Net-WorkShop
Monday, September 19, 2011
7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Hosted by: Internet Archive
San Francisco, California
Notes by Alyse K. Parrino
[Session 2 (Discussion), Session 3 (Keynotes), Session 4 (BOF Reports)]
9:00 a.m. Introduction – David Isenberg, Facilitator / Moderator
Welcomed attendees and thanked sponsors and volunteers
David introduced Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive
BK spoke about building a new kind of library for a digital generation
Went around room and everyone introduced themselves, where they are from and where they are going, roadblocks and frustrations.
19 People working on Projects
Denise Atkinson – EagleNet
Shorey Boardband Project with 240 institutions, non-profits and businesses. Reasons – schools did not carry enough bandwidth…less than on phones. Municipalities could not connect. Have become a service provider over the next to years.
John Brown – CityLink – Albuquerque, New Mexico
CityLink is a fiber holding company. Had 4 miles when started. Now has 20 miles. Went from 19 to 120 buildings, 500 residential. Needs to own the last mile. Is debt free. The network…City is behind him. Has a financial model of building partnerships with public and private resources. Fiber to each building, hospital, schools.
Dan Gallagher – Open Cape – CEO
Colleges – 3 T1’s for 5,000 students. 32 million Grant, 8k in donations. Now has microwave overly. Non-profit for community and assets and will licenses to private companies. Town base government building networks for towns and counties. Challenge – Poles…getting to them and the regulatory pace and permits.
Milda Hedblom – Hiawath Broadband – Consultant, Lawyer, Professor
Started as a non-profit but is now a for profit firm. Likes municipal networks. Works with them and helps them. Asked to talk about key items working with municipals and the challenges. There is a tension between them. In Minnesota municipalities limits. Need much greater than what they are willing to provide.
Mary Beth Henry – Portland, Oregon
Connecting broadband and economic development. 45% of homes did not connect. Feels it will bring job development to area. Goals for the plan: Access, usability (green and sustainable), integrated broadband into economy and building strategy in Oregon to complete in global economics. Would like a Charter. Invited 14 providers to review their plan and discuss what may be needed to make this work and had national speakers. Plan was adopted by City Planners.
Michael Johnston – Jackson Energy, Pulanski, TN
For profit company. Municipal network owned by and electric company. 2004 build network to homes. Now 60% of cable company schools and smart grid.
Wess Kelly – Polansky, TN
7 communities, 14,000 customers, 40,000 buy voice, videos, data center and smart grids
Joseph Knapp – Sandy, Oregon
Municipal fiber network. 9500 size City. Operates small ISP. Has grown wireless and DSL up to 1,000 customers now. Economic development tool for business. T1 killer. Most Recent – Bit Grant $750,000 to build a wireless network. Goal – by 2015 500 home connected.
Richard Louebke – Sun Communications, Sun River, Oregon
The economy is based on tourism. They get a million visitors a year. 50% of homeowners need jobs. Google came along and got fiber to them. There are 6,000 homes. Formed a telecom task force. Did research and is now doing public and private partnerships, starting engineering designs. Expects first customer in December 2013.
Mike McCarthy – City and County of San Francisco
Wifi to 7,000 in public housing and on the Farallon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Expanding to the City fire houses and other community sites, library, bridges. Is going to start leasing dark fiber. UCSF is first customer, Internet Archive has 2 strands of fiber. Biggest challenge is how to get to people’s homes.
Tim Pozar – San Francisco
Deployed to 6,000 public housing units. Been under 10K per site. Pushing San Francisco on how to do the sustainability thing and keep going. They are doing a “layer cake” model. City owns 1 layer and a non-profit pick up end user. City does not want to become an ISP. Wants to see how they can build a layer 3.
Tim Nulty – EC Fiber – Vermont
We are in the most rural State in the United States. We are desperate for broadband. We believe people need the fundamental basics. All has failed trying to go broadband. Formed a joint venture to build universal fiber. Universal is the touchstone. Cheapest way to do it is universal. 23 towns got together and raised 70% of the funds. Wireless does not work here. Got invited to David’s fiber fest last year and found out how to do it the boot strap way. Put together a plan.
Bruce Patterson – Ammon, Idaho
2008 said broadband was essential. Did not get anything from the Recovery Act. They developed a broadband department. They are their own customer. Are trying to get more customers. Have 13 miles of fiber now. Architecture of the network…open access is very important to them. Why? 2 schools districts do not have any and it is too expensive for them. They need a service provider.
Tony Perez – Seattle, Washington
The government now sees it’s essential for homes to have access. They are putting together a plan and doing analysis. Residences want a fiber network. Because of economics 500 miles of public fiber is restricted to the Government. Wants to make it available to private for a cost. Main challenge is financing.
Catharine Rice – SEATOA – S. Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia
In North Carolina half of the State is rural. Worst broadband in the country. 2 communities had to be revised because of the loss of the tobacco company. Realized way to make money was to build broadband. They lost the battle. Now services just municipal boundaries. Lessons learned: communicate with politicians now, educate now – This is the public sector getting involved with the private sector
Tom Scott – Axia
Competition is good.
Assuming all fiber everywhere,
Figure out about the private and public sectors
Most people do not know the legal entity,
Who do you want to be and do business with?
Know what you are and are not
Approach to funding and fiber
You the champion behind why
You are not trying to be a service provider, not an operator either
Get to build and let your anchor tenants’ commit to use it
Must be north of 50%
Monica Web – Wired West, Massachusetts
All communities were concerned about how to get together to do this
People were very sharp in New York
22 towns who signed
Is doing municipal bonding
Michael Smeltzer – University of Illinois (UB2B)
Big broad band
They did not have middle mile project
7 fiber rigs
90 miles
143 institutions
Putting fiber in homes that qualify for funding
Doing a Gig
$20 per month for families but how to sale to low income families.
What is going to get them to sign up
David – Why we are here?
Build relationships
Think together
Solve problems
Build a community of interest
What is the best way to predict the future? Build it yourself?
What is the goal? – Fast and Free Internet
Sustainable
Last mile provider
Inexpensive
Accessible
Fiber to the home… “It’s crucial or else we will disappear as a community”
What is the best way to connect to the future?
Telecommunications strategic plan
Sharing resources
Getting people the same page
Public – private – NGO’s
An intergovernmental entity
Building Municipal Networks – What’s needed?
Partnerships with public and private partners
Being creative
Thinking differently
Who’s doing what and what are they saying –
Overall consensus is that broadband is good business, education, the community and healthcare and is essential.
EagleNet –
Creating points of interconnect
Improving bandwidth to improve education
Oregon –
In Sandy:
T-1’s let you get something faster and fiber in the home
In Portland:
Making the case that broadband provides jobs
Taking a Lego like approach
Asks the questions “What are you – What aren’t you?”
Says the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself and invent it yourself
Has a telecommunications strategic plan – Sharing resources and getting people on the same page
In another community near Bend
we kicked out a cable company and formed a public/private partnership
Pulanki, TN
“Our business model is interesting…we own our own assets”
Municipal electric service along with a smart grid
Open Cape
Smarter Cape
Universal Ran
Co-location center
Hiawatha Broadband –
We like municipal networks
Municipalities work in challenging environments
Municipal limits … reaching out limits
11:00 Two Themes:
From Middle-Mile/Anchor Institution Nets to Connected Communities
David – I would like to hear from you about how do the middle mile networks enable last mile networks. I’ve asked a couple of people to speak but would love to hear from any of you that think you have something you think we should know.
Dan Gallagher – OpenCape – Cape Cod
We formed non-profit to get around the government and have more flexibility and less restriction
Last mile is more than fiber to the home. It is a public safety network, college’s wimax network,
We had to reach out to communities
Started a partnership and formation of a structure
Recognized 3 things and needs:
Rural has its own needs
Urban is different than rural. We are this in between world.
What is it you need to deliver to the last mile?
What is it you need to deliver on the last mile- triple play is dying
We need to build for the future and not for the past
We can at least deliver VOIP for right and I think that that is okay
Kids use cell phones so make 4G services available to them but how do we get that last mile service to them?
#1 – outreach for them. We have a “Smart Cape” partnership that we call it.
Really have to realize you and broadband are in infrastructure.
What is that infrastructure and how is it treated. What are the legal parts of it? Who is responsible for what?
Our model is a little different…We have a private company a non-profit representing that municipality and licensing a private company to run it for us which they then share … offset the cost of the environment
What is that model of regulatory broadband? Must haves are relative depending on the community.
Are we the physical layer or a little higher but not a level 3
First customer is 2.5 gigs
David – one question. The private operator that your contracted with is that and exclusive basis and only get access to some of the fiber?
Dan – Yes, they are licensed to sell 60% of the fiber only 35% they can lite…the rest must be available as dark fiber even to their competitors and we even have one more requirement and that is no one can least more than 20% in a given segment to prevent someone from buying it all.
David – there are several others of you working on middle mile. Who are you?
Denise Atkinson-Shorey – EagleNet
Just got a fonzy and are 30 days out. We are in the process. We see several providers that want to be exclusive that is not best for the community so we discuss accountability and reliability is a must.
Plan is to provide internet to community and work with city or council gov’t. We are open access.
David – Tim could you describe your middle mile to the community
Timothy Scott – Axia
Let me make this clear…Axia is not selective operator. Not the initiative.
Initiative is the Massachusetts Broadband Initiative (MBI123). Starts in Central Massachusetts.
Connects 123 towns – 1300 mile fiber network connects 5,000 poles
Connects 1100 anchor institutions ½ are gov’t, IT and State Departments the other is public safety, libraries, schools.
Why interested in MA…they were not just interested they were committed to spend their dollars on the final grid and willing to commit their spend on a fiber network and will make it sustainable.
10 year renewable contract
Competitive marketplace
Has a series of checks and balances
Different service provisions
For what worked for us were the rates that were compelling. If rates not compelling they won’t buy. Took completive rates from Boston and put in the state of MA
Agreed to wholesale rates in State of Mass can buy a gig for 1200 wholesale, 100 megs for 475 full service.
We are building it over the next 2 years. We were selelcted over a procurement process and because we have to run it over the next 10/20 years it to our interest to know the design, electronics, etc.
Starting with an early turn up called I91 which is the interstate going north and south in MA
Andrew Cohill – Design Nine
Working with 2 different middle mile projects.
Building out a fast road in 22 rural towns in New Hampshire and a build out 140 miles in Virginia. Both are through stimulus
What we did was looked at the stimulus rules and submitted middle mile applications last mile network.
Have hold and slice (?) every 100 feet of the network in have a lot of electronics on both projects.
Designing the last mile
120 switching capacity of 1,000 last mile connectivity and that is all with stimulus money
Hoping to do with it is when both build outs are finished, we are not always going to be able to have the 150/200 CIA’s.
Mark Ansboury – Gigabit Squared
Interesting project in Florida and Broadham (?) Maine – 23/32 million
Interesting part is that they are using wireless middle line architecture with fiber injection points
Started fiber over designs
Generating revenue as of now
Build it – will back fill with money earned
Trying triple play and video over it right now in rural areas in central Florida
David – Hearing about the physical stuff very interesting but on top of that so is the political and social work.
Chris – Why do we think middle mile works?
Canada built a middle mile network and it did not go anywhere. States killed it.
How is middle mile going to help get to the last mile?
Joanne Harris – NATOA
NATOA has spent 4 million that they will invest to solve the last mile problem and invest in the middle mile and letting the community and private industry invest in the middle to last mile. If it turns out to be right in even in 30% of the places where they are investing this money they have a lot of data coming in over the next 5 years we will have a mile that may not be 100% but we will have a model. We don’t have any models right now.
Data points from her experience. Does not know if sustaining – ever project that she has been involved in local companies and non-profits have been starved for bandwidth and any opportunity fiber will bring them to rural sites and tower sites and anything else that will bring something that is coming to this middle mile investments into the anchor connection or some type of peering point.
Has not worked on any of these projects that has not had a significant number of providers that have come to the table immediately and in some cases tiny tiny local companies that have survived from the dial up era by reselling DSL and now cannot do it because they were bought up by Frontier has bought up some of their footprint and will not let them resale any more. No ports left. Putting up the cheapest wireless they can and selling it for a meg and a half of bandwidth and selling it for $500 per month. If the state and localities just resale’s this at cost will make $2/month for that same bandwidth and will start investing in more wireless.
Jeremy Pietzold – Sandy Oregon
Where we are in Oregon we have a lot of small telcos around the region and only want to sell T1 lines. In urban areas can get fiber/bandwidth have to go through 2 telcos.
Only want to sell T1 lines do not want to do any internet connections.
In urban areas can get fiber from place to place so we had a little discrepancy on what children and schools could get over here verses over there.
Bacus County went and won a 1.1grant to put in this large ring to connect all of the counties.
Big problem – small telcos not want to give up the monopoly. We told them that we are hand you the fiber back into Portland at dirt cheap prices in order for you to give back to these communities and they did not want to do it. They are scared of people coming in and the same thing is happening in Sandy.
Now dealing with a couple of wireless companies doing a hodge podge of networks and now we have a ring in place and can get a 10 gig connect out to the communities, schools and homes. Middle mile is very important in all of the communities.
Denise – # of communities that we have been working with have already done these fiber rings and fiber communities.
Islands of fiber across the communities. Island across Colorado now which is very hard to build problem is there is no connectivity. Middle now is very important and 2/3 cities have done that and us our fiber link.
Milda Hedblom – Hiawatha Broadband
When you are utilizing such a legacy it can be a serious problem to the last mile
Another point to consider is that I can site a whole County put in dark fiber everywhere with the assumption there would be a lot of projects. Not one project has resulted in fact from that complete country wide of complete dark fiber.
So far it has been a problem of money about 2008
Small towns stopped talking and all sorts of revenue dried up. Usually municipals go for long term projects. That’s just an example.
We have 2500 miles of a private company of fiber across those miles and are finding that one of the issues that is a breaking point is price. If you get more companies to share that price to make if more feasible is a challenge.
Big problem to share the cost of pipes is the challenge. FCC did not address the problem
What is the goal of bandwidth? If environment, what kind of coverage will you get in the end? Middle mile maybe 1 gigabit but that is not enough
Lev – One of the compelling conversations is what is the apps of service and who will it serve? How will it change people’s lives? Who in that community know it’s a basic need? We need to develop mindshare that this is an important question when people don’t know when where their bread and butter is going to come from or how to retrain for the next opportunity that is there?
So the question is can we as a technology community partner with other and leaders like the Mayor in this room to develop thought leadership and talk about the methodology I have heard people talk about the kind of insight I heard Dan talking about? It’s not easy to do and you have to be persistent. It’s really about rolling up your sleeves and finding out what is their priorities and then you will answer the questions and strategy of why you need the last connected mile.
David – it concerns me that we are hearing more about the technology – it does seem to me that we are going to have to build that thought process. We are going to have to build one conduit for the fiber and another for the thought leadership. We have to make ready on both of them.
John – one problem is that we have found that we are being disruptive to their monopoly. Need to help them realize that this is a better way and help them move forward and still have their environment. These organizations like their paychecks and we are threatening their paychecks.
Why do we keep calling this the last mile when it should be called the first mile? People should be working on this first.
David – Katie, why did Chattanooga just go ahead and build less miles, why didn’t you say we will do the libraries fire police stations and the schools?
Katie - The answer to that is said in our mission statement is to improve quality of life and build and environment that is conducive to economic development. A couple of things are very crucial is access to what we call 2nd generation band services…it’s reliable electricity and our fiber deployment was built for our Smart Grid. It allows for more reliable electricity and reduces outages about 40%. In in a community of Chattanooga it is worth about 40%. Lots of advantages to a Smart Grid. If you are going to spend that money you might as well layer on 2nd generation services like broadband, triple play services, primarily for internet services. It really in our mission and broadband is crucial so that is why we got into the last mile. There are 7 municipalizes in the that provide these type of services and we love to be able to connect with them.
Michael Smeltzer – University of Illinois
Got funding to put fiber up and down the interstate to connect our communities.
When you have your own fiber you control your own destiny.
University bought fiber in 2002 and since then we do not care what providers do because we control our own. That is a key that you have those pipes throughout the state and the interstates are the place to put it. Illinois passed a law that if state money goes into funding a highway they have to put conduit in at the same time.
State wants to but intelligent transportation out there and fiber is the way to do it.
Ralf Muehlen - Internet Archive
Want to address economic the job opportunity things. We had stimulus money and hired 120 people to come in and scan books. We trained them and they did this the whole time Grant was running. We needed the network to do this and without the network in place we would not have been able to do this.
Pat Kennedy – Lit San Leandro, LLC
San Leandro industrial City in the East Bay.
Fiber comes in can crosses the City. It does not stop.
In downtown San Leandro it took me 8 months to get a Comcast line to run VOIP. AT&T line wouldn’t even run.
You don’t have to be among the cows not to have good fiber. I have a business that builds software for monitoring things, power plants, grids, etc.
Has his own company with a staff of 750 people.
Wants San Leandro to start to rebuild their own industrial base but who will buy for a million an acre and turn their foundries into warehouses.
San Leandro has a conduit, not fiber, they run street lights on, I am pulling at my expense putting fiber around the whole City will be good for business.
It’s also becomes a real estate thing to attract the second generation that will use it. We are looking at manufacturers and H1B visa, etc, that would be interested in moving in.
I’m going for the jobs first.
There are 3 public transfer providers going through there, as well as port, freeways and sewer plant.
They are missing the housing.
They are also a PG&E town and we are working on getting around with monopoly of them.
Muni Networks without a Municipality
David – What are the critical things a muni provides for broadband and what do you do when you have and investor owned utility.
Jim Baller – Baller Herbst Law Group
I want to build on some of the discussion here as well as what Katie said. First of all qualify those of you who know me I am very optimistic but a realist as well and face the challenge we need to fully address what we do. Want to examine the question that is presented. It predisposes that if you have a municipality and all these advantages it’s a piece of cake and it you take away all the advantages it predisposes if you remove the advantages where are you. Start out with what the advantages are and then tell you how hard it is even in the best of circumstances today to be successful on what we are trying to do here and bring fiber to the home.
What to do if you are a community that has a municipality collective. The entity has anchors to serve, utility needs, and serves other institutions of gov’t and schools, smart Grids, universal tours for schools systems. Have a number of anchor institutions that they serve first municipality serves those needs first and then other extensions from there. If want to provide services to the community at large, have some existing relationships, and have the ability to upgrade and finance your network with public works funding of various kinds, it is a possibly, you typically have a mentality in the community that we can do this. We have done it before as a result we have great network. You also typically have a reputation of quality services and there is community trust in that. If your community leaders say this is something we need to do those communities typically have a very strong dialog with their leadership and have a century long ethic of universal service. There have been many successful municipalities’ that got started years ago but did not have the challenges that we face today with the cable industry, cost of upgrades and other technological upgrades that we have today. It’s not all but nothing. You will have customers that are satisfied with what they have today. It’s all about economics. Stimulus dollars help but will go away.
The traditional way of looking at fiber to the home network with triple play, etc is eroding in all of its parts. If we ever get to the point that where we must have a regional or national sports program is available on a no part basis we can see the whole cable model collapse. Will have a significant effect on systems work and pay for themselves. On the broadband side we are ahead of ourselves. Public and FCC is not there yet. Surveys done that say consumers are generally satisfied with what they have. Don’t yet have high applications yet that have consumers say hey we need to have access these high powered networks to get to those applications. Community still does not know what broadband can do. Important for our pilot projects like Lev project and Google and other to demonstrate to the community what it can do. Need to also education community anchors. Also need to address questions about open access. Have new FCC rules those rules need to gain some real world experience. If you are a muni you have a lot of challenges as well opportunities but the future is not what it used to be.
There have been a lot of great ideas today. Last point is that it is marvelous to be having this type of dialogue. Not too long ago that broadband was like hearing Latin.
David – Who is here is from an investor run utility?
Mary Beth Henry – Portland, Oregon
Tried to take over an investor run utility and it did not happened. We tried everything and it did not work. Now we going back to the home community and create enough leadership to help the community understand why it’s really important. Big thing is the digital divide.
Monica Webb – Wired West
I don’t want to say it’s a problem…actually have been somewhat cooperative. Two investor utilities’ serving our town and both provided all their GIS pole date for mapping purposes. Now we have feelers out for smart grid and they are showing some interest.
Milo Medin – Google
We don’t have a problem with the Missouri side. Lots of interaction. Lawyers were the ones questioning about Title 2 or 6, FCC and licenses, etc. What happened in West Chester, man was talking to son about process and timelines, etc. and the kid said “dad it’s a gig and you have to do it”. Milo then realized that you have to get to senior management and get pass the lawyers.
Wess Kelly – Pulanski, NN
We are in the infrastructure business. You have a challenge when u are an electric utility company cause you do not trust anyone else to do it for you. One of the challenges you face is giving them enough comfort to use your infrastructure and partner with you on broadband projects and then they will it reliable and can depend on.
David – Table top lunch discussion topics:
Finance / Economics
Legal Barriers
What can I do with a Gig?
Entrepreneurial Group
Community Support / Leadership
2:00 Sponsor Welcomes & Keynotes
David – Introduction of sponsors and thanking them for making this happen.
David Russell – Calix
One year ago at a trade show David and I spoke about making this happen
In 2008, it dawned on me that in order to make things happen we needed to meet in a less formal environment
When on board of Fiber Home Council we tried to have some of this discussion and it did not happen. Felt importance of collaborating. Certain secret key to making these things successful and David you have the key.
Two things to say…Calyx the fiber to the home in 1990. Our frustration has always been that while fiber to the home has been very aggressive in telco market it has been slow in the municipal market has been a tough haul. Wants to see it progress as quickly as possible and with the financial problems over the last few years it’s becoming more difficult. Have become big believers in public/private partnerships. Grab some of the materials we have and take them home with you. There are 4 articles on public/private partnerships and how muni’s can get into fiber. If you feel that this is a good event please let us know.
Pat Kennedy – Lit San Leandro, LLC
Approached City Hall about him running fiber around the City. Told them it was important in a manufacturing town like San Leandro. Big public utilities will not let you in. They need cheap power and broadband. Theirs is powerless. Talked to Dave and said “I need some basic material”. City of San Leandro has a loop of conduit all around it but not connected to anything so BART who has had a program for years allowed us to install and intercept the San Leandro conduit to it. It’s been quite a change for the City. Why am I doing this…I really don’t know but is amazing how easy it is to get done if you pay for it. We are now pulling it and it touches all the schools and industries and hoping to see what’s next. Hope to have something better to report when you have your next conference.
Keynote Speakers
Joseph Reardon – Mayor, Kansas City, KS
Has learned a lot today. Has been Mayor last 6 years. They were selected by Google Fiber and it has been a very rewarding experience.
Little about Kansas City, Kansas –
155,000 county
Very diverse – ½ citizens minority, diverse economically
Smallest City in Kansas, most densely populated City in Kansas
Aging urban area, infrastructure on poles, most electrical underground
We own our own utilities, they provide electric and water generates electricity. They own nearly all of the physical assets required to get electrical into homes.
Does not have a public utility
4 school districts – lots of children on free lunch program
2007 in District 7 on their own dime years ago said every child going into high school would have a laptop
City and County merged together in 1997 and became one single unified gov’t
When merged, new Charter said must bring economic development to the City, bringing new businesses and vitality to the City
Has built a number of new partnerships…Nascar speedway, created an entire tourism area around there. Build an MLS soccer stadium and a new office campus healthcare and IT
Applied for Google Fiber and was accepted
Google Fiber also selected Kansas City, Missouri which is right next door
Joined forces with them and made a bi-state playbook on how to maximize a 1 gig team and apps
You need to have a groundswell of support to make this happen
We bring free access to public buildings and schools. Very key component.
Schools are connecting through Time Warner so no connections for the community centers, etc. There is a real cost for doing this. You need to have a real ground swell to really make this happen because the other financial things out there right now
All groups must have total buy-in. Experience: one group got it, another one did not, and then there is the group this in the middle. They had to sell why high speed internet matters. Went to Senior Groups.
Kansas City, Kansas brings a real partner to the table
Regulatory navigation
Access to city and county assets
Getting things through the process quickly
Brining partners together
Our relationship with Google is around infrastructure deployment and the access to get that deployment done. Once you get to the relationship with someone in an individual home that relationship would be Google’s and the execute it whatever way they want
This relationship with Google is copulated to be a long term relationship. First is for 10 years with renewals and if this relationship ends in the future and our contractual obligations how do we wind it out. Everything from valuing the assets at the time and giving the VPU our municipal utility the opportunity at the end of the relationship so there are lots of the agreement that exists around this on the back end even though we expect to be partner for a long time.
Ultimately it is about improving the quality of life and providing choices!
Katie Espeseth – Chattanooga EPB
David – Katie did it without Google so we owe you a round of applause
Background
Low point in was in 1969 when Walter Cronkite opened the news with Chattanooga was the dirtiest City in America.
Now one of the 10 Best Places to live
Operates the largest municipally owned fiber network in the country as well as the largest privately owned smart grid in the country
Started building project 2 ½ years ago and has 6,000 miles of fiber optic cable
600 square miles of internet that includes all of Hamilton county as well as pieces and parts of 9 additional counties in Tennessee as well as 2 counties in North Georgia
170,00 homes and business
32,000 residential customers
3500 additional customers on our network
We did this for 3 primary reasons:
First and foremost felt we had an obligation to modernize our infrastructure for reliable electricity to our rate payers
Our mission was to provide an environment that was conducive to economic development and we felt this would do that
Felt there would be enough people that would buy our services to pay for the bill and that is what happened
Smart Grid:
78,000 smart meters right now – buy this time next year will have 178,000. Can read meters remotely and if that is the only thing we did that the best
Saves us about 2 million a year in operational costs
Reductions in outages was important to us and based on our estimates along with TEA’s is that we have automatic restoration due to smart switches installed in network can result in a 40% reduction in outages. That means 40 million dollars of lost productivity restored immediately
People steal money from electoral companies. We get immediate notifications when someone has pulled their meter out of the socket and that costs all of us
Based on the number above, we have a savings of over 60 million a year
DOE awarded them a smart meter grant for $111 million smart meter grant
What this means is a bill we thought was going to take 10 years to pay will be paid in 3 years
What it is has meant to the community:
2400 new jobs
New companies coming to town – 15 new, Amazon Distribution Center, Cost Centers
Companies have publicly said that part of the reason for coming to town is they have access to these 2nd generation broad bands
Enhanced Education – Have partnered with Education Networks to provide 100 meg connections to most of the schools in area. Schools that have access to this say:
1 school principle said it increased efficiency by 2 hours a day which means 2 more hours a day with students
Another said 20 students at a time can interact at one time
Better entrepreneuraliships
Better healthcare
Increased recovery rates
Better monitoring
As a public utility our place is to provide the public infrastructure and open it up to other people to figure out what it is you do with a gig.
Lev Gonic – Case Western University
“Innovation happens when there is constraint”
Building Gigabit Fiber-to-the Home, One Neighborhood at a Time
The OneCommunity Vision & Mission
Vision: Advanced digital capabilities and effective use of technology will help transform the region and establish N.E. Ohio as a national hub for innovation and economic growth
Mission: To expand high-speed broadband access and adoption to strengthen N.E. Ohio
What OneCommunity Does
Operate regional fiber network across NEO
Connect more than 2,000 “public interest” sites
Provide WiFi, PCs and training to thousands of underserved citizens
Innovative Social Enterprise
Founded 2003 as 501(c)(3)
Strong recurring earned-income streams ($MM) bolstered by public and private grants
Serve thousands of:
Public-interest sites via fiber for a fee
Underserved residents with free WiFi/WiMax
Open-access network to carriers that serve businesses/consumers (wired and wireless)
Dedicated program office to drive adoption and use
Connect Your Community (CYC)
National pilot project with training partners in Cleveland, Akron, and Lorain plus other states
$10 million grant to provide free digital literacy training to 10,500 households in N.E. Ohio; 3,000 completed to date
HealthNet
Won $11.3MM award to connect rural hospitals
Technology to drive improved government outcomes:
$45 MM in capital to provide robust broadband to 800 new “community anchor institutions” (CAI’s) and other providers over next two years
Requires matching support (total 30%) through:
Capital contributions i.e. last mile
Operating revenues during grant period
Dark fiber sales
In-kind donations, i.e., conduit or IRU’s
Gig.U: The University-Community Next Generation Innovation Project
On July 27, 2011, 29 leading research universities, working in partnership with their local communities, announced the formation of Gig.U
Mission – Accelerate the deployment of world-leading, next generation networks in the United States
Purpose – Provide an opportunity to lead in the next generation of ultra-high speed network services and applications
For new test-beds to foster experimentation and innovation, it makes sense to work with communities that have strong traditions of experimentation and innovation
Strategy –
Identify and utilize strategic target markets.
Develop test-beds for next-gen network deployments and app development
Tactical Approach
Use collective action to attract private capital
Aggregate demand
Lower transaction costs
Use competitive forces to reveal trade-offs
Advantages of University-communities
Demand for bandwidth is the greatest
Positive impact of network access is greatest too
Cost of deployment is the least
The Origins of the Case Connection Zone
Gigabit Fiber-to-the-HOME research project of Case Western Reserve University
Corroborate the National Broadband Plan’s value proposition:
Ultra-high-speed network can improve the quality of life
Health and wellness
Home energy management
Public safety
STEM education at the high-school level
The Case Connection Zone is a research project with the goal of bringing 1 Gigabit internet connectivity to the neighborhoods surrounding Case Western Reserve University. This project is sponsored by Case Western Reserve University.
Perimeter Security and Remote Monitoring of homes
Energy Management
Working with Intwine Energy, we have installed whole house electric and gas monitors in several of the beta block homes. Residents get real time feedback from Intwine’s website on whether their efforts to conserve were effective.
From their smart phones, residents can control WiFi-connected thermostats. Using this they and reduce electric and gas consumption while still keeping their homes comfortable when they are at home.
STEM EDUCATION
Connecting CWRU faculty and community experts to the Early College High School and the Architecture and Design High School students extends a great high school program in ways never before possible in high schools. Classes are conducted remotely using one-to-many video connections.
The expectation is that exposing students to exciting ideas will entice them to pursue college STEM majors and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
HOME HEALTHCARE
Case Connection Zone is working with clinicians from Case Western Reserve University Student Health Services, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine to help improve home healthcare with Case Connection Zone’s ultra high-speed 1 Gigabit internet connection. Our goal is to improve quality of healthcare while reducing the cost of healthcare—fewer trips to doctor’s office, emergency room, and hospital via one-to-one hi-def videoconferencing between the doctor and patient.
NEW BUSINESSES
Collaborative Theater uses the gigabit network to provide a patient specific virtual surgery theater based on that patient’s medical imagery (CT and MR) transformed by Surgical Theater into a 3D real-time dynamic and interactive modeled environment. The Collaborative Theater will form a nationally connected-health platform allowing surgeons to collaboratively work on surgery cases through real time, simultaneous interaction on an accurate model of patient’s anatomy. Surgeons from two remote sites “step into” the Collaborative Theater and work together on the virtual patient case and will jointly perform a virtual surgery.
IT’S ALL ABOUT GIG APPLICATIONS
Milo Medin – Google Fiber
“It’s not enough to win…others have to loose” Genghis Kahn
It’s an interesting time.
Telcos are not investing in residential fiber
Comcast gross operating margin is 93.2%
Time Warners is above 90%
Big problem in America is that not all communities are the same
Google is now trying to figure out how to deliver a gigabit affordably
Cost control is very important
One thing that is important is the process optimism
Did not want tax breaks
Wanted process improvement i.e. dedicated inspectors, expedited timing
Moving the web from megabits to gigabits
Sharing information about Kansas was chosen for Google role out
Focused on product not PR
This is the beginning of more lessons to come
Incumbents became a real challenge
Clean decision making is vital
When labor is a dominant part of your expenses process is everything
You have to scale
Be creative
Best practices:
Endless conversation cycles should be minimalized
Look for collaboration between jurisdictions
“where will it work”
Challenges:
Regulation
Incumbents
Processes
Costs
4:00 BOF Reports & Discussion
Table Talk
Legal and Political – Jim Baller
Crazy barriers to deployment of fibers
Sewer works not compliant to residential laws
Legislation proposed for running conduit but Department transportation is reluctant to doing anything
Lesson learned on ground cable, no incentive for feds to do anything so we need to propose solutions and publicly shame them. It is reasonably likely we will see a change this year in bills
Best strategies
Messaging incumbents - letting them know all of the advantages and should be for change
What has worked in economic development
Educational development
Find allies/legislators right away NOW
Be prepared to sale at retail as well as wholesale levels
New and important thing besides answering every argument is to galvanize young people and do Facebook/social media campaigns to get them into it and get things moving. We do not know how to do it but someone must.
Emulate a cultural revolution through social media
Apps for a Gig – Jeremy Pietzold
Healthcare – being able to remotely do procedures without the bandwidth
More devices in your home – City of Sandy’s bandwidth increasing day after Christmas due to Xbox’s, Wii’s, etc. When you put a number of devices in one home it may be a detriment two your bandwidth
Streaming HD football and gadgets on there…Super Bowl
ESPN with multiple feeds – look at a different picture at your pleasure and speed
Videos streaming – do not hae to wait for it. Will be right there when flipping channels
Home Clouds – Google has helped schools go to the clouds and Google docs is excellent. Save everything in the clouds.
Speeds need to be astronomical
10 gigs for holograms
Ask high schools to see what they can come up with
HE cameras – 1 gig to upload pictures. What can we really do with 3D HD, holligrams, etc. Would change healthcare, wellness and cultures
Not all HD images are the same
Extension to Google Docs – what we see now could never be done on today’s apps
Financing Table – Tim Nulty
The municipal market has not dried up
7 billion awarded by the government just now for different projects. Over the next couple of yours we will see what kind of projects will happen
What about today?
Sometimes Cities can borrow money if you are a utility
Vast majority of muni’s will not allow for financing
So now unguaranteed markets need:
Guaranteed vendors or whole model getting service providers to fund for exclusivity if you have to do it
Second way is a pilot – get something that gets it established and a layer of equity. He has already gotten 3 calls from bankers that may be able to get paper
Friends and family – must be careful with your numbers but it can be done on a small project
Needs to be major leadership like Google to take a significant role in financing
Ultimately have to have a replical model to push against the county muni utilities to make it work for the last mile
Really need to education muni’s about the return
The fact is, we should be a little cautious about what some muni’s are wonting to do. Some are moving forward, including large agricultural pieces and leadership questions. Muni’s are capable of making the long term move.
Many muni’s have built without electrical utilities
Need to help elect people who understand
Entrepreneurial Group – John
How to build infrastructure if you do not have a muni
Look a dark fiber to sale – put out an RFI…what that got him was a sole source provider
Work with muni to be a construction provider. Once the contract is done it’s over. They go in and put in a second cable and the rest of the cable is theirs
Reduce your cost. Stream the process. Get creative.
Suppliers:
Fixed prices
Possible separate entities
Architecture – build it and build it so strong that is can be used 10 to 15 years from now
Community Support and Leadership – Tony Perez
Things took an interesting turn. Rather than looking at community support and asked if we are really asking for Politian’s for large broadband networks. They are risk resistant and may not want to take over networks. Are more concerned about pot holes
However…11,000 communities applied with Google Fiber. Political leader have a responsibility to look at broadband
Need to have demonstrated projects. Need to let people see what it does and can accomplish. Hear examples of how everyone is excited, communities, hospitals, etc.
Share that this is going to take time and relate how the process is
Important for leaders to engage the community for what is good and where they want to go. Tell people how they can grow with broadband
Success factor is not money but setting the vision. If you don’t know what you are building it is not going to end well
David –
This has been an amazing day. What I would like to see post event is:
A summary of what we heard today
Even though it is not directly related to this, the way things get in the way. Learned how to overcome barriers
Another provocative idea of leadership and what communities may want verses what we are going to do
Replicable models – projects for showing something and the results
5:30 Reception