Monthly Archives: November 2008

The Municipal and Utility Guidebook to Bringing Broadband Fiber Optics to Your Community

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blog_ftthreportSo I read the new FTTH Guidebook for communities and I kinda like it. (For non-Minnesotans who might be reading this – that’s pretty high praise.) The meat of the work is in 4 case studies of successful municipal FTTH projects.

The case studies are detailed. The talk about the legal, technical, financial and management issues that have come up for the providers. They get at pricing and specific local laws that had to be overcome. I was impressed with the amount of detail provided.

The rest of the guidebook draws conclusions and makes recommendations based on the collective experience of the case studies. I think this would be helpful reading for anyone looking into the option of community-owned FTTH.

But you know what I wish was also there? Maybe a study of a community that wasn’t successful or a study of a community that decided to go another route – just for comparison.

Pine Tech Virtual Reality Center

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Last night I was at the Pine Tech College in Pine City to do some blog training for the Horizons project. I got there early and saw that they had a Virtual Reality Center. So, I had to stop in.

I got lucky and the Director of the program was there. John Heckman has been the Director of the program (the Johnson Sim Center) since it started in 2000. He said lots of their virtual reality programs are done on the computer – but some require VR goggles and sensors. For example they have a program to teach students how to spray paint. (And to answer my obvious question – yes they all practice their tags.) Apparently they do a range of virtual reality training for manufacturing and industry.

John also mentioned that they have a range of serious games – games with an educational purpose. He told me about a game for certified nursing assistants. Apparently they have 8 weeks or training that focuses on technical aspects of the job then a few weeks of clinical work. The game helps develop skills that you don’t learn in class or at the clinical – the skills that help you be courteous, be timely and prioritize tasks. Apparently the game player becomes a nurse and there are virtual patients who require attention.

You only have so much time to be nice and meet everyone’s needs. If you do well you get a high score. So the idea is that you compete with others to learn what they used to call soft skills. I think it’s a great way to do it.

So what does this have to do with broadband – well they are starting to develop games in Flash so that students at home or other remote locations can play. Broadband would be required to play. (Although I pointes out that a little dialup latency migth buy you some time on the clock.)

Like other education applications I’ve read about – this makes me wish I were in school today.

Obama and technology: What we can learn

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I already reported on Obama having his web site ready to publish the day after his win, but it seems as if it took the media a week to catch up. Yesterday on National Public Radio I heard about how well Obama used the Internet to mobilize campaigners and how he can use the same tactics to get the word out to the people and the people’s words to him.

I notice on his new Change.gov page that he has a place where visitors can offer feedback and ideas in text, documents of video format. (Quick aside: I think a bunch of us should get together at the Blandin Broadband Conference to create rural broadband videos to post on the site!)

It will be great to see how the technology-tools that helped to mobilize Obama’s team help him mobilize the citizenry to ask not what their country can text for them but what they can text for their country. I think it worked for Obama in a way that it wouldn’t work for someone else because he (and his team) understand grassroots first and technology second. It’s a perfect marriage.

While we’re waiting to see to what happens, I think we can take a look at what has already been successful and use those tools in our own lives – today I’m thinking about using technology in nonprofits – but tomorrow I could be thinking about it from a corporate perspective. (Another aside – I don’t think we’ll have to wait long – people are predicting technology changes in the first 100 days.)

A week or so ago I met with Trisha Hasbargen from the Minnesota Jaycee’s. They are an organization with many local chapters. Being from St Paul I associate them with Haunted Houses – but each community has its own memories. They are volunteer organization of mainly young people (18-40) who do good works. They self-manage projects in the community. This year’s project manager selects and mentors next year’s manager. So it’s a great way to build local leadership capacity.

Trisha works with the Statewide organization. Each chapter is pretty autonomous, which is great except that there are resources within the community that are underused. There is excess capacity in some communities, while others need help. Also with the autonomy the mission and the message of the whole organization is getting a little lost. What they need are some communication tools – and that’s what we talked about. How could they use social networking tools to unify the chapter and members or at least lead to communication of the mission and message and collaboration when desirable.

So for the Jaycee’s we talked using the tools. I suggested that they could start small and build – to be prepared to make some mistakes but to learn from them. Also I noted that if the statewide organization didn’t take the lead one of the chapters or members probably would – and that would be hard to un-do.

For communities, especially rural communities, I think these stories are (possibly) interesting for two reasons. First because I think many communities are in a place similar to the Jaycee’s in that they would benefit from having a way to communicate quickly with their constituents. Second, because they can both learn from Obama’s campaign – whether you love him or are learning to love him you can learn from his successful use of technology. He reached out and found young people online and mobilized them by reaching them online.

Monticello Mayor Responds

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To make a short story long… I had the opportunity to meet Lynne Dahl-Fleming yesterday. I was on my way to work with rural bloggers and Monticello was the perfect place to stop for lunch. Lynne is one of the great forces in Monticello who has been working toward a municipal FTTH network. (One funny note – as you drive into town you see a billboard for FiberNet Monticello promoting fiber; the next sign is TDS promoting fiber. Apparently I missed there’s also a billboard from Charter.)

I really appreciate the way Monticello has shared info with the world on how their project is going. As Lynne and I discussed yesterday, this is more than the story of one incumbent provider suing one town to prohibit a municipal fiber network. Cities and incumbent providers around the world are watching to see what happens next.

Well what happened today is that the Mayor wrote a response to the TDS lawsuit appeal. It is a strong letter! Here are some excerpts – liste in order but pulled from the letter:

We (the city) talked with TDS on several occasions to explore options to give the citizens and businesses of Monticello cutting edge technology.

We were told that they “could not justify the expense” to their shareholders and they “already had good copper in the ground.” Their plan was to continue to offer fiber to new developments, but not address existing homes.

Therefore, the council decided to put it up to you, the citizens of Monticello. You made your voice heard loud and clear by passing a referendum by 74%.

TDS tries to claim that they are suing us to protect the citizens of Monticello, but the truth is that they want to continue their monopoly for land line telephone in Monticello.

The TDS lawsuit was dismissed.

The city is committed to bringing fiber to your home and offering services such as full high definition TV, telephone services (land line, VOIP, cellular) and ultra highspeed Internet (both upload and download).

TDS, it is time to stop punishing the citizens of Monticello. We know that the dismissal of this lawsuit will NOT be overturned.

My final note – I continue to be so impressed with Monticello. Meeting Lynne cemented my admiration. It must be so frustrating but throughout everything they have stayed the course for getting fiber to the City and sharing the story with everyone. Heck – with all this attention and sudden interest in fiber they may help leapfrog the US back into leadership position as far as access to broadband is concerned.

National Public Safety Network

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I have kept a half-shut eye on the news about the public safety network (aka D block). It’s the failure of last spring’s FCC Spectrum Auction. They wanted to auction off spectrum to have someone build a public safety network. No one bid the required minimum.

It has always seemed a little funny to me. As I recall, Cyren Call was a company that was going to build the network but then they changed seats and worked with the government/nonprofit (Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) to find someone to build the network. Next Frontline was going to build the network – or at least bid at the auction – and they got out because the prices were too high. There were rumors that Cyren Call had something to do with Frontline losing interest.

Well yesterday I read an article that said that Cyren Call might be getting out of the game too. PSST owes Cyren Call money. Cyren Call went to the FCC to see if they could charge PSST more. Also Cyren Call seems to be saying that they can’t be working forever without compensation. But there isn’t anyone else to step into their role.

The FCC is coming to apparently coming to a decision on the public safety spectrum. They have dropped the price from $1.33 billion to $750 million. They have opened up the option to bid for a national and/or regional contract. Well, there are 58 regional contracts; you can bid on the national level and the FCC will choose whatever is higher. They have decided that the regional or national system should be linked by interoperable standards.

People are worried that the regional/national options will leave gaps in service. I’m kind of short-sighted but I don’t think the contract looks very attractive regardless. Yes, you could build up a great niche market – but I think the market is finite and I think the Feds will be deciding how much you can charge. In fact, in September, the FCC recommended that, for the first four years of the arrangement, public safety groups pay a base rate of $48.50 per user per month to access a national or regional network, regardless of how the auction works out. In some ways the government would be both the shareholders (the FCC) and the customers (EMT folks around the country) and I think that’s a hard balance to maintain.

I must be missing something.

AT&T is now a WiFi Giant

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Thanks To Ann Higgins for sending me the latest news on AT&T’s wireless purchase. As she pointed out this may have something to do with my good luck at the Eagan Blast over the weekend.

AT&T recently purchased WiFi hotspot service provider Wayport Networks for $275 million in cash. That means that AT&T’s WiFi hotspot footprint to is now about 20,000 in the U.S. and 80,000 worldwide, including roaming agreements. Wayport provides McDonald’s with their WiFi – or as we like to say in our house, Wi-Fry. AT&T already provides WiFi to Starbuck’s.

Industry experts give a couple of reasons for the big purchase. First, it helps AT&T be bigger than Clearwire. That’s a big selling point for potential clients. Second, Wayport was providing key enterprise applications, which makes it esier for their clients to love them and harder to leave them. AT&T can build on that to get deeper into more clients. Third, now that AT&T has Wayport, they don’t have to worry about anyone else getting them.

Technology Training in Oltman & Woodbury MN

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Unfortunately the class I’m about to describe doesn’t use broadband – at least not that I can see but I thought how it was taught and the skills it taught were the first step towards getting kids to be better technology users.

District 833 started a Design and Modeling from Project Lead the Way. It teaches kids engineering skills through a software program led by the teacher. Here’s the gist from an article in the South Washington County Bulletin:

The goal of the lessons is to build a racecar model, but to do so, students must study how to create basic geometric shapes such as ellipses, cones, cubes and spheres and combine them. Computers can show the model from virtually a limitless number of viewpoints, according to lesson plans.

Students learn the basics of engineering by adding holes, slots and extrusions to their models.

Partially I think this is amazing – because this epitomizes the exact skills I don’t have. These skills I know are the new way to design just about anything. If you can do this, you can work with racecar designers around the world to create the coolest racecar in the world – or the coolest bridge or building or remote x-ray machine.

Eagan Blast has WiFi!!

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I’m writing to you today from the Eagan Blast. It’s a McDonald playland without the McDonald’s. It’s perfect for kids who need to run around and a mom who needs to work – especially now that the weather is too cold to hang outside.

In April 2007, I whined about the Eagan Blast not being online. I was here and working but couldn’t get online. Well, good news for anyone with kids and a laptop in the Twin Cities area. The Eagan Blast is online. I like to pretend that my whiny blog post helped them decide to move head – so I want to say a big thank you!!

The Eagan Blast just may be seeing us on a weekly basis until the spring thaw! For other communities – think how happy you could make some working mom (or dad) by offering WiFi in kid-friendly places.

Fiber open house a hit in Northfield

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Northfield recently held an open house to introduce the general public to the consultants who will be deploying their Fiber Optic Feasibility Study, which is partially funded by the Blandin Foundation. According to the Northfield News, 40 people attended the event. Apparently people came with good question and with varied opinion. Many wanted to what would be the benefits to them as residents.

The feasibility study should be completed by the end of January.

Obama’s Looking for a CTO

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Thanks to Becky LaPlant for sending me some fun articles to read and a video on Obama’s steps into the new office. First I watched a video with Rachel Maddow – where he talked about the need to develop infrastructure – from faster trains to faster broadband.

First what I liked was that he said we needed to beef up to catch up with China (I paraphrase). I think it’s great that we’re looking at the international playing field – and not assuming that we’re number 1. Second, I like the fact that he specifically mentioned broadband.

They also talked about the need to create job schemes – like the WPA. So I think now would be a great time for Geoff Daily to approach Obama’s team with his idea to use a New Deal type plan to build broadband.

I also read an article more specifically related to Obama’s search for a CTO. Apparently he has added some tech executives to his technology team, which bodes well for his appointing a CTO.

He has already posted a web site with his plans  (there are 3 mentions of broadband) – a good sign for proponents of technology and transparency. He has some heavy hitters from Google, former FCC members, Level 3 and others on his transition team. More than anything – he’s a technology user, which I think makes a difference.

A CTO could help advise policymakers on technology-related policy – but more importantly I think a CTO could help policymakers get their job done. I have attended most of the Minnesota Broadband Policy Task Force meetings and it is painful to watch local technology leaders try to get their work done within the constraints of antiquated rules. They can’t continue discussions via email without disregard for the Open Meeting rules. (Maybe a public email list could solve that, huh?) They can view but not participate in the meetings via videoconference – so you can view but not be part of the quorum. I don’t even know what rule that thwarts. But a CTO at the very top might be able to modify or update the working policies – and if that trickled down to states and local government workflow it could save so much time and money.

Also – to bring it back to broadband – being able to use technology to get their work done more efficiently might help build a market and a business case for faster broadband at a local level.

And the beat goes on between TDS and Monticello

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TDS has just filed an intention to appeal the recent decision to allow the City of Monticello to move ahead to deploy FTTH. The appeal is not unexpected. They had a month to appeal; that month was up today; they appealed (or filed the intent to appeal) yesterday.

The claim is that the decision to let Monticello deploy fiber “endangers the appropriate relationship between municipalities and private enterprise.”

I read about the move in the Monticello Times. Here’s what I think is the key statement on the case:

TDS argued that Monticello was “stretching” the definition of the state law, Statute No. 475.52, which allows a municipality to issue bonds for the purpose of “providing a public utility or other public convenience.”

So the beat goes on…

Pine Journal in Cloquet here to stay

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I just read the most heartening article in terms of the future of local media. Wendy Johnson of the Pine Journal writes, “There’s a reason we’re here – the same reason that we hope will keep us here for many years to come.”

According to the article, a recent three-year study by the National Newspaper Association shows that some 86 percent of adults read a local community newspaper each week, up from 83 percent in 2007 and 81 percent in 2005. The author indicates that their local results mirror the national findings.

I have read articles to the contrary – well kind of to the contrary. Really I’ve read articles of a conflict between online and traditional media. I think this article tells a nice story of the marriage between online and traditional media and I think recognizing and building on that marriage is what strengthens the Pine Journal and other papers.

The article explains that you’re never going to see the news of Carlton County on CNN. (I’d add that you hope you never see local news on CNN; that’s never a sign of good news.) Yet the news of Carlton County is important; it’s important to the local community.

I think the following two paragraphs from the article explain why they are doing so well and why it’s important that the local newspaper survives and how supplementing traditional media with online helps the paper to thrive.

While the Pine Journal’s print readership continues to remain basically strong, we have also adapted to the changing times with our Web site, which brings the news of Carlton County to readers on a day-to-day (and, at times, an hour-to-hour) basis.

For example, during the days leading up to Tuesday’s general election, the number of people accessing our Web site essentially doubled, going from a daily average of 1,100 to 2,200 as readers sought our ongoing news reports of local candidates and races.

Blandin Webinar: Wireless Technologies

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Yesterday Blandin hosted the second installment of the Broadband pre-conference webinars. (The third and final installment on Broadband Policy is planned for November 19th.)

The session today was: Wireless Technologies – Learn about the emerging services that will provide the increased mobility that business needs and citizens want. Hear about new wireless technologies that can extend broadband coverage into more rural areas. Presenter: Pete Borchert, Senior Market Analyst, Alltel Wireless. (To listen to the whole session, please check out the conference call archive.) 

Pete did a great job. I want to thank him for sharing his presentation with us:

Here are the questions that came up:

Question – Does the Alltel network serve any schools?

Yes, through SE Service Coop. It’s going well with them – the latency is low and the QoS is high. They were able to do video and interactive TV. (With 508 Gig)

Mobile wireless is increasing in importance with communities – what is the outlook for mobile network reaching to rural areas?

With licensed bandwidth it should be easier to do because we can power those at will. Line of sight will no longer be important. By 2012 – we should cover 90 percent of the state – but the economy will impact that rate.

Mobile and fixed will come together because mobile will go further. A big question is – what will the demand be?

When you say 90% coverage, are you referring to the entire state? I am located in the Cook County, and we have significant line of sight problems.

Unfortunately – you may be in the 10 percent areas. Alltel needs to go where the money is – but the USF may help get things in place sooner.

What are costs to end users?

There are all you can eat packages for $50-60/month for mobile Internet service at 3050Mbit/sec.

As we move to 700Mhz – what will happen to reliability?

Fixed wireless is at 99.9 percent uptime. Often wireless can be redundant connection – in places such as a call center where 100 percent wireless is essential.

What are partnering opportunities? If you were a community – how would you stimulate investment?

Clearwave started by going to communities with market research but always had success when they got the community involved. We partnered with cities – and they offered use of vertical real estate to help drive down investment costs. DTED grants were a big help as well. USF has been valuable. Some of those partnerships are harder to come by today.

End users now pay lots of different bills: Internet, cell… Could wireless solve this problem?

Wireless could become a triple play provider. The efficiencies will allow providers to play in triple play arena.

What’s the range of these technologies?

Current range is 5-7 miles line of sight. The 700 Mhz will go 20 miles in rural areas and pine trees shouldn’t hurt much.

Russ Simatec talks about Maximum Communications. They are a wireless Internet service provider. They focus on rural areas. Pete is right in that we still don’t really know what the customers want. The technology is rapidly changing. Uses of spectrum are important criteria. We focus on WiMAX. Mobility is a big issue.

What about WiFi as an investment?

It comes down to spectrum efficiencies. WiMAX and EVDO are built to handle community networks better. There may be a convergence of both technologies – WiFi and WiMAX.

What is the relationship between fiber and wireless and the interconnectedness?

Fiber can bring lots of bandwidth but not mobility. Also the fiber can be cost prohibitive for many rural areas. But fiber can make a great backhaul. Wireless is more affordable.

Knight looks at Independent Online News

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Blandin FoundationThe Knight Digital Media Center ran a series of articles last week on local independent online news. Minnesota’s own MinnPost got a lot of air time. MinnPost received $225,000 from the Blandin Foundation. In fact one aspect of the series was looking at funding models and the role of foundations in supporting online new sources.

I found the series to be very interesting. So many themes were repeated from the TC Media Alliance conference I went to last month. In short – traditional local media is going away. We’ve seen it with local papers downsizing and closing. We’ve seen it with consolidation of TV and radio stations.

I think that there are still strong local media outlets – KAXE in Grand Rapids for one. But I think they are the exceptions not the rule. Online media has been able to pick up some slack. If you are looking for news based on an interest – be it a political slant or obscure scientific topic, you’re in luck. But locally focused resources are a little tougher. Knight points out that often starting up a locally focused site isn’t the hard part – it’s not *that* expensive – but maintaining it is another question.

Maintaining a news site is an everyday job – and the advertising dollars aren’t really there yet. Selling subscriptions hasn’t been super successful. (One exception it seems to me is the Irish Times – but their readership is all over the world in a different way than the Minneapolis Star Tribune or even the London Times would be. And many of the Irish Times readers were able to cancel their expensive overseas paper subscription to go online.) For most resources the business model isn’t there yet.

As Knight points out financial model may not be there but if we want to share news we need those public outreach tools. The newspaper was/is our third estate. If we lose it (online and off) we lose an important check and balance. I think we lose an important way for rural communities especially to hear and be heard!

FCC Meeting November 4, 2008 (White Spaces)

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The FCC meeting that was supposed to start at 10 am (CST) actually started around 3:00. The video was shaky; the audio was not always clear to me.

I listened to the White Spaces discussion. It passed with only a single partial dissent. I am posting my notes asis. I wasn’t always clear on who was speaking because by the time we got to Commissioner notes, the video was gone and with blips in the audio I didn’t always get the names. (And I’m not yet geeky enough to recognize their voices.)

Eventually the archive and official notes will be psote on the FCC web site. Here are my notes: Continue reading →