2017 started with a near-death experience for community-owned broadband network customers in Virginia. Under the guise of a benevolent-sounding Virginia Broadband Deployment Act, a zealous state legislator’s bill would have terminated current and future municipal networks statewide.
A coalition of national and local community broadband advocates united to neuter the bill. In the course of winning the campaign, two things continue to be reinforced: municipal broadband has proven its success despite big telecom labeling these networks failures; and wireless infrastructure is carrying its own weight in these success stories.
Over a dozen citywide and countywide networks are up and running in Virginia, some for as long as 13 years, and an unknown number of projects are in the works. There are 400 municipal or public utility run networks nationally. While definitely there have been projects that were not well executed, the majority of networks meet the goals and expectations of the communities.
Closing the ‘homework gap’ and other successes
How the Appomattox County School District built its own fiber network for $150,000, which the Federal Communication Commission’s ERate program reimbursed and closed the homework gap, was often cited during the campaign. The district attached Wi-Fi radios onto the network to reach unserved homes with free service and saved millions of dollars in leasing fees.
Brette Arbogast, director of technology for the district determined that the logic and economics made sense. Students use state-of-the-art laptops and tablets running on high-speed networks in the schools, but 49% either have no internet access at home or parents can’t afford whatever service there might be in the area. After 4 p.m., the school network is either not needed at all or needed very little. By providing broadband via wireless the community is now able to benefit from what they have already paid for with their taxes.
Press liked hearing about King and Queen County and their wireless network. The county bought wireless equipment from a vendor called Gamewood Technology Group, had a design firm build the microwave backhaul, retained Gamewood to construct and manage the network and Cox delivers internet service. Gamewood and the county share the profits.
It’s noteworthy that Cox was willing to let the county provide services to sparsely populated communities while Cox collected monthly fees from the county. The county turns over customers to Cox for whom the incumbent’s pricing is better.
King and Queen County created a wireless authority, as per state requirement, and it is comprised mostly of government officials. In the future the authority will add management expertise from the local business community, while Greenwood recommends technology enhancements and upgrades. Similar to Virginia’s other success stories, the County’s network expands in a logical, profitable manner.
Pivot and spread out
As the Virginia campaign ended, a similar legislative effort in Missouri threatened to hinder or eliminate municipal networks there, while legislators favoring public broadband in Tennessee and Colorado hope to repeal municipal network restrictions. Arguing vigorously for full repeal, advocates also might consider forming public private partnerships similar to King and Queen County. This combined community ownership of the infrastructure and critical telecom management expertise.
A variation on King and Queen’s partnership might be a strategy executed in New York State. Ontario County started a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation called Axcess Ontario, which created a board of directors, raised money and retained ECC Technologies to provide the talent to run a telecom business that sells dark fiber.
Axcess Ontario formed a public-private partnership consisting of Ontario County, the Ontario County Industrial Development Agency, local businesses and carriers. The partnership facilitated hybrid wireless and wired deployments throughout the county through dark fiber sales to carriers and businesses.
There are carriers that sell services directly to businesses and individuals.
“Empire Access, for example, brought fiber to the home in Naples, New York, a rural village of 2,500, after no carriers were willing to serve them,” said Andy Lukasiewicz, director of broadband services at ECC. At the same time, cellular carrier towers use Axcess Ontario fiber or get lit fiber from other carriers and other providers rely on the group just for backhaul transport.
Businesses and other organizations buying Axcess Ontario’s dark fiber might use any type of infrastructure for the customers’ private networks.
“Finger Lakes Community College uses the dark fiber to enable links to their remote facilities, hot spot access to several locations on campus and a small cell connection with a cellular provider to cover an outdoor performance venue,” stateed Lukasiewicz.
Nothing succeeds like wireless success
Those in the community broadband trenches have to become better at tooting their own horns. As we watch the gigabit and fiber hype surround us, advances in wireless speed and capability make this technology an equal player in the drive for broadband conductivity, particularly in mid-size and smaller communities. We have to tout successes such as Appomattox, Ontario, and King & Queens Counties, and encourage other communities to follow in their footsteps.
It is equally important that we engage policymakers at the state and national level to force them to make better policy decisions. There is no reason for these legislative battles we’re seeing in Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and elsewhere other than to heed the call of incumbents’ lobbyists out to stifle competition. States have to follow the lead of Georgia, where their state legislators declared all options – including municipal networks – viable in an “all hands on deck” approach to broadband deployments.
Policymakers must have broadband funding and grant programs that follow suite. It’s nice that Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam set aside $45 million of grants and tax incentives to fund broadband expansion. But wireless providers must have seats at that table. For many years, wireless internet service providers have enabled communities that otherwise would never see the broadband light of day except for their efforts. They repeatedly have proven their ability to do great things with little money. Now is the time to capitalize on that experience.
Craig Settles assists communities develop broadband business and marketing plans, and help them raise money for broadband projects. Follow him on Twitter (@cjsettles) and visit his website: www.cjspeaks.com.
Editor’s Note: In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this Reader Forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: [email protected].
Image source: Virginia Department of Historic Resources
