Thanks to Christopher Mitchell (from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance) for sending me a heads up on his most recent publication: Municipal Broadband: Demystifying Wireless and Fiber-Optic Options.

I think this should be required reading for anyone who suddenly finds himself in a position to make broadband choices for a community. It outlines the options available to a city:
Wireless versus Fiber
City-owned versus City-as-anchor-tenant

It starts with the assertion that most providers will not come into a community based on revenue from subscribers alone. I think this is particularly true in rural areas. It also makes the point that wireless and fiber are not an either/or option. Each serves a purpose.

Fiber is best for future, serious broadband needs. Wireless is best for mobility. The example used is first responders (something we in Minnesota saw when the 35W Bridge went down). Also wireless is cheap and quicker to deploy.

There’s a section on cable and DSL – and mostly that dismisses both as being too slow for future use. (And he gives a great explanation of why, which I won’t repeat because I suspect most blog readers know and if you don’t I can’t do a better job – you’ll just have to read the report.)

Throughout the report, I think there is a theme repeated that no answer is right for everyone – the real right answer is to take the time to create a business plan. It reminds me of the shift businesses went through with web sites a few years ago. It used to be that everyone wanted a web site and few served a purpose – so you ended up with a lot of pretty ugly, useless web sites. Now a business creates a strategy plan for a web site to make the most of the technology.

It’s no longer enough to get broadband – now you have to create goals to define the success of your broadband, which helps a city make the right decisions throughout the whole process. Also I think it takes the job outside of the hands of the IT-only teams and gets a wider range of decision makers involved, which is always tougher but leads to better, longer-lasting decisions.