Community leaders are faced with navigating a whirlwind of dynamic technologies, policy discussions at the federal and state level, and funding through the ARRA stimulus programs as they wrestle with the the challenge of ensuring world-class broadband infrastructure and services and motivating the adoption of new technologies by businesses, institutions and citizens. This session will provide an overview of community best practices for network deployment and broadband-based economic development. By Bill Coleman for the Blandin Foundation
5. Defining broadband Ensuring 100% Availability
Providing big bandwidth
for business, education,
health care and
government
Stimulating Network
Investment
Infrastructure
and Services
6. Private Sector
Qwest
Regional carriers like Zayo and
Enventis
Independent telephone
companies
Cable television companies
CLECs
National carriers
Cellular carriers
Public Sector
State of Minnesota (mostly
leased)
Public safety wireless
School districts (owned and
leased)
Counties and municipalities
I-Nets
ISPs/Triple play
8. According to Connected Nation, 96% of Minnesotans
have access to broadband at 786k download or better
Almost all without broadband connection options are in
rural areas
80/20 rule of deployment costs
What is the situation in your community?
How does your ubiquity change as the bandwidth standard
goes up?
Is broadband ubiquitous if it is beyond the financial reach
of many citizens?
9. Internet Connection Costs
100 Mb at the Minneapolis NAP = $4-$8/Mb
100 Mb to greater MN locations = $65-
$88/Mb
Within a network
Operational costs of bandwidth flowing within a
network are very low.
State BB task force recommends that providers
make efforts to keep more network traffic in MN
rather than pay to send it to Chicago and back
11. Stimulating Network Investment
Private
• Build and
demonstrate
demand
• Aggregate
demand
• Provide
financing
• Threaten
public
investment
Public
• Municipal or
joint venture
with other
public sector
entities
• Aggregate
demand
Private Public
Partnership
• Aggregate
demand
• Provide
financing
• Contribute
rights of way
and/or pole
attachments
13. Partnering in Brainerd Lakes Area to use school
district fiber ring investment to jumpstart CLEC
activities in Brainerd, Baxter and Nisswa – filling
the “black hole” and stimulating competitive
response from Qwest and Charter.
Partnering in Staples to build community fiber
ring connecting key institutions and deploying
wireless technology to serve the greater Staples
area.
14. ECMECC
(East Central MN Education Cable
Cooperative)
Cooperative connects 13 school districts
throughout east central region with high
capacity fiber
Fiber provided by US Cable and SGI Cable
companies
Companies leveraged fiber investment to bring
broadband to small communities within the
region
15. High capacity fiber network investment in
partnership with private sector to link all Scott
County facilities and communities
Partnerships with Dakota and Blue Earth Counties
and Minnesota State University-Mankato to add
redundancy and value
Enables easier entry for competitive broadband
services throughout the county
16. Committed municipal effort to build FTTH
TDS competitive response with FTTH
Is this really a best practice case study?
Double investment in fiber capacity
Huge legal fees by city and TDS
Lost time before deployment
Community energy
17. Emerging Projects
Southwest Fiber Project – extension of Windom
city network to surrounding rural communities
Cook County – countywide FTTP network
Lake County – countywide FTTP network
Lac qui Parle County – county partnership with
Farmers Telephone to explore 100% FTTH
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
18. The most important connections are within your
own community
The network value accelerates with more
people connected
Tech-centered companies want high-capacity,
low-cost, redundant networks
Entrepreneurs want connectivity in the places
where they want to live which may be outside of
the community
23. Growing Sector Sophistication
Health Online
Appointments
E-Visits
Real time
consultation
Education Online records
Online
curriculum
Real time via
video to the
home
Business Web site Transactions
Shared
database and
online
collaboration
Government Web site
Transactions
and streaming
video
Real time
video
interaction
with citizens
27. Best Practices - Subscription
Education of targeted groups through tech
classes, tech fairs
Recycling of used computers to those without
them, especially tied to classes
Increase access at libraries, schools, senior
centers and other places
28. Best Practices - Sophistication
Web site and other technology training,
especially for small businesses, non-profits and
community organizations
Web site assessment services, especially for small
businesses, non-profits, community organizations
Web site development subsidies for small
businesses
Facilitated discussions about community web
site linking strategies, especially Web 2.0
applications
29. Best Practices – Tech Support
Add capacity to existing tech support
companies through training
Bundle demand for tech support via joint
purchasing and by vetting quality
Attract tech support companies to your
community through attraction and
entrepreneurial support
30. Create and Support Tech
Champions
Identify those with tech vision in schools,
government, health care and business
Bring tech visionaries together to discuss plans
and collaboration opportunities
Use community communication vehicles like
web sites, newspapers, newsletters and cafes to
promote technology
Support technology investments
Lafayette LA – no speed limit in town.
This is not necessarily a publicly owned network.
School districts are way ahead in this with regional networks.
Dakota, Scott and Carver Counties. Dakota County moving to 10 Gb
Differentiate between connection to the network and connection to the Internet