Monthly Archives: May 2009

FTTH Telecom Service Providers’ Workshop – Mpls June 3

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Thanks to David Russell for sending the heads up on the following:

ftthcouncil09

The Fiber to the Home North America – Telecom Service Providers’ Workshop
JUNE 3, 2009
SHERATON BLOOMINGTON HOTEL, MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Registration: $195 including lunch and networking reception

Please join the FTTH Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of fiber to the home networks, for a one-day workshop for service providers, municipalities, utilities and network operators. The program will offer an interactive format for discussion and the sharing of best practices and lessons learned in ongoing fiber to the home deployments.

Topics include:
• The Role of Your Contractor in Successful FTTH Deployments
• Broadband, ARRA, and the Economic Incentives Package
• State Initiatives in Broadband and State Policies
• US Fiber to the Home Market Update
• USDA-RDUP Review of Rural Loan Programs
• Working with Consulting Engineers
• Case Studies from the Midwest
• Networking Session Hot Topics – RFoG, FTTH Feasibility Studies, Marketing to Your Community and Monetizing the Broadband Internet Connection

Organizations that are thinking about deploying a fiber to the home network, or currently manage one, won’t want to miss this informative one-day workshop which promises to be both informative and practical. (Please refer to the agenda below). The $195 registration fee includes continental breakfast, lunch and networking reception. To register, click here.

Please note: As a special offer, workshop attendees who join the FTTH Council while registering for the workshop will have $100 of their registration fee put towards a membership. For more information, please call Marie-Claude Bureau, FTTH Secretariat at the toll free number below.

Rooms have been reserved at a preferential rate of just $135.00 + tax, single or double occupancy. Please contact the hotel using their toll free at  866-837-4278  and identify yourself as a part of the group named Fiber to the Home Council. Deadline for the preferred rate is May 22, 2009 at 5:00PM EDT.

Case Studies and Best Practices for Managing Fiber Optic Networks, is expected to draw executives from companies located throughout Minnesota and surrounding states. Please share the information with your colleagues and clients.
For more information, please visit the FTTH Council web site or call the FTTH Council Secretariat toll free at  866-320-6444 .

ICF Update: Europe is leading

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Bill Coleman is currently at the Building the Broadband Economy 2009 Intelligent Community Forum conference in NY this week. He is sending back quick reactions and news to the conference…

It only took a few minutes for the European edge in broadband to become apparent at the intelligent community conference in NYC. A self-assessment revealed the high speeds generally available in Europe with average speeds of over 50 Mb.

Docsis 3.0 deployment in Minnesota

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Thanks to Tim Finnerty for sending me a few article on Docsis 3.0 deployment. Docsis 3.0 permits the addition of high-speed data transfer to an existing Cable TV (CATV) system.

According to a report by Heavy Reading indicates that some deployment has slowed down with the economy – but the following are moving forward with plans.

Comcast has been most prominent in their plans to upgrade to Docsis 3.0; they plan to serve all customers by mid2010.

Mediacom has been testing it in employee homes – apparently supporting speeds of 100-Mbit/s. It doesn’t sounds as if they are planning to offer those speeds to customers – but 50 Mbit/s or 60 Mbit/s does sounds like the right market. The article in Cable Digital News doesn’t specify which communities will get the Docsis bump but in Minnesota, Mediacom serves Cloquet, Proctor, Eveleth, Hibbing, Franklin, Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Prior Lake, St Peter, Worthington, Two Harbors, Silver Bay, and Hoyt Lakes.
Knology offers Docsis 3.0 to 20 percent of their customers now. They are hoping to bump up to 70 percent by the end of the year and reach all customers by the end of 2010. Knology serves the following Minnesota communities (as PrairieWave) Adrian, Currie, Ellsworth, Edgerton, Jasper, Lake Wilson, Luverne, Marshall, Pipestone, Slayton, Tracy, and Worthington.

Contentious Issues Friday at the Broadband Task Force Meeting

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The Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force is meeting on Friday. As I mentioned last month – they’re really into the actual writing by this point. Last month they worked on materials their colleagues had submitted for the final report. This month they’re going to tackle contentious issues as defined by the members.

Each Task Force member was asked to highlight portions of the work they saw last month that they think represent the most contentious issues. They also pulled out the paragraphs with which they most agreed and disagreed.

On Friday they will discuss three of these issues:

  1. Role of Government
  2. Speed
  3. How to Pay for It/Affordability

I read the contentious issues and points of agreement and disagreement. Role of Government seemed like the most mentioned issue – and some of the other issues seemed to stem from that basic starting point. I expect that municipal networks will be a hot topic – but Universal Service Funds, creating an ongoing Broadband state entity, government as a customer could come up as well.

I think speed will be a tricky issue. I think speed is on a short list of things that the legislators have requested by name – but I also know that the FCC is working on a new definition of speed. It’s unfortunate that the FCC is not expected to have their work completed before November. I suspect that the Connect Minnesota maps will come up during the discussion. Many people mentioned they work as a potentially contentious issue.

Finally there’s How to Pay for It/affordability. To me those are two issues so I’m interested to see what happens there. Are we talking about affordability for individual customers (business or residential) or affordability at a state level?

If you have strong feelings on these issues, Friday would be a good time to speak up. They entertain public comments at the beginning of the meeting (9:45). (See agenda.)  They are meeting at Thomson Reuters in Egan; but there are also remote locations if that’s too far.

Western Minnesota Online Video Contest

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Symmetry is one of the broadband principles promoted by Blandin Foundation. What does it mean? Broadband speeds that are good up and down. But what does it mean on a practical basis? It means everyone’s voice (or video) can be heard.

Pam Lehmann at the Lac qui Parle EDA sent me the notice on this fun video contest. I love the idea for so many reasons.

The short story is that folks are invited to submit videos that promote tourism in Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift and Yellow Medicine counties. There are cash prizes. You can submit a video via email or YouTube.

It’s a great way to get folks to help promote their area and use broadband – to start thinking of themselves as info providers as well as consumers.

Fiber in Lake County

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Lake County Minnesota has engaged Tim Nulty and Gary Fields for a fiber to the Home project in Lake County. The project would include fiber for each home and business throughout Lake County.

Tim Nulty and Gary Fields will provide the study, design, build, and operation of the network. Lake County will own the asset but will not operate the network.

You can learn more about the project from a recent article in the Lake County News Chronicle; they covered a recent Lake County Board meeting. (Or you can learn a little bit about Tim and Gary’s history with the Iron Range’s former FiberNet project.)

Grandparenting via Skype

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Here’s a fun broadband story for Mother’s Day. It comes from Mary in Two Harbors, Minnesota. She gets her service from Frontier Communications. Mary was kind enough to send me her story…

We are new proud grandparents of two granddaughters who were born two months apart less than a year ago. One lives in Hershey, PA and the other in Rapid City, SD, with their parents. Needless to say, due to the physical distance, we are unable to hold and love them often. However, thanks to high-speed Internet, the SKYPE program–downloaded at no cost to us on our home computer, and the cost of a $30.00 web cam, we are able to see “our babies” almost nightly. (We’re concerned they think we live in a white box or black box, as the case may be!)

They are now at an age where they hear the ring of the SKYPE “phone”, and parents say they break into a smile—yup, that warms our heart! We excitedly wait for a response to peek-a-boo, patty-cake, by/by, and sooooooooooo big —even Grandpa gets into the act. We love watching them exercise in their jumper, eat their first morsels of solid food or lying on the floor playing with their feet. With the ease of the portable Laptop, parents are able to move the computer to wherever they are—even when they’re flat on the floor demonstrating their first attempts at crawling.

I love reading a story to them—either at bed-time, while at play, or when mom or dad need a “break”. Believe it or not, we run out of things to say. We desperately want them to recognize our voice, so what better way to accomplish it than by reading to them!!!! Not to mention all the other benefits of being read to!!!

As I said, we are so grateful to have broadband access!!!!!

Mapping in Massachusetts

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Thanks to Cor Wilson for sending me in on what Massachusetts is doing about mapping in their state. Here’ their plan – as stated in their press release:

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) today announced a partnership between the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) and EEA’s Office of Geographic and Environmental Information (MassGIS) to develop sophisticated mapping that will help the state determine the highest-priority areas for investments in broadband infrastructure and technology. The mapping project will initially focus on western Massachusetts, where problems with broadband coverage are most acute. It will also lay the foundation for comprehensive, statewide broadband mapping, as targeted for funding by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

I like this idea for a couple reasons. First I love the local! All things being equal I just always like when we can use local resources.

I like the immediate focus on areas they know need help. I know one of the issues in Minnesota with the statewide stats is that the stats in the Twin Cities overpower the statewide picture.

Qwest customers get AT&T hotspots for free

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Qwest made a deal with AT&T and scored free access to AT&T’s hotspots for Qwest’s home customers. According to TwinCities.com, “Qwest said its studies showed one in five Twin Cities residents reported using Wi-Fi most often when outside the home, and 87 percent said they accessed Wi-Fi most often in a coffee shop, restaurant, bookstore or library. Free Wi-Fi is not uncommon in those locales, but it is not universal.”

I use public wifi nearly daily – but I rarely pay for it. In fact in the last year, I know that I paid $5 for daylong access on the U of M Morris campus last fall and in an airport last summer. Maybe the next iteration of this offer could include mobile broadband access – that I could use!

Benton Foundation highlights Broadband Best Practices

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Yesterday the Benton Foundation had a web conference – Setting a High Standard for Broadband Stimulus Funding: Urban and Rural Examples of the “Best in Breed”. I was thrilled to see that three (out of nine) of the experts they featured were Minnesota-based or from Minnesota.

I caught about an hour of the session. I haven’t been able to find an archive posted (yet). The good news is that I caught the folks with Minnesota connections. I thought I’d post my notes for folks who missed the session. You can also track the event archive on Twitter (just search for #bband_best).

Here are my notes. I’ve attributed names where and when I could.

I walked in when Tim Nulty was talking about how they brought fiber to rural Vermont. He mentioned 4 Principles of their template for success:
• Universal service – everyone gets access! And the law of averages makes that feasible
• Open access
• Financially self-sufficient
• Future-proof

Next was Gary Evans of Hiawatha Broadband – a hometown hero. He spoke about LUMINET, a great network in Winona, education based but recognized the need to include residents in network if they wanted to succeed. Gary talked about the steady growth of broadband access through HBC and the impact of access on those towns. Gary also talked about his shovel-ready project for stimulus funding – specifically bringing FTTH to more towns.

Next Donny Smith from Jaguar Communications – another hometown hero. They also serve rural areas (formerly Local Link). They serve 10,000 customers and have been profitable every year since they opened. They are private corporation.

Questions:

Art Brodsky – Pew says there isn’t demand in rural areas. What do you (rural folks) say?

Gary – It’s a myth. HBC is getting good penetration rates despite the fact that we are not the lowest cost option. In Wabasha MN – 60 percent of the population was signed up for service before we put a shovel in the ground. Rural American is hungry for broadband – and hungry for the creativity and vitality that broadband brings.

Tim – Each town had a referendum to join the project – the worst count we got was 73 percent saying we want it. We always got more than 50 percent (or better) pre-sign up rates when we tried it. Vermont Public TV did a program that found a guy who lives in a trailer fixing small engines. He needs the Internet to research engines to fix them. It’s about community survival. People move because they can’t get access: kids can’t do homework, elderly can’t get healthcare…

Donny – How do they use it? Pricing crops, education. When they survey prospective areas they get a 50 percent or better prospective take rate; the actual take rates are always better.

In San Francisco they need broadband to support the digital media industry. Without fiber, that industry gets moved overseas.

Geoff Daily – Will stimulus funding go to rural areas?

There’s an eco-system of small, startup companies that surround big (IT) companies. Collaboration would be easier with broadband. It would also save on fossil fuels. If companies could be

Market Failure – there is market failure and therefore rural areas need it.

Drew Clark – Many of you have done surveys for the RUS. Is the info that’s out there going to help evaluate stimulus need?

We have the experience to help make decisions (especially with wireless).

Tim – Sometimes these maps are used to postpone action. A map of 200K access is not that helpful. In Vermont we had towns that were officially served – but ask people if they are served and they say no. The maps help get the incumbents off the hook. Access to info is good – but not if it distracts from promoting activity.

Gary – I agree. The bigger issue is that DSL & cable are not broadband for tomorrow. Let’s not make the mistake of under-defining broadband.

Jim Baller – In North Carolina we won another battle today. Is this an issue of public versus private?

Tim? – I don’t think so. At the table today we have public, semi-nonprofit, and one private. We are members of the same team. I think it has to do with how things are provided. It has to do with the regulatory and community environment.

Michael (New America Foundation?) – The ARRA wants to bring broadband to community anchors (libraries, schools, hospitals) how would that have an impact on your work?

Gary – It’s the reason HBC started. It’s the reason we are applying for funding. Resources need to be shared.

Bill (from Seattle) – All Seattle anchors are connected. We need the residents connected.

Tim? – What if back in the day we only put phones in the anchors? Wouldn’t be very useful.

Donny – The problem with only focusing on those is that they become single-purpose networks and that’s not always helpful to the communities.

Question – If they’re open does that make a difference?

Not really. It only brings pockets of broadband.

David Chaffee? – What criteria does NTIA and RUS feel should weigh most heavily?

Universal service, Open access, Financially self-sufficient, Future-proof

Partnerships

What is broadband? Future-proof

PANEL TWO

Mark Ansbury – from One Community. They have worked well with public-private providers in Northern Ohio. He spoke about the success in his communities one the broadband was there. You need to think about sustainability and local ownership. 90 percent of famers can’t live on farming alone – they need healthcare, they need more income. New jobs can come online. Fiber is key to everything – even if you also need wireless. Keys for success:
• Collaboration & strong leadership
• Broadband community support & involvement
• Impactful community apps
• Public interest anchors
• Last mile options and carrier relationships

Geoff Daily – hometown hero (transplanted) for App-Rising. Fiber activist introducing Rural Fiber Alliance, focusing on making a policy impact for promoting fiber. Rural Fiber Alliance promotes fast-track loans for fiber projects to get shovel-ready projects going sooner rather than later.

Kate Williams – librarian from Champaign Urbana. They use community informatics to gauge success for technology/information literacy skills.

OK that’s it – sorry I had to go to a previously scheduled meeting.

Cambridge looking at Wifi

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According to Isanti County News, Cambridge City Council recently heard from Genesis Wireless about a city-wide wireless broadband network and municipal WiFi Hotspots. Genesis would provide broadband for the city and remote locations and three hotspots in strategic areas in exchange for antenna space.

The council will hear more at a later meeting.

Blandin eNews for May

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Blandin Get Broadband CommunitiesHere’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compilation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled.

Minnesota News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

Blandin Stimulus Funding Call for Partners
Blandin Foundation intends to submit an application for federal broadband stimulus funds to expand and extend the delivery of the community assistance and services currently offered in Rural Minnesota through the Broadband Initiative’s existing suite of programs. http://tinyurl.com/cus8to To prepare for the application, Blandin held a meeting of interested parties http://tinyurl.com/caml6s and has worked with the Minnesota Broadband Coalition to set up an area on LinkedIn to discuss potential projects. http://tinyurl.com/ctp5cs

Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force April Meeting
When Minnesota Task Force met in April, much of their time was spent in small groups with writing assignments. A highlight was Task Force member Mike O’Connor’s video interviews with Vint Cerf and Robert Stevens. The videos are available online. http://tinyurl.com/c8y4ca  

The FCC approves Money for Minnesota
The FCC approved funding for the build-out of five broadband telehealth networks, including Heartland Unified Broadband Network; Minnesota is part of that network. http://tinyurl.com/ctcn38  

No Online Gambling in MN
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) has asked 11 national and regional telephone and ISPs to not allow access to 200 known gambling sites. http://tinyurl.com/ccva8e

Bemidji
Visiting Bemidji on his race for the Governor, Matt Entenza mentions broadband as a key tool for schools and small businesses. http://tinyurl.com/c5zofd  

Ely, Tower, Cook
Pay phones are disappearing in Northeastern Minnesota faster than cell coverage is picking up the slack, leaving some areas unserved. http://tinyurl.com/d6czhd  

Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids Area Nonprofit Directors are working together to better use technology. They have started by all using Google Calendars. http://tinyurl.com/c2d4vh  

Northfield
Northfield City Council appointed a workgroup to pursue a federal stimulus grant application for a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) project based on information from their feasibility study (funded in part by Blandin Foundation). http://tinyurl.com/csce67

Pine City
Pine City is home to a blogger who writes about her self-sustained life despite not having broadband access from her home (or home-based business). http://tinyurl.com/dj8c8r  

Red Wing
Red Wing City Council approved a proposal to support Hiawatha Broadband when Hiawatha applies for broadband stimulus dollars. http://tinyurl.com/d33yel  

Rochester
The Mayo Clinic unveiled the Mayo Clinic Health Manager, an online tool where patients can store medical records. http://tinyurl.com/c8ar2k  

Windom, Jackson, Lakefield, Round Lake and other area communities
Representatives from Windom, Jackson, Lakefield, Round Lake and other area communities met with Congressman Tim Walz to talk about the possibilities of pursuing federal funding for a fiber network. http://tinyurl.com/db8osr  

Coleman’s Corner

Broadband is in the news these days. Stimulus funding, the state broadband task force, municipal networks, new technologies are all topics for discussion – not just for techies anymore. Some skeptics are right to ask, “What’s the point?”

My answer is, “The point is to become more intelligent, as individuals, communities, regions and countries.” This morning, I cast my vote as a jury member for the international Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org) awards. I was privileged to review the applications and community reviews for seven communities around the world. Casting my vote was both difficult and exciting. All of these communities are combining efforts to develop robust networks and create a culture of use. Strategies for broadband development included a blend of private, public and private-public networks. Strategies for increasing use focused on schools, senior citizens, entrepreneurs, research universities, health care and government administration and citizen participation.

The international rankings for broadband deployment have had the U.S. falling in recent years. As I read about how these communities are using broadband for community and economic development, it seems clear that we are also falling behind in application development and usage. At the recent MHTA Spring Conference, Marc Lautenbach, IBM’s North American General Manager, talked about a smarter planet and how the world is changing. His primary question to the audience was “How are you changing?” It was a definite wake-up call that we all need to think smarter and act more quickly to keep up with the global pace.

We need advancement, not just on broadband infrastructure. We need better services over the infrastructure. We need more people using broadband. We need those people to be doing more and more sophisticated applications over the network. I ask you and your community’s leadership, “How are you changing?”

Intelligent Community – you can vote

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Being named the most intelligent community from the ICF is a big deal. I know Dakota County (Minnesota) is working on applying for the honor. I’d love to see more Minnesota communities throw a hat in the ring.

This year they are letting the general public vote. OK your vote doesn’t count – but I still think it’s a great chance to check out what the leaders (in the world!) are doing to spur some ideas for your own community. Again my hope is that we get it in gear to have the ICF traveling all over Minnesota to check out the world leaders next year or the year after.

Here’s the invitation to vote from the ICF:

On 15 May at 2:45 PM (ET), the Intelligent Community Forum will announce its 2009 Intelligent Community of the Year. Selection of the Intelligent Community of the Year is based on analysis by a research organization and a review by a jury of 70 experts from around the world. The Intelligent Community of the Year will be named from among these Top Seven Intelligent Communities:
• Bristol, Virginia, USA
• Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
• Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
• Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Tallinn, Estonia

This year, for the first time, we want to give you a chance to record your vote on which community you think deserves to be the Intelligent Community of the Year. While your vote will not count in the final assessment, we want to know how the general public ranks our Top Seven.

Click here to read brief summaries of the seven communities and then cast your vote for the Intelligent Community of the Year. [Ann’s note – link to summaries didn’t work; here’s a link to the big white paper.] There is no cost or obligation. Then join us at http://www.icfsummit.com on May 15 at 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time for live Web coverage of the Award ceremony, where ICF will announce its choice. Will the popular vote match the opinions of the researchers and experts? Join us on May 15 and find out!

Broadband growth begins with the schools

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schoolThanks for Ann Higgins for sending me an article on the universities’ plan for fixing broadband situation in the US and the stimulus plan.

Right now the stimulus funding requires grants to go out this summer for projects that stimulate broadband deployment, (the economy and jobs). There’s also a mandate to have the FCC work on a national broadband plan – but that won’t be done for a while. So that’s a little like sending my husband to the grocery store before I have a menu for diner, which I have done with varying degrees of success.

Here’s the recommendation in a nutshell:

A National Broadband Strategy should begin with America’s colleges and universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, public libraries, hospitals, clinics, and the state, regional and national research and education networks that connect them and extend to reach government agencies, agricultural extension sites, and community centers across the nation.

Their reasons are compelling. I think that academia has brought good things to technology in the past – and vice versa. I just wish that someone else had made the plea – it seems less authentic somehow coming from academia itself.

NTIA money vs RUS money

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for sending me an article about how legislators are asking the RUS to consider urban need for broadband as well as rural. I’m all for ubiquitous broadband but I have to say that I think the RUS (Rural Utility Service) money is best spent in rural areas. I would feel differently if the RUS was responsible for all of the broadband stimulus money but they aren’t.

The RUS (Rural Utility Service) has $2.5 billion to distribute and they are mandating to spend at least 75 percent in rural areas. Much of which will go to broadband loans and loan guarantees to build infrastructure. (Apparently the RUS said that they thought that all of the money would go to rural areas and that’s what spurred the letter to legislators.)

The NTIA has $4.7 billion to go for grants for programs that will include community technology centers, mapping, building broadband demand.

It seems to me as if urban areas are better served by the kind of funding provided by the NTIA. That the biggest issue in urban areas is training, affordability, access to computers and not lack of physical access to broadband.