SMBS offers television through a partnership with Windomnet based on per customer charge…

Windomnet oversees the cable TV system, handles service and repair of equipment, updates channels and pays for programming. When residents pay their cable TC fees, Windomnet essentially received $5 per customer to help cover costs.

The phone and Internet services are purchased differently…

On a monthly basis, SMBS pays Windomnet for Internet based on the total amount of bandwidth used. Essentially, Windom is paid so much per megabit.
…
“For telephone, we bill based on number of minutes used, ” [Windom City Administrator Steve] Nasby said, “Everything runs through our switch and we bill the broadband group.”

It sounds as if things are running smoothly both from the perspective of SMBS and Windomnet. SBMS expects to begin connecting more folks very soon – hoping for a pace of about 250 customers a month through 2012. Windomnet may be hiring new staff or at least bumping up a part time employee to full time. So although this is a very high level look, this seems to be a successful recipe.

I was hoping he might take the broadband view of discrepancies in throughout the state based on location, which was mentioned – but his focus was really on cable versus DSL.

Here is the answer he got from Comcast…

“We are able to provide speeds at 1.5 mbps (megabits per second) to over 100 mbps,” she said, depending on the speed level people sign up for.
Schubert said the speed of the Internet can vary based on how many people are online, and the speed of different sites can vary, but the speed of

Comcast’s pipe is constant.

Although the article points our that there are some caveats pops up on the Comcast website…

Comcast acknowledges on its website that “every user’s experience is potentially affected by neighbors’ Internet usage.”

The article goes on to explain that there are potential issues with DSL as well…

DSL travels through your regular phone lines, so you’re not sharing it with your neighbors. But you are directly connected to the internet, so you are affected by everyone logging on. on CenturyLink’s website, they write: “Based on our experience, CenturyLink customers may encounter congestion, if at all, during the hours of peak usage – between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm local time. During peak hours, the majority of residential customers are attempting to use the Internet simultaneously, giving rise to a greater potential for congestion.”

DSL also has the technological limitation of the wire carrying the signal: is it copper wire or fiber? How far is it from the central office? Distance matters in DSL, not in Cable.

No surprise that the Twin Cities, with its population density and multiple providers, meets the goal [state's 2015 goal for adequate high-speed Internet access for all households]. But it’s intriguing to see the two large outstate areas in the upper Minnesota River valley and up north.

A big reason is the optic fiber work done in recent years by small rural cooperatives like Farmers Mutual in Madison, Federated Telephone in Morris and Paul Bunyan in Bemidji. Folks in those co-ops will tell you in makes a different when the goal is customer-owner service instead of shareholder profit.

It’s heartening to see coops getting more recognition for their appetite and capacity for helping communities achieve community and statewide broadband goals. It’s a trend that others are picking up as well.

The City of Arlington and the RS Fiber Joint Powers Board will be hosting a gathering of representatives from the 11 city councils and two county commissions that make up the RS Fiber Joint Powers Board on Thursday, January 19th at the Arlington Community Center.

The focus of the meeting is to update all of the councils and commissions on the progress of the project and discuss next steps for moving forward.

An agenda for the meeting is attached, along with bios for the presenters.

A light supper will be served beginning at 6 p.m. sponsored by the Sibley County Economic Development Commission (SEDCO).

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

Representatives from each council and commission will have assigned seating.

The gathering is a work session. No motions or votes will be allowed or taken. If a particular city or county needs to call their group to order, please let RS Fiber JPB Chair Jim Swanson know ahead of the meeting and he will accommodate your request.

There will be five presentations made during the meeting.

During the presentations questions will only be allowed from councils and commissions.

Handouts of the presentations will be available at the meeting.

A general Q&A session will take place following the presentations for the general public.

Cards will be passed out prior to the general Q&A and questions will be read from those cards.

Wade Werner from the AGGW Cable Commission and GFW will be taping the meeting.

Shannon Sweeney from David Drown Associates will moderate the presentations and Q&A.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please contact either me or one of the members of the JPB.

If you know of someone you think should receive this email, please forward it to them.

This is a public meeting and everyone is welcome.

LightSquared vs. GPS

A new wireless start-up with Minnesota connections has been in the news lately with plans to provide a unique wireless-satellite communications network that could bring ubiquitous broadband coverage to rural America for a fraction of the cost of existing, limited service.  The issue?  The new LightSquared network threatens to overwhelm America’s Global Position System (GPS) receivers, making the devices obsolete.

The Company and the Technology

Reston, Virginia-based LightSquared Subsidiary LLC was formed in 2010 with plans to provide a wholesale, nation-wide 4G-LTE wireless broadband network with integrated satellite coverage.  The new service is built on spectrum used by two Mobile Satellite Service(MSS) sat-phone companies Inmarsat and SkyTerra, and has announced a significant network partnership with Sprint-Nextel.  Forbes magazine reports that the company invested $50 million to develop new microchips to provide dual-mode wireless at a price below existing cellular service.  By avoiding costs of supporting legacy voice networks, LightSquared projects to wholesale 1 gigabyte data service for about $7, compared to the $50-$60 typically charged retail 3G/4G customers today.

In January 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an Order giving LightSquared conditional approval to build out a ground-based wireless network using its MSS spectrum.  However, that order was subject to further testing and FCC review due to potential GPS interference.

The Issue with GPS

The federal Space-Based Positioning, Navigation & Timing (PNT) Committee has been examining potential interference by the LightSquared network with GPS receivers.  They state the issue:

The base stations of the LightSquared network will transmit signals in a radio band immediately adjacent to the GPS frequencies. The GPS community is concerned because testing has shown that LightSquared’s ground-based transmissions overpower the relatively weak GPS signal from space. Although LightSquared will operate in its own radio band, that band is so close to the GPS signals that most GPS devices pick up the stronger LightSquared signal and become overloaded or jammed.

There is also concern that the FCC may approve a technical solution to the problem that requires millions of existing GPS users to upgrade or replace their devices…

The results [of PNT testing] clearly demonstrate that implementing LightSquared’s planned deployment for terrestrial operations poses a significant potential for harmful interference to GPS services.

There are basically two technical issues.  First GPS signals are very weak—satellites are 12,000 miles above the Earth and operate on solar power—so receivers have been designed to be sensitive to the full GPS spectrum.  This, however, means many GPS receivers also pick up adjacent frequencies.  Second, LightSquared proposes to change weaker satellite signals in adjacent spectrum to much stronger ground-based 4G wireless signals, exacerbating interference.  Further federal testing results, leaked in December, confirm interference with 75% of general purpose GPS receivers;  however, no “significant interference” was found with cellular phones.  The NTIA will next test high-precision receivers used in farm equipment and scientific instruments.

Different groups have suggested different ways to eliminate conflicts.  (The Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGEO) Emergency Preparedness Committee has tracked the evolving issue on their blog.)  LightSquared’s position is that GPS makers were aware of potential interference and should have built better technology.  The company has petitioned the FCC to re-affirm their spectrum license.  LightSquared has also offered to limit initial use of spectrum closest to GPS signals and delay boosting power on ground stations.

Opponents, including The Coalition to Save our GPS, contend that LightSquared is causing the problem by changing from low-powered satellite service with limited ground stations to high-powered ground-based service.  Members of the coalition include GPS makers; agricultural equipment manufacturers such as AGCO, Case New Holland, Caterpillar, and Deere & Company; and national organizations including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, among many others.  .

The Issue with Politics

Many media sources have touched on multiple political issues involved in the LightSquared proposal.  Philip Falcone, a native of Minnesota’s Iron Range, acquired control of the company through Harbinger Capital, his New York hedge fund that is now being investigated by the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski have feuded through the year on Congressional oversight in the matter.  The FCC’s National Broadband Plan specifically calls for accelerating terrestrial deployment of MSS frequencies.  Questions have, however, been raised about why FCC approval was granted to LightSquared prior to testing, and also about a report that General William Shelton was pressured by the White House to change testimony to Congress in favor of LightSquared.  Grassley placed holds in December on two nominees to the FCC over the issue.

LightSquared has also touted support where it doesn’t seem to be clear.  For example, a September press release stated that “we received a strong endorsement of our view that LightSquared and GPS can co-exist from several of the country’s leading agricultural organizations…” including the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and National Farmers Union.  However, far from endorsing the proposal, the letter referenced supports both rural broadband and precision agriculture.  In testimony to the House Committee on Small Business, AFBF President Bob Stallman urged Congress to assure that “LightSquared should cover the expense of all technical fixes to the interference issue.”

-John C. Shepard, AICP

Note:  No endorsement of a particular political position is intended or implied

Parts of rural Minnesota are teaching the nation a lesson or two about how to deliver rural broadband — form a community co-op and provide it yourself, or wait forever for a commercial provider to deem it sufficiently profitable to deliver a reasonable level of service.

Minnesota’s Broadband Task Force indirectly proved the case for community Internet access with their first official report on the state of broadband in the North Star State.

…

Farmers Mutual in Madison, Federated Telephone in Morris, and Paul Bunyan Communications in Bemidji have been running fiber optic cables up and down area streets and delivering next generation broadband to some very happy customers. All are cooperatives — community-owned providers that put their customers (who also happen to be the owners) ahead of Wall Street shareholder profits. The result: modern and reliable service, instead of “good enough for you” Internet access at sky-high prices from for-profit phone companies.

I might add locally-owned independent telephone companies and maybe municipalities into that mix. I’ve talked with folks and heard many conversations on the topic – it often comes up that one key difference between the co-ops, independents and municipalities is that they are invested in the community as much as in the business of selling broadband. It gives them a longer view on ROI and it allows them to measure more than the bottom-line when making decisions.

The article indicates that policies partnered with private industry are creating two Internets: the wireless Internet of for low-income (especially African American and Latino) citizens and wired Internet for those with higher incomes. Those on the wireless Internet are restricted in what they can do online.

Here are pieces to the puzzle that seem to relate more directly to pure economics.

1. Handhelds are cheaper than laptops. My mom is thinking about a computer or a tablet or a smartphone. But unlike many people in her shoes cost is *a* factor – not *the* factor.
2. Wireless contracts are cheaper than wired. This is true on a month-to-month basis but even more true when you consider a potentially transient consumer and startup fees after each move.
3. The article includes research results that indicate that African American and Latino consumers are much more likely to rely on smartphones for Internet access than their white counterparts.

Here are some pieces that are technical:

1. Fiber is faster than wireless.
2. Cable is faster than most wireless.

Here are some pieces that seem to relate to policy:

1. The Net Neutrality bill that passed maintain a level of openness for wired Internet.
2. The Net Neutrality bill that passed allows wireless provides to create data packages that not only cap speeds/data transfer but also can promote some information and prohibit some information. The example given in the article is Verizon filtering out (refusing to deliver) all text messages containing specific words.
3. The National Broadband Plan promotes 100 Mbps for 100 million homes and only 4 Mbps for the rest.

I definitely suggest reading the original article for a more passionate interpretation. I would be very interested in hearing “the other side” of the story.

data networking, Internet, colocation, phone and hosting services to approximately 3,600 business and residential customers in the Fargo area.

It seems a sign of a local company looking to serve their customers into the future. The acquisition will add 225 miles of fiber to their regional network. The article goes on to offer HickoryTech’s perspective…

“This acquisition further advances our strategy of growing our business and broadband services,” said John Finke, HickoryTech president and chief executive officer in a press release. “Last year, we extended our fiber network to Fargo. This transaction gives us immediate access to the market, making our entire portfolio of business services available to IdeaOne customers. The completion of our Broadband stimulus route from Brainerd, Minn. to Fargo, North Dakota in 2012 will further enhance our capabilities and services in this market.”

Mankato, Minn. – Nov. 30, 2011 – HickoryTech (NASDAQ: HTCO) announces today it is accepting entries for its My Life My Internet video contest. As a leading regional broadband provider, HickoryTech wants to encourage broadband adoption and encourage students and educators to share their stories about why the Internet is important in their lives. The contest, which targets entries from the HickoryTech service area, requires video submissions that present ideas around how students and teachers connect, learn, recharge, study and socialize at school and at home using broadband Internet access.

HickoryTech will award contest winners a hand-held video camera, as well as five hand-held video camera’s for their school. “HickoryTech supports technology integration in the classroom and wants to provide an incentive for students, teachers and schools to adopt new technologies which help students enhance learning through broadband adoption,” said Jennifer Spaude, director of Investor Relations and Marketing.

Complete contest details and rules are available at www.hickorytech.com/MyLifeMyInternet. All entries must be submitted by January 31, 2012.

And of course a lot of the questions and answers came down to video. Video is clearly a killer app and a killer driver in planning and adoption.