Monthly Archives: September 2012

Public Private Partnership to bring fiber to Ramsey County

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This weekend, the Pioneer Press profiles Ramsey County’s plan for fiber. We’ve featured the project before, but the Pioneer Press include some good details. The high level description is that Ramsey County wants a fiber network exclusively for government communications. They looked at building a network a while back but the cost was prohibitive. They have found a partner, Minnesota Fiber Exchange (MFE) that is willing to build the network and share the cost – as part of the deal, MFE will also be building their own network, which they will lease to folks such as broadband providers who want to serve end customers.

Incumbent providers (Comcast and CenturyLink) are skeptical of the deal. Other are concerned that residential customers may be the last of the last mile served. But it seems as if MFE are the folks who have stepped up to build the network and it seems as if getting the dark fiber in place is a step closer to fiber throughout the county.

Here are some of the details from the Pioneer Press article:

The county has long said the network would be exclusively for government use. Facilities without fiber connectivity, like the county workhouse, or governmental bodies like the City of St. Paul — which is considering leasing space on the network to replace its service from Comcast — would be the only users, the county says.

…

The county estimates its share of the construction cost, including the necessary lateral connections to its various buildings, will be about $14 million. Minnesota Fiber Exchange’s share has yet to be determined because the company is still negotiating with the county over its contract, but two years ago, the city of St. Paul and Ramsey County considered building a fiber optic network themselves, and the cost estimate then was $30 million.

…

Ramsey County’s desire for fiber is easy to understand. As people use more Internet video and download and upload large data files, movement on conventional broadband has started to slow.

Eventually, experts say, we will all need superfast fiber optic access directly to our homes and businesses. In response, phone and cable companies have been upgrading their networks by adding a patchwork of fiber.

Fiber optic cable moves data with light pulses through narrow glass tubes. It is exponentially better than traditional broadband in terms of capacity and speed. Could consumers tell the difference? In coming years, yes, as the increased movement of large data files creates an Internet traffic jam. Consider that traffic on Netflix — one company — now eats up 32 percent of U.S. bandwidth during peak times.

The disadvantage of fiber is that it has to be buried in the ground, making installation extremely costly and inconvenient for a number of parties — cities and counties, property owners and motorists, to name a few.

Ramsey County’s proposal calls for digging into more than 100 miles of street and burying an entire network of fiber connectivity.

Last time I wrote about Ramsey County I noted that the project reminded me of the original Minnesota Broadband Task Force Report and National Broadband Plan; both promote public private partnerships. It still does. I can remember years ago when government would build infrastructure that was closed to government-only traffic. So the courthouse hasd decent connectivity (which may have been a T1 back in the day) but the local businesses on the same block had nothing. It was very frustrating for those businesses. Building two networks seems like a good way to serve the different sectors.

Minnesota Digital Classroom: Facts, figures & more questions

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Connect Minnesota recently released a new report: The Digital Classroom: Colleges and Universities Expanding their Reach through Broadband. It looks at what’s happening in elearning in Minnesota and beyond. Here are some of the highlights, borrowed from their press release…

Key facts from the report include the following:

  • Approximately 1.3 million Minnesotans access the Internet to take a class online or conduct research for schoolwork (e-Learning). [That’s 37% of Minnesota Internet users.]
  • 414,000, or 14% of, Minnesota broadband subscribers said the main reason they subscribed to broadband was because someone in the home needed it for schoolwork.
  • E-Learners who are employed and work from home represent 20%, or 252,000, of e-Learning users in the state.
  • More than one out of ten (11%) adult Minnesotans use e-Learning applications on their cell phone. That translates to 143,000 that use their cell phone for taking classes online or conducting research for schoolwork.
  • Adults age 18 to 34 have the highest usage rate of any age group among Internet users and cell phone Internet users for e-Learning.

I think the information is valuable – but it also opens a door to a lot more questions for me. To be fair, I don’t expect Connect Minnesota to research these questions but on the off chance that a graduate student in need of a research topic happens upon this post or other readers have some answers, I’m going to start asking. Also I plan to attend the EduTech 2012 Showcase and Forum on October 8. I might learn more then.

Are more folks learning now?

I love that 37 percent of online Minnesotans participate in elearning online. Bringing the classroom to the student obviously makes online learning easier in terms of logistics – for those who have access. But has this access at our fingertips encouraged more people to learn? What percentage of people were participating in any sort of learning 20 years ago?

How much traditional learning has shifted online?

In 2008, former Governor Pawlenty set a goal of having 25 percent of all credits earned at MnSCU campuses come from online courses by 2015. I haven’t heard a recent statistic. Two follow up questions – has the shift to online education saved money? If so, what is the impact? I guess what I’d really like to know is if any potential savings would ever trickle down to the students. I recently wrote about some of the terrific free higher ed learning being offered online. It spurred some discussion offline about the value of education – does the value rest in the diploma or the knowledge gained?

Is online learning more or less effective than traditional learning?

We may be too early in the innovation to fairly answer that question. I’ve seen contrary reports.  Also I saw a great post on effective elearning that explains that elearning is just the delivery channel…

On balance, the evidence would suggest that the medium, the delivery channel, is much less important in determining effectiveness than the learning strategy you choose to address the task in hand (exposition, instruction, guided discovery, exploration, etc.), the social context in which the medium is used (self-study, one-to-one, group) and, indeed, the relevance and importance of the subject matter on which you are focusing. Thomas L Russell reviewed 355 research reports, summaries and papers that documented no significant differences in student outcomes between alternate modes of education delivery. It is the method that matters when it comes to effectiveness, not the medium.

I think educators are just developing the methods now, although the same article highlights two methods made available through the new media…

However, e-learning is a medium which opens up the possibility for methods that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to deliver using traditional means. Let’s take two examples:

  • The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) makes it possible for many thousands of students to learn together at the same time. While the underlying pedagogy of a MOOC can, in some cases, resemble that of a traditional course, the sheer scale of the endeavour and the opportunities that this provides for peer interaction make the MOOC something very different from what we have ever been able to experience face-to-face.
  • An immersive and highly-realistic training tool, such as a flight simulator, has no meaningful traditional equivalent other than practice in the real world.

Is eleanring through a smartphone effective? Does is make sense to improve “mlearning” or improve student access to laptops or other devices?

This is sort of a loaded question. The Connect Minnesota indicates that a lot of people are accessing eleaning online BUT those folks who are accessing eleaning via phone are Minnesota adults without a college degree and households where annual income less than $50,000. I think we can deduce that those people are using the technology they can afford, not necessarily the technology they think is best for the job. Folks with college degrees in households with higher annual incomes are not accessing elearning by phone at the same rate.

Recently I heard Jack Geller talk about huge swathes of activity moving to mobile devices because more people have mobile devices. In some ways, it’s industry (in this case education) that needs to catch up with the consumers. But will education make the effort to catch up with a critical mass? (I know research is being done in the area.)

Back to the Connect Minnesota report, I think the do make the point that elearning is here to stay and is growing…

Higher education is shifting from a physical campus presence to one allowing students to attend on-campus, online, or both. Nationally data shows that college students are embracing the change, too, with more than 6 million college students currently enrolled in at least one online course.

Separating broadband hype from broadband hope

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Last night I was working on a report that is intended to light a fire under community leaders who are annoyingly (to me) ambivalent about broadband. Why don’t they get it? It got a little late and at some point I think I may have said broadband cures cancer. So it was fun to find myself reading Craig Settles’ recent report – Moving the Needle Forward on Broadband and Economic Development. It takes a careful look at the gap between what politicians seem to be touting as an outcome of better broadband and the actual reasonably expected benefits of broadband. (I should add that it sounds like a sneak preview to a larger report to come.)

Craig surveyed International Economic Development Council members about the real impacts of broadband on a community – specifically he asks about:

  1. attracting new businesses,
  2. making local companies more competitive,
  3. revising depressed business districts,
  4. revising depressed communities,
  5. improving individuals’ ability to earn income, and
  6. increasing home-­‐based businesses.

Here’s a quick look at what value economic developers seem to attribute to various broadband speeds:

Cure cancer doesn’t make the list – but what’s there is so much more valuable in that it sets realistic expectations. It’s a practical tool that economic developers can use to figure out what kind of speeds are required to achieve the goals they are trying to meet in their communities. If you’re looking to lure new businesses to the area – you want to plan big. If you are interested in boosting local incomes, then a more modest approach may work just as well. I think this chart does such a good job of helping economic developers set realistic expectations based on the custom goals of the community.

And speaking of realistic expectations – Craig points out that few of the economic developers are focusing on 4 Mbps as the minimum speeds required to see economic benefits. Yet that is the federal definition of broadband. This may be a disconnect of another sort…

The question of speed is important because this is the crux of so many critical broadband issues. Federal government agencies have defined broadband as networks that move data at 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps. Entities requesting money from these agencies can qualify for billions of dollars by meeting these standards. Broadband maps from these agencies can determine communities to be served by broadband – and thus be ineligible for government assistance – if those communities meet this minimum.

When state governments are developing broadband policies, establishing funding programs, committing resources and measuring the success of policies and programs, the federal definition of broadband guides those actions. If “improving the economy” is a major reason for committing resources to broadband efforts, how can agencies and politicians expect success when guided by a speed threshold 90% of experts believe is insufficient to reach the goal?

[Quick promotional message – this makes me even more excited for the Fall Broadband Conference, where Craig will be speaking. When: Nov 13-14; where: Duluth]

Quick Update on Renville Sibley County Fiber – Vote Postponed to Oct 9

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Nothing ever goes as quickly as we want – and the folks in Sibley and Renville Counties are learning that again. They had planned to vote on the option to move forward with their fiber network plan on Tuesday night (Sep 25).

Unfortunately it sounds like there were some last minute questions. The Mankato Free Press reports…

Commissioners Oct. 9 will revisit discussion regarding bonding for the $70 million citizens group project that would upgrade and speed up Internet services in rural areas.

Commissioners said they want more information on the legal and financial particulars of the RS Fiber venture, a grass-roots effort that began nearly two years ago.

As far as the city votes go 10 of the 11 cities have approved bonding resolutions. Henderson says they are waiting to see what Sibley County does.

Grand Opening at Involta

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I was lucky enough to be in Duluth yesterday for the Grand Opening of Involta, Duluth’s new data center. Back in May I met with Lisa Bodine from Involta to talk about the project. The quick recap – the folks at Duluth (APEX leading the pack) made a concerted effort to attract data centers to the area. Back in May, Lisa spoke about the attraction of Duluth – specifically clients, community and climate.

That sentiment was echoed yesterday as Jeff Thorsteinson spoke about “people at the heart” of the Involta-Duluth project being core to its success. That and access to power and geography. Duluth has the cold, but lacks a lot of wind and earthquakes. Apparently that makes a good recipe for data center success.

It looked like there were a couple hundred people at the event. It was a gorgeous day, which never hurts but clearly the community came out to celebrate a project that they are all excited about. It’s an opportunity to bring jobs and improve broadband in the area.

Presenters included several folks from Involta, Senator Roger Reinert, DEED Commissioner Mark Phillips, David Olson from the MN Chamber of Commerce, David Ross from the Duluth Chamber, Brian Hanson from APEX and Mayor Don Ness. In fact I caught Mayor Ness’s comments on camera – you’ll see I wasn’t in the front row, but I think the audio is OK:

Chicago is going for broadband gold!

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There’s not a lot to report here – except to say I admire any city that’s going for top dog status! According to CED…

Chicago wants to be the city with the greatest availability of ultra-high-speed broadband in the United States.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office on Monday announced that the city is launching the Chicago Broadband Challenge.

I also admire any city that opens the challenge up to the people. According to the City of Chicago website…

The Chicago Broadband Challenge will be facilitated by a website at http://www.cityofchicago.org/broadband and will invite the public to participate with ideas and insight as to how the city can best make use of its existing broadband infrastructure and potential uses for a future expansion of broadband access. The conversation will inform the way the City moves forward with its broadband development.  Any individual, company, student, non-profit organization or community group is welcome to respond to the Broadband challenge, either informally through the website, or as part of the formal responses the city will be soliciting through a request for information.

The City of Chicago is releasing a Request for Information (RFI) today, that seeks to engage private companies, universities, and other organizations to accomplish three main goals: building world-class broadband infrastructure for the city; extending broadband service into underserved areas; and providing free Wi-Fi access in public spaces throughout Chicago.

It will be fun to see what happens. It’s an interesting approach.

Klobuchar Cosponsors Bipartisan Legislation to Increase Wireless Access in Rural Communities

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I want to thank Brent Christensen for permission to repost an article from the recent MTA (Minnesota Telecom Alliance) New Bytes…

On September 11, after consulting with the MTA and other stakeholders, Senator Amy Klobuchar cosponsored bipartisan legislation to increase wireless broadband access in rural communities. The bill, introduced by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), would provide incentives for wireless carriers to lease unused spectrum to rural or smaller carriers in order to expand wireless coverage in rural areas.

“In today’s 21st century economy, access to high-speed Internet is not just a benefit for businesses, students and families – it is essential,” Klobuchar said. “This bill will help expand high-quality, wireless communications to rural areas, giving local businesses the ability to connect to global markets and strengthening the rural communities that are so vital to Minnesota’s economy.”

“The increasing importance of wireless communications and broadband has a direct correlation to our nation’s competitiveness, economy, and national security,” said Senator Snowe. “The main goal of this legislation is to provide a catalyst to expand next generation wireless broadband service to rural areas, which will mean more reliable service, more innovation, and more choice to consumers and businesses. I am pleased this bipartisan legislation has Sen. Klobuchar’s support and will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure consumers in rural areas of Maine and the nation have the access to the broadband services they require to succeed.”

The Rural Spectrum Accessibility Act would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish a program that would provide a 3-year extension of the spectrum license to wireless carriers that lease unused spectrum to rural and smaller carriers, encouraging collaboration between companies to bridge service gaps in rural areas.

A look at Minnesota Broadband in Twin Cities Business

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It’s always nice to see broadband get coverage in local mainstream media outlets! Twin Cities Business recently ran an article outlining recent history of broadband in Minnesota. The article starts by looking at access, recognizing the long term investment made by commercial providers as well as explaining the impact of government subsidies  – from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), FCC’s Universal Service Funds (USF) and ARRA (America Recovery and Reinvestment Act) – on those commercial providers. It details how Minnesota is stacking up to the legislative goals of ubiquitous broadband coverage of download speeds of 10-20 Mbps and upload speeds of 5-10 Mbps. The article indicates that there is progress yet to be made.

The report also looks at adoption – highlighting some of the recent Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) projects.

Broadband is an indispensable infrastructure for rural communities, says the Blandin Foundation’s Joselyn. The organization has been working with rural communities to both secure broadband access and to adopt the new digital technologies since 2003. Blandin and its partners secured an ARRA grant of nearly $4.9 million to promote Internet adoption in rural communities and added another $2.7 million of their own to the project.

One of the project’s target goals is to set up 11 demonstration communities using the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Community (MIRC) approach to determine priorities. For instance, Winona community leaders have determined that they need to increase Internet access in campgrounds and parks to compete for tourists, while other communities are focusing on goals such as e-health and distance-learning initiatives.

“Compared to the rest of America, rural Minnesota is leading adoption,” Joselyn says. “And MIRC partners are adopting at a faster rate than others.” According to a study conducted at the University of Minnesota–Crookston, about 64 percent of rural Minnesotans with access to broadband have adopted the new technologies, compared with 55 percent for all of rural America.

“To be successful in the new economy, communities need to be connected,” Joselyn says. “Access denied is opportunity denied.”

The report includes an interesting quote from broadband provider and Broadband Task Force member Gary Evans on broadband access…

Hiawatha Broadband is currently completing a $20 million project, funded by the company, to bring fiber cable to six communities: Dover, Eyota, Elgin, Plainview, Lake City, and Red Wing. Evans notes that while it is crucial to provide access to all of the state’s residents, the real impetus behind the race to connect is not residential Internet access, but improvement in health care, private and public safety, education, and jobs in rural areas.

It stresses the importance on anchor institutions – but I think focus indicates that we’re still a step behind ubiquitous access and adoption. First we must get these anchor institutions to make the most of broadband. Part of that process will include developing ways to offer and/or improve services to residents via broadband, probably at reduced rates to both the anchor institution and residents served – that when the business case will be made to provide ubiquitous access to broadband, affordable access to the tools and train everyone to better use broadband.

Renville Sibley Fiber Project: Cities affirm interest in project; Counties vote tomorrow

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I’m pleased to provide a quick update on the RS Fiber project and I thank Mark Erickson for taking time out of a very busy week to send an update and for the Renville-Sibley County Facebook Page for helping me keep the details straight.

First for folks who haven’t been watching the project, here’s a brief description of the project taken from the RS Fiber website…

RS Fiber is a community-owned High Speed Fiber Optic Connection to every home, farm, business and government office to provide everyone with low-cost, reliable high speed Internet, crystal clear cable television, and phone services. Fiber to the Home (FTTH) has become the leading technology for next-generation communications network worldwide.

RS Fiber will be owned by participating towns and communities including; Arlington, Brownton, Buffalo Lake, Fairfax, Gaylord, Gibbon, Green Isle, Lafayette, New Auburn, Stewart and Winthrop, along with Sibley and Renville Counties.

And an update from their Facebook page…

The members of the RS Fiber Marketing Committee feel it is important to inform you of the ongoing process, provide a schedule of the meetings, and give you an opportunity to reaffirm your support for the RS Fiber project.

This is the critical period for the RS Fiber project.

The respective council and commissions of the eleven cities and two counties that make up the RS Fiber project will be taking final action on financing project this month [September] in a series of meetings.

You should also know that the terms for financing the project have not changed since last spring when the cities and counties approved financing language for moving the project forward to final bonding.

Sibley and Renville county commissioners have decided to discuss the final bonding documents at a work session next Tuesday, September 11th. Both commissions will not make a final decision on bonding language until September 25th. We think that’s a good approach.

Finally the up to the minute update paraphrased from Mark…

Nine of the 11 communities have approved bonding resolutions. (Both Stewart and Winthrop passed their bond resolutions tonight. Another town is expected to pass the resolution tomorrow night.)

Sibley and Renville counties vote tomorrow morning. The joint powers board meets Thursday to assess participation and move the project forward.

I will report more as I get word. It has been interesting to watch the RS Fiber project – especially in terms of lesson to be learned from other communities becuase they are a community that has really forged ahead post ARRA-funding.

Cyber Security Summit 2012: Oct 9-10 in Minneapolis

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I am excited to report that I’m planning to attend the 2012 Cyber Security Summit. I will take good notes and post, but I encourage folks to think about attending too. As we build our entire lives online, I think it makes sense for everyone to work together to protect those online lives and security is definitely a case where you’re only as strong as your weakest link. So it behooves technology and community leaders to make sure that they are not that weakest link!

The Cyber Security Summit is focused on changing the paradigm of how we look at digital space and security. Our mission is to bring together leaders from the government, business, and non-profit sectors to collaborate on digital infrastructure security issues. These important issues have a profound impact on all units of society, from the largest- governments and multinational corporations, to the smallest- store owners and individuals. In an ever increasing digital world, all levels of government and business operations must be reexamined to address growing cyber security threats.

The Cyber Security Summit serves as a platform for the discussion and generation of new knowledge on a topic that is critical to our state’s and our nation’s future. By fostering the collaboration of the public and private sectors, our goal is to conceive new, innovative counter measures against cyber security threats.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012 – Wednesday, October 10, 2012 7:30 AM – 6:00 PM in Minneapolis

Fall Broadband Conference: Building Our Connected Future November 13-14 in Duluth: First webinar Sept 27

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We’re getting excited for the annual fall broadband conference co-hosted by the Blandin Foundation and Connect Minnesota. The theme this year is: Building Our Connected Future: Minnesota’s Better With Broadband. The purpose as always is to increase Minnesota’s economic competitiveness through the adoption and use of broadband technology. (You can get all of the notes from the 2011 conference online.)

The 2012 Broadband Conference will:

  • promote synergy around direct community planning and adoption projects;
  • support the Governor’s Broadband Task Force to achieve the state’s broadband goals;
  • raise awareness of existing and new tools available to close the digital divide;
  • identify how Minnesota can leverage national policy to meet its broadband goals.

By attending the 2012 Broadband Conference you will:

  • have a better understanding of mission and tasks that support Governor’s Broadband Task Force;
  • recognize issues that will have impact on your community, as they trickle down from the federal level and bubble up from the state level, based on what’s happening with the national plan;
  • be able to implement strategies around digital inclusion, which are focused on broadband application, access and adoption;
  • take away tools and process to use at your community level for increasing Broadband availability and adoption;
  • access a wealth of new resources, tools and opportunities to use in planning and decision making;
  • have an opportunity to network  through open space sessions that focus on various themes.

Confirmed speakers include two prominent national and regional experts – Craig Settles, broadband business strategist and municipal broadband expert, and Tom Koutsky, Chief Policy Counsel, Connected Nation.

Pre-Conference Webinars

Blandin is also hosting a series of four pre-conference webinars leading up to the conference. The first session, “Blandin Community Broadband Programs” will be offered September 27 from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Learn how your community can access new funding and technical assistance opportunities to improve broadband infrastructure, adoption and use. Understand how Blandin Foundation is continuing its broadband focus in Minnesota over the next two years. Presenters: Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation and Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors.

Technology Grants for Rural Schools

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Just a quick post for a Sunday – but I thought folks might be interested in the following grant opportunity for schools…

Technology Grants for Rural Schools program was created to help meet the growing need for innovative technology in the classroom. The grants strive to help public schools in rural areas served by OPASTCO members bring modern computers to every classroom, connect schools to the information superhighway and make sure that effective and engaging software and online resources are an integral part of the school curriculum. For an application, click here.

$35,000 will be awarded to public schools nominated by OPASTCO telcos. Grants range from $1,000 – $5,000. No matching required. Deadline to apply is November 1, 2012.

One key piece of eligibility…

Any public K-12 school located in the service area of an OPASTCO telephone company may apply. A letter of nomination and support from the local telephone company must accompany all applications.

OPASTCO is the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. I don’t see a good list of members on their site – so if you’re from a school, you might simply contact your local telephone company to ask. (Maybe that will give them an opportunity to get involved with the school regardless of membership.) If you are from an OPASTCO member, you in turn might use this as the impetus to contact your local schools and get involved.

 

Crowdsourcing Science Experiments via Facebook

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This isn’t a Minnesota story – but it caught my attention as a truly innovative use of Facebook. I learned about it on SocialBrite; they track great nonprofit use of the Internet, which can be a great place for small businesses to pick up ideas too. The video really tells the story…

The project is so innovative. It takes the inherent power of an interconnected society to prove that old saying – many hands make light work. Only with the Internet (and increasingly with broadband) distance and location don’t matter and it’s easier to reach a niche segment of society – because as Brian Sidlauskas explains in the video – there are only so many ichthyologists to go around!

My other favorite line from the video…

It’s speeding up how we do science.

And really the solution was simple – use Facebook tagging to reach a special interest group and build a virtual community or virtual brain. Our challenge is – how can we use the power to reach our goals?

Update on Greater Minnesota Broadband Collaborative Project in Brainerd

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The Greater Minnesota Broadband Collaborative Project received ARRA funding from the NTIA in 2010, when we reported…

This approximately $16.8 million award, with more than $7.2 million in matching contributions, will allow Enventis Telecom to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in Minnesota. The project plans to directly connect 70 community institutions to broadband. As many as 350,400 people stand to benefit as do 28,000 businesses. Enventis estimates that the project will create more than 250 jobs.

The project broke ground in July 2011 and now the Brainerd Dispatch reports the network is being currently being deployed in their area…

The new fiber optic lines connect Minneapolis and St. Paul to Duluth and Superior, Wis. as well as linking Brainerd to Fargo N.D. and Moorhead. The three-year project began in July 2011. Construction is slated to be completed this fall with activation in the first quarter of 2013. The fiber optic network is going through Staples and Wadena and Detroit Lakes as it connects Brainerd to Moorhead.

Partners in the project include the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology and the Minnesota Office of Enterprise Technology, which are expected to directly benefit from the network. …

It is designed to connect major institutions like health care, education, libraries, and government — such as courts and public safety — throughout the state. …

“We are not looking at directly supporting the residential community.”

Calix shows 55% of rural broadband 3 Mbps or less

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the recent (Q2 2012) Calix report on rural broadband traffic.

The big news is that broadband in rural areas is getting faster – but it’s still a far cry from urban counterparts and the National Broadband Goals and definitely behind Minnesota goals speeds (10-20 Mbps down and 5-10 Mbps up)…

The most common peak downstream broadband rate consumed by endpoints in rural America was between 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps in Q2 2012. During the quarter, 55% of rural broadband subscribers received a maximum downstream broadband speed of 3 Mbps or less – approximately one-tenth of the U.S. peak downstream average published by Akamai in its most recent published ”State of the Internet” report. In fact, two-thirds of rural subscribers received downstream broadband speed that are slower than the target for the Connect America Fund (CAF) of 4 Mbps, and approximately 93% are below the ultimate CAF upstream target of 1.5 Mbps.

CivSource notes the dramatic growth highlighted in the report in rural areas lately…

The report shows that rural Internet traffic grew by 53% in the second quarter of this year. As CivSourcehas reported, the big three broadband providers – AT&T, Verizon and Comcast have all said consistently that there is no business case for rural broadband.

CivSource offers some background on the growth…

“Of particular interest this quarter was both the accelerating pace of Internet traffic in rural America quarter-over-quarter, and the fact that much of this increase was seen over copper networks,” said Miguel Alonso, Calix vice president of software products. “The combination of new copper technologies, a proliferation of video consuming devices, and content moving to the cloud creates a fertile ground for rapid increases in Internet traffic because copper is the most widely deployed access media in the rural U.S. Looking ahead to future quarters, we expect this trend to continue, and promise to provide deeper insights and analysis and we continue to further enhance the report by tracking more applications and endpoints across the U.S.”

Last quarter, I remember noting that while Calix reported downstream traffic far surpassed upstream traffic, one of the big drivers of upstream traffic was business use of the network. The same is reported this quarter…

…streaming media represented 62% of downstream Internet Traffic among U.S. rural service providers, and Internet browsing represents another 23% of downstream traffic. However, the largest consumer of upstream Internet traffic was business services, which generated approximately 30% of upstream traffic.

That’s actually a dip on upstream business services traffic; last month it accounted for 40 percent of the upstream traffic. Below is a chart on what business folks are doing:

Last quarter we noted that people who had fiber used more bandwidth; the same is true this month…

Our findings in rural America seem to be complementary – showing that broadband subscribers who are served by fiber generate more Internet Traffic than those with a copper access media. For the second quarter of 2012, service providers that delivered broadband services exclusively over fiber saw their subscriber endpoints generate 87% more downstream traffic and nearly 10% more upstream traffic than copperbased subscribers. Interestingly, the advantage of fiber over copper in the downstream continued its decline in Q2 2012, presumably due to the increased deployment of VDSL2 copper technologies, and complementary technologies such as bonding and vectoring.