many kids for me to be too much trouble; and cost isn’t my first question – access to broadband is.

Lac qui Parle County Talks Broadband

Over 30 community leaders from economic development, local government, education, business and health care met yesterday in Dawson, MN to begin a discussion on broadband deployment and use. Lac qui Parle County is in western Minnesota on the South Dakota border. The county’s communities range in size from just under 2,000 people down to towns with fewer than 100 residents. In the countryside, the farms can be large and the residents widely scattered. I was pleased to see several county commissioners and elected officials at the meeting. The group really understood the need to work on this topic at the county and regional level, rather than focus at the city level.

Existing Internet providers were well represented, including Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative, Frontier Communications, Farmers Cooperative Association and MVTV. Representing Blandin Foundation through Community Broadband Resources, I provided some background information on broadband technologies and the issues that rural communities are facing.

We talked extensively about the mix of existing service providers within the county and learned about some planned improvements. For example, Farmers Mutual Telephone Cooperative will have FTTP to every subscriber in its service area by the end of 2009. Frontier Communications is upgrading their backbone pipe into the region which will enable more capacity to the end-customers. They are also beginning to extend DSL services into the more rural parts of their exchange. The wireless providers talked about their ability to reach into the countryside.

People understood that this will require an incremental approach. Two first step needs emerged from the discussion – better understanding of what is available where and the need to education consumers, especially businesses, about the power of broadband and broadband applications. I look forward to meeting again with this motivated community.

Drawing a map for broadband

Our fun news of the day is Blandin Foundation President, Jim Hoolihan’s Op-Ed piece in the Pioneer Press.

Jim praises the leadership in the state for their recent decision to create a Broadband Task Force. He offers some advice for the yet-to-be-name task force members:

We commend these principles as a starting point for the state’s broadband task force:

Affordability: Find innovative ways to make broadband affordable in order for all to experience Internet advantages;

Collaboration: Establish public-private collaborations;

Competitiveness: Increased customer choice and innovation are positive outcomes; encourage competition among service providers;

Interoperability: Regardless of the technology used for ultra-high-speed delivery, all systems must seamlessly interoperate with all other technologies;

Neutrality: Ultra-high-speed broadband policy should be promoted regardless of the technology platform that delivers it;

Research: Reward ongoing broadband innovation and continued research;

Symmetry: Provide symmetric speeds (same speeds upstream and downstream) to improve people’s ability to share information;

Ubiquity: Support the concept that eventually ultra-high-speed broadband should be available to every person, business and institution in our state

World class: Settle for nothing less than a world-class ultra-high-speed broadband system.

Broadband or Internet news from towns around Minnesota

Yesterday we sent out the Blandin eNews. It always includes highlights of the last month from the blog. But it also includes broadband news from around the state, which I wanted to share here too.

Clearwater
With support from the Blandin Foundation, the Clearwater Economic Development Authority is assessing their community’s telecommunications environment as they are not sure if their existing services are meeting the current and future needs of their community. (http://tinyurl.com/6k92zp)

Cook County
Cook County Higher Education and the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund held a class for business owners on Web Site Magic. (http://tinyurl.com/57hjp7)

Duluth
The Duluth Public Library is reopening with an expanded computer lab of 14 computers with Internet access. (http://tinyurl.com/5bmxwa)

Iron Range
Gary Fields (who has worked with the Blandin Foundation on broadband projects) and Tim Nulty (who led the lauded effort in Burlington VT) have been hired by Iron Range Community Fibernet to make presentations to the 11 FiberNet communities to talk about their plans to develop a financial plan and move forward to design and implement fiber to the home (FTTH). (http://tinyurl.com/6pokcp)

Itasca State Park
State parks across the nation are installing WiFi. In Minnesota the effort is starting in Itasca State Park. (http://tinyurl.com/5muaxd)

Marshall
Staff members at the Prairieland Genealogical Society and the History Center at Southwest Minnesota State University are embracing technology both as a way to store information on genealogy records and a way to reach patrons. (http://tinyurl.com/6k25a5)

Minneapolis
WiFi is up and running throughout Minneapolis but the speeds are not consistent. Buying a WiFi booster from US Internet will help users get better speeds. (http://tinyurl.com/5qxbcq)

Monticello
Progress continues on FTTH in Monticello as reported by the Monticello Fiber Optic Committee in Mid April. (http://tinyurl.com/6jx4e5)

New Ulm
A young entrepreneur in New Ulm makes a living by selling hand-sewn bags online using a web site called Etsy, which specializes in handmade items. (http://tinyurl.com/55qybx)

North Dakota
Candidates in North Dakota are already taking the campaigns to the Internet with Facebook and MySpace pages. (http://tinyurl.com/6coowe)

Red Wing
The Red Wing City Council and the Red Wing Port Authority approved Lookout Point Communications to conduct a FTTH feasibility study for Red Wing (a recipient of Blandin Foundation Get Broadband funds).

Staples
Lakewood Health Systems (a Blandin Foundation Light Speed funded program) is researching a telemonitoring purchase option. Their report on patients who currently avail of some remote monitoring services indicates that the advantages are clear. (http://tinyurl.com/6g9z2t)

Twin Cities
Comcast announces big broadband service in the Twin Cities. With the new service, subscribers will be able to download at speeds of up to 50 megabits per second and upload at speeds of 5 megabits per second. (http://tinyurl.com/5pnyqw)

Waseca
The Waseca County Public Library offered a free class called Senior Surf Day, designed to teach the ins and outs of modern technology. (http://tinyurl.com/5gvmsa)

Willmar
Kandiyohi County Economic Development Commission (a recipient of Blandin Foundation Get Broadband funds) recently approved payment to Bonnema Surveys Inc. to create a web-based mapping system for all the high-speed Internet coverage areas in Kandiyohi County (http://tinyurl.com/65sp79)

Winona
Home and Community Options Inc (a Blandin Foundation Light Speed funded program) is pleased with the response of care facility staff regarding training to use e-file system and with installation of remote monitoring systems. Unfortunately cold weather has slowed the actual installation of fiber. (http://tinyurl.com/5649h7)

Broadband Discussion on Radio Program in Cook County Minnesota

Last week (or so), Blandin on Broadband blogger Bill Coleman was on WTIP radio as part of a discussion on broadband. (WTIP is based in Cook County.) The conversation also included Danna Asche (Blandin Broadband Strategy Board Member) and Jack McDonald, from Boreal Access (a North Shore ISP).

The radio program is archived online.

The program addresses broadband from the perspective of the general public. So it starts with a discussion of what is broadband and why should we want it.

The Economics of Rural FTTH

A couple of days ago I relayed that the current administrators of the Burlington (VT) fiber project felt “that Burlington Telecom will not be breaking even by June as earlier projected by previous general manager, Tim Nulty.”

Tim Nutly spoke at the Broadband Properties conference yesterday (as reported by Telephony Online). He talked about the economics of providing FTTH in rural areas.

I have to admit that I don’t know the costs involved firsthand, so I thought his explanation (and specificity) was very helpful:

Fiber triple-play deployment costs generally come in three categories: the hub, the hook-up and the pass. Building a hub is actually less expensive in rural areas because real estate costs are lower there, Nulty said. “Building a hub in a cow pasture is cheaper than doing it downtown.” Hooking up rural houses is more expensive, but not much, he said, partly because fiber costs have come down considerably. Vermont spends about $1600 per home connecting subscribers in the city and about $1800 per home in rural areas.

The biggest cost gap is in passing homes, since there’s so much more space between homes in rural areas (though rural areas have more aerial, pole-based networks, which are easier and less costly than the underground networks in cities and suburbs.) Vermont towns contain more than 100 houses per square mile, but its rural areas can contain about 12 houses per square mile. As a result, Vermont spends about $250 per home in the city on this part of the project and $1100 per home in rural areas.

However, passing homes is a small part of the overall cost of fiber deployment, Nulty said. And rural areas see higher service take rates because there’s less competition there. In rural towns due to get municipal fiber, Vermont is seeing 50% of the market presubscribe for its services, and Nulty expects that rate to reach 75% or 80% by the time funds are secured.

Catch up with broadband efforts across the US

Thanks to some easy links from the Baller Herbst email list I was able to track down updates for what’s going on with broadband efforts in various high profile communities across the country. Let me just say after perusing the playing field – it’s rough out there.

Chattanooga – Comcast files suit

Comcast of the South has asked the Hamilton County Chancery Court to stop the fiber-to-the-home project planned by the Chattanooga Electric Power Board. Last week the Tennessee Cable and Telecommunications Association tried to file suit in a neighboring County but the court said no go, since the TCTA were not the party that would be injured.

(Read more, read past blog posts on the Chattanooga project.)

New Orleans says goodbye to WiFi

Earthlink is shutting down its WiFi network in New Orleans. (The network was built soon after Katrina.) Apparently it tried to find a buyer, including asking the city to buy – but no one rose to the occasion. The network will be shut down on May 18. Subscribers will be offered other Earthlink broadband options.

It sounds as if Earthlink wants to get out of the municipal WiFi game entirely. They are currently transferring networks in Corpus Christi and Milpitas and are looking to find other arrangements for Philadelphia and Anaheim.

Utopia is falling on hard times

The Utopia and iProvo FTTH networks in Utah are running into problems with lower subscriber rates and revenue shortfalls. With less money coming in, the project wil have difficulty paying back bond payments.

Both networks are open networks, or as TCMNet put it, access wholesalers, and neither network has gotten enough retail partners, nor have the retailers done well enough to fatten either network’s revenue, either on the business or consumer sides of the business.”

(Read more, read some background)

Burlington Vermont hasn’t reached goals yet

Burlington’s city’s chief administrative officer, Jonathan Leopold, reports that Burlington Telecom will not be breaking even by June as earlier projected by previous general manager, Tim Nulty. (There seems to be some disagreements regarding the numbers and culpability here.) Revisions have been made to the business plan and the hope/plan is to compete with other providers to get the necessary subscribers and cut costs where necessarily to be solvent and eventually be in a position to pay back the $33 million it borrowed to build the system.

(Minnesota-based Christopher Mitchell was also recently mentioned in the same publication for his case study on Burlington Telecom for Institute for Local Self Reliance.

LA is going mobile – but not wireless

The Metro in LA has been studying options for providing WiFi to passengers on the Orange Line that runs through the San Fernando Valley and on the subway – but so far it’s a no go. The cost is too high and no providers have jumped at the opportunity.

FiberNet in Iron Range is back on track

Last month we reported that the project was at a crossroads. They were committed to moving forward, the method was undecided.

Well they are starting to move forward once again and have started by hiring Gary Fields (who has worked with Blandin in the past) and Tim Nulty (speaker from the Blandin Broadband Conference last fall).

Gary and Tim are going to make presentations to the 11 FiberNet communities to talk about their plans to develop a financial plan. If funded, the network would be operated jointly by the participating cities, would also offer high speed services (telephone, ultra high speed Internet, and video, including cable television) to customers in the participating communities.

Thus far the FiberNet Project has been funded primarily by the Blandin Foundation and Iron Range Resources. However, to move forward it looks as if the communities will be asked to lend 15,000 to the project to pay for completion of a bankable business plan.

For more information, visit the Timberjay article (Fibernet project takes a key step forward).