To help myself get ready for the February 28th TISP forum on Open Networks that Ann Treacy recently blogged about, I thought it would be fun to browse over to Wikipedia and check out their entry for Open Networks. Though my search results read “No page with that title exists,” I did turn up a helpful list of related topics. For starters, I clicked on Open Access Network and found a short entry prefaced by a discouraging notice that the article provided “insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter,” and a plea to help improve it. … Perhaps that’s illustrative of the daunting task of beginning a conversation about Open Networks in the United States, where the concept is still so new.
In Europe, however, Open Networks are hot. Especially in Sweden, Open Networks are being embraced as a “future-proof” broadband solution with a proven ability to stimulate local entrepreneurship, increase the diversity of market players and products, and lower consumer costs. (For compelling details, see a report to the Federation of Swedish County Councils by ICT strategist Brorn Bjork. ) Just last week, the Swedish telecom regulator (PTS), outlining a strategy to meet the target of “broadband for all by 2010,” commented that open fiber networks will play an important role in meeting the objective. Sweden is also the corporate home of PacketFront, from whence hails Matt Wenger – the presenter at Blandin’s Get Broadband February 20th video conference. (Once his presentation is available online we’ll add a link.)
I first found out about Matt last fall in Little Rock, AK while attending the Rural Telecommunications Congress, a national membership organization dedicated to advancing community, research, healthcare and economic development in rural areas through the application of technology. Matt’s Open Network message really caught my attention because of his focus on helping maximize the role broadband networks can play in stimulating innovation and local entrepreneurship.
Anyway, back to my Wikipedia search. Wiki says the term Open Access Network, coined in 2003 by Roberto Battiti, refers to a “horizontally layered network architecture and business model that separates physical access to the network from service provisioning. The same OAN is used by a number of different providers that share the investments and maintenance cost.”
This is the approach being taken by the fledgling Iron Range Community Fiber Network, an ambitious collaboration to bring FTTH to 13 towns and two tribes on the Iron Range. Dick Nordvold will have more details about the project at the February 28th TISP forum. I am looking forward to a lively discussion of this approach to helping Minnesota achieve the Broadband Vision Blandin Foundation is promoting.
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