I want to thank David Russell for sending me this terrific presentation on FTTH. It outlines the national perspective and includes costs for deploying FTTH. The costs were put together for the FCC staff using real life numbers from Minnesota and Wisconsin, with the assistance of Finley Engineering, Hiawatha and Jaguar.

The numbers are dramatically different than the costs estimated in the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force Report (pg 73). I have no firsthand knowledge of actual costs but thought that this might be interesting for readers for the financial information but also the technical detail.

Thanks to Gary Fields for the following update.

On November 3, the Saint Louis County Board approved financial support for the Lake County Fiber Network to expand into the northeastern portions of Saint Louis County. Lake County plans to submit a funding application for the next round of stimulus funds to expand the fiber-to-the-home network to include the area that includes Ely, Babbit, Aurora, Hoyt Lakes, Embarrass and the rural areas in-between these communities. “We are excited about adding these communities to the network,” said Paul Bergman, the Lake County Board chairman. “It allows us to double the number of subscribers, while adding proportionally less cost to serve them. Our network will be financially stronger.”

The Lake County Network will be owned by Lake County and will be developed and operated by National Public Broadband, Inc., a national non-profit organization that serves municipally owned networks. Symmetric broadband speed up to 100 megabits per second, along with voice and video services, will be available on the network. Tim Nulty, CEO of NPB, added, “We look forward to changing what people perceive as being possible – that you can serve rural areas with affordable, state-of-the-art fiber-based broadband without needing local taxpayer subsidies.” The Lake County Network will be accessible by all homes and businesses that have electrical service within its footprint.

For more information, please contact Gary Fields, CFO, National Public Broadband at gfields@nationalpublicbroadband.org

Here’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compilation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled.

News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

NTIA/RUS Funding Update
The NTIA/RUS asked states to recommend local ARRA applications for funding consideration. States responded by October 14, 2009. http://tinyurl.com/yf4pfmz Minnesota has elected to not make their list public. http://tinyurl.com/ygdegcs NTIA’s Larry Strickling says they will take their time to sift through states’ recommendations and fund the right programs. http://tinyurl.com/yk9334s It sounds as if notification in December is likely.

Broadband Task Force Meetings
The Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force met three times in October http://tinyurl.com/yhxa332 to put the finishing touches on the final recommendations for the Minnesota Legislature, which will be unveiled on November 6. http://tinyurl.com/yjoeel7 The Task Force has been generous with sharing the draft recommendations. The last version available is from September 15 http://tinyurl.com/ydd5px7. Many changes have been made since – especially in terms of cost and financial details and plans for ongoing broadband support – but the early draft will give a glimpse at what’s to come.

Blandin Offers Advice to Task Force
The Blandin Foundation Broadband Strategy Board sent a letter to the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force offering advice and praise for the hard work the Task Force has been doing. http://tinyurl.com/yfu5w89 The Blandin Strategy Board and Task Force will be presenting together at the Blandin Broadband Conference later this month. http://tinyurl.com/n4gqvb

Blandin Broadband Conference
The Blandin Broadband conference is coming up November 18-19 in Duluth. http://tinyurl.com/n4gqvb The theme is Realizing our Broadband Future: Getting from Here to There. It will focus on the future of Minnesota communities, providing community leaders with the information and tools they need to position their communities in the future. The agenda is now online. http://tinyurl.com/yfbyvw9  You can also follow the conference on Twitter #mnbb09 or http://twitter.com/BFBroadband  

Dakota County Smart21
Congratulations to Dakota County, named one of the Smart21 communities by the Intelligent Community Forum. http://tinyurl.com/yh9jz4w Past Blandin Conference attendees may remember hearing from Robert Bell of the Intelligent Community Forum in 2008. http://tinyurl.com/yhox22m

Local Broadband News

Cook County
Cook County posts an RFP for the design and construction of a FTTP network. http://tinyurl.com/yjjg7hl

Duluth
Broadband comes up early on in the Gubernatorial race. http://tinyurl.com/y8jjnuw  

Fargo/Moorhead
PEPP creates a video series of interviews with Latin@s in Fargo/Moorhead about their internet needs, challenges and benefits. http://tinyurl.com/yc7gauo  

Lac qui Parle
The Lac qui Parle County EDA receives a $25,000.00 grant from the Blandin Foundation to prepare a Robust Broadband Network Feasibility Study. http://tinyurl.com/yavserl  

Lake County
Lake County plans are on hold as they wait on word of ARRA funding. http://tinyurl.com/yjhngz6  

Maple Grove
Maple Grove Fire Department improves communication with a wireless solution. http://tinyurl.com/ya8by6v  

Minneapolis
Minneapolis Summit features great uses of technology but most uses require access to broadband. http://tinyurl.com/yb5qpfh  

Southern Minnesota
Southern Minnesota plans are on hold as they wait on word of ARRA funding. http://tinyurl.com/yas8u4j  

Monticello
TDS offers 50Mbps service in Monticello. http://tinyurl.com/yjdhbu9  

Windom
Windom plans are on hold as they wait on word of ARRA funding. http://tinyurl.com/yjhngz6  

(Many stories are gathered from local online newspaper. Unfortunately each newspaper has a different policy in regards to archive news and therefore we cannot guarantee access to all articles cited.)

Coleman’s Corner

There is a tremendous amount of broadband and telecommunications policy discussion happening right now. The FCC, the MN Ultra High Speed Task Force, and the Jim Baller-led US Broadband Coalition have released or are working on policy documents. (Jim is the keynote speaker at the upcoming Blandin Broadband Conference.) Some stakeholders in this discussion have firm views on the best approach to ensuring broadband delivery to all Americans.

My work on broadband extends from the Twin Cities suburbs to the most rural areas of Minnesota. The variety of situations that I encounter makes it difficult to be so philosophically pure on telecommunications issues. The situational analysis and the available alternative solution strategies are quite different depending on each community’s combination of geography, demography, existing providers, prospective competitive providers, existing public technology networks and community leadership. What seems impossible in some places might be the best solution in another; while what seems like a slam-dunk in one place might be ill advised in another. The decisions made by one community influence what might be possible — positively or negatively — in the adjacent community or rural area.

What’s my point? Simply this: in the absence of financial or regulatory policy guaranteeing that every Minnesotan has broadband access (neither of which seems likely from either the federal or state government), we should not be so quick proscribe the “right” way for broadband deployment. Each community, county or region had better be working to improve their own broadband situation. Seek out all partners, maximize every dollar spent on technology to benefit the community, however community is defined.

Finally, the MN Ultra High Speed Internet Task Force report strongly promotes public-private market development efforts to spur adoption of broadband; providers heavily promoted this concept as the appropriate role for government. Heretofore, however, many communities have found that getting providers to participate in community initiatives can be difficult. Communities should be aggressive in using the task force report to convince providers that they need to be at the table. It might even be a good idea to document this process and to let the legislature know how the providers are following their own advice.

Cook County recently posted a Request for Proposal looking for “qualified firms to submit a proposal for the design and construction management of a planned FTTP network. This RFP is specifically for engineering services to design a fiber network throughout the County and to then manage the construction of the network.” You can learn more on the Cook County web site. Good luck!

Here’s the news from DSL Reports:

Wisconsin-based TDS Telecom (see our user reviews) today announced that the company will soon launch 50 Mbps downstream and 20 upstream upstream fiber service in Monticello, Minnesota. According to the company, the service will cost customers $64.95/month when bundled with local phone service. For those who don’t want to bundle, the company also offers a nice looking “Broadband Raw” tier, that includes 50 Mbps service and local access to 911 services for $49.95/month.

As DSL Reports points out, the road to ultra high speed broadband in Monticello has been long and winding – but they now have great speeds and a good price. It seems as if competition has been good to the residents and businesses in Monticello.

I was recently visiting the FTTH Conference & Expo in Houston as a speaker.

It´s the biggest FTTH event in North America and I found it encouraging to see that the attendance numbers (1700) matched the year before and that the current economic situation hasn’t reduced the interest of investing in future proof FTTH networks. There were also a lot of discussions on the US Broadband Stimulus Program and how it will treat FTTH projects relative other type of broadband technologies. FTTH Council has been lobbying that future proof FTTH infrastructure should have precedence over other more short term solutions. One of the issues here is the current definition of broadband, which buy current FCC definition is “above 768 kbps”. Even though the stimulus program is targeted for “unserved” or “underserved” areas you could argue that the goals should be higher if we talk about investing in new infrastructure.

Looking at Japan and South Korea, which are the leading countries for FTTH deployments (where now more than 50% of all broadband subscribers in Japan have FTTH and South Korea following close behind), they have set the goals even higher. As an example the South Korean stimulus program is targeting a nation wide coverage of 1 Gbps service by 2012, which will ensure an infrastructure for innovation and position South Korea as a leading IT nation while creating new jobs (120 000 expected). In terms of FTTH penetration Sweden is on the third place on a global ranking with 20% penetration and it has been clear for many years in Sweden that FTTH is the future proof broadband infrastructure. As example, the Swedish Association of Municipal Housing Companies (SABO) has stated that they will roll out broadband of 1 Gbps to all of its member companies’ apartments in what the organisation is referring to as “the second wave of broadband”.

My speech was about the different business models and regulatory environments we see for FTTH, from the traditional vertical operator business to different variants of “open” networks and the different actors and their roles. As exemplified above the government has a key role of defining the goals of the broadband infrastructure for the country as well as the house owners realizing that connecting their house with FTTH gives them access to the future proof broadband infrastructure.

The Lac qui Parle County Economic Development Authority (EDA) has received a $25,000.00 grant from the Blandin Foundation to prepare a Robust Broadband Network Feasibility Study for an Ultra-High Speed fiber optic network across Lac qui Parle County in partnership with Farmer’s Mutual Telephone Company. Lac qui Parle County EDA has retained the services of U-reka Broadband Ventures of Stillwater, MN to prepare the study. “The Lac qui Parle EDA is very excited to explore the possibility of bringing fiber-to-the-premise technology to all of Lac qui Parle County. This network will be an economic development driver and make us competitive locally, regionally and worldwide”, said Pam Lehmann of the Lac qui Parle EDA.

U-reka Broadband will assist in developing the Engineering, Operational and Market Development plan for the feasibility study over the next two months. The study will be the basis for an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) application for federal stimulus dollars. “U-reka Broadband is pleased to be able to assist the Lac qui Parle County EDA working in conjunction with Lac qui Parle County and Farmer’s Mutual Telephone Company in developing an infrastructure that will not only make them competitive today but also in the future, we commend the public-private partnership being developed between the parties”.

John Schultz from U-reka Broadband was good enough to tell me a little bit more about the plan, “This network is logical for many reasons, first from a technology standpoint it leverages the already substantial investment that Farmers Mutual has made in bringing fiber-to-the-premise to its existing subscriber base. Second it is logical as there is no necessity to build a new set of voice, video and ISP infrastructure to support this new customer base. Third is the reasoning that both parties realize that working together can bring a more effective and economically viable network. Instead of fighting between municipalities and service providers these two see the value in collaboration”.

The Lake County Fiber Network project is an initiative to connect homes and businesses (schools, hospitals, everyone) in Lake County with a fiber optic cable to provide telephone, high-speed internet and television services.

The federal stimulus funding actually stimulated the effort in Lake County. Local providers were talking about it taking 10-15 years to build out a fiber network. So the county decided to take action. They engaged each local unit of government in Lake County to support them in an effort to apply for the BIP for low interest loans and grants.

The County realized that while they want and need the service; they didn’t want to be the actual providers. So, they will not operate the network; they wanted contract with a third party to operate the network. They had talked with providers but again found out that fiber was not in their short or midterm strategic plans. This point was highlighted at a Two Harbor City Council meeting in which a Frontier representative said that if the project went through he would give away service for free for two years.

Lake County will be working with National Public Broadband, Inc., NPB a non-profit company comprised of a team of people who have already built and operated publicly-owned networks. NBP started with a market study that indicated that the market is there to provide service. Specifically,

1. People want faster Internet and higher quality communications. Recognition that fiber is critical infrastructure.
2. People want service close to home and they want to be able to talk to someone pretty local to get their issues resolved.
3. People want less expensive connectivity for communications.

Lake County applied for ARRA stimulus funding; they requested $11,050,770 in grants and $22,436,409 in loans. Here’s the summary from the application:

The Project will be the first rural county fiber network in the U.S. to fully serve every home and institution that is currently served by wired telephone or electrical service. The advanced services offered will be priced lower than the very limited services currently available. The Project will be a public-private partnership between Lake County and National Public Broadband, a non-profit org.

If funding is achieved as expected in 2009, construction could begin in 2010 with full scale operation available in 2011.

Chris Swanson has been very active through the process and was kind enough to share some simple advice for communities who are considering their broadband future:

Communities need to figure out creative ways to get high end telecommunications infrastructure into their communities for the delivery of Internet to each home and business. Otherwise like the railroad, highways or electricity if it passes you town and doesn’t stop it will leave you behind.

According to the Star Tribune, Anoka County is looking into improved broadband access. It sounds as if they are considering seeking federal money – but before they go down that road or any other they are wisely doing a market survey. They have sent surveys to 900 Anoka County residents and have planned three public meetings scheduled for 7:00 pm on September 29, October 1, and October 8; the first meeting is at Spring Lake Park High School.

You can get more info on all three meetings on Connect Anoka County web site. In fact they have a lot of useful information. They have their questionnaire online. So if you’re from the area you can chime in; if you’re not from Anoka you might borrow their form for your area.

Back to the article, I have to include my favorite quote in the article from Commissioner Robyn West. She is on the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force. Many of the members of the Task Force are long standing super geeks. (I type that with admiration.) I’m going to say that Robyn was probably not a lifelong super geek, so it has been interesting to hear her take on things; I think she values the investment of broadband more after a year with the Task Force – as demonstrated in the quote.

“When I got on the High Speed Task Force, my attitude was: ‘You want high-speed broadband, you move where they have it.’ But this generation that we have raised, they’re already doing a majority of their business on the Internet. They buy things, sell things, bank on the Internet, take classes on the Internet.

If there’s a way to pave the way and improve broadband service for the people of Anoka County, we’d like to be on track to prepare the next generation.”

Griff Wigley was kind enough to post an update on Northfield’s plan for their fiber future (in the post comments). They decided that the ARRA stimulus funding did not make sense. Here’s the update he quoted:

It was reported that Northfield had greater opportunities to fund a FTTP network by pursuing a low interest loan rather than applying for federal stimulus dollars. Staff was asked to research alternative financing options and report back to Council. This discussion item will update the Council on the financing options that were researched.

I feel as if I only have half the story here, but I’ll share what I know. (I saw the notice on Facebook, funny enough.)

According to a recent St Paul City news flash…

Saint Paul and Ramsey County are joining together in a bid to provide high speed fiber optic connectivity to support the delivery of city and county services to the public. The project is intended to provide a fiber optic network that will serve both city and county buildings with flexibility to expand to other public entities and school districts depending on their needs. The new broadband network would also have a community benefit component.

They posted an RFP looking for a partner to build the network. The proposals are due October 12, 2009.

The city and county are pursuing a grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to pay for the replacement, estimated between $20-25 million. The Recovery Act includes $4.7 billion in funding for broadband initiatives. The private company awarded the contract would match 20 percent of the grant and utilize the second conduit for both their use and also to provide community benefits.

I assume they are thinking about Round 2 RUS funding.

The list/database of NTIA applications for broadband stimulus funding came out late last week. Minnesotans submitted 28 applications in the hopper. Chris Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self Reliance took a look at the applications in terms of who best deserves the money to bring last mile connectivity to rural Minnesota. Chris, who would lean heavily towards community-based networks, put Lake County, Cook County, and City of Windom. He also favorably mentions the applying cooperatives and Jaguar Communication, which uses an open network. Chris has done a good job analyzing and distilling the infrastructure applications in Minnesota – so I thought I’d look at the broader picture.

There are 31 applications that are either submitted from Minnesota or plan to cover at least a part of Minnesota. (Applications received from outside Minnesota are listed below – where it says click for more info.)

How much?
Total grant funds requested: $306,655,771
Total loans requested: $107,641,221
Total when combined: $414,269,992

Who is submitting?
Applications from businesses: 18
Applications from government entities (counties, cities, schools): 5
Applications from cooperatives: 2
Applications from nonprofits: 2
Applications from private/public partnerships: 2
Applications from tribal entities: 2

What type of technology will they use?
Fiber: 13
Wireless: 6
DSL: 3
Not specified (in the summary provided): 3
Adoption focused: 5

Where are they?
Twin Cities: 4
Not specified: 1
ND: 2
WI (and partial MN): 1
The rest are in rural Minnesota. I was going to look for counties represented but too many summaries were too broad. When or if I can get more details I look into it.

Anyone going for more than one?
Donny Smith: 4
Hastad Telephone: 4
TDS: 2
John Schultz: 3
City of Minneapolis: 2

*There were a couple of applications that mention Minnesota but were not submitted from a Minnesota address:

Congrats to Monticello. Here’s the news from the press release:

NATOA Announces Recipients of Community Broadband Awards for Outstanding Endeavors to Bring Broadband to More Communities and Consumers

Alexandria, VA – September 9, 2009 – The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Board of Directors today announced the recipients of NATOA’s 2009 Community Broadband Awards. These honors are awarded to exceptional leaders and innovative programs that champion community interests and broadband deployment in local communities nationwide. Recipients will receive their awards at NATOA’s 29th Annual Conference, to be held in New Orleans from September 30 to October 2.

“NATOA’s Community Broadband Awards proudly recognize the people, communities, and organizations that lead the nation in promoting community interests through broadband projects,” said Mary Beth Henry, president of the NATOA Board of Directors.

The award recipients were chosen based on their extraordinary efforts, achievements, and innovation in community-based approaches to broadband. These individuals, organizations, and communities have distinguished themselves in the effort to ensure that more American communities and citizens benefit from new technology.
The 2009 Community Broadband Award recipients are:

Community Broadband Visionary of the Year:
Chris Vein, Chief Information Officer of the City and County of San Francisco, for providing free broadband Internet service to residents of San Francisco public housing, by piloting high-bandwidth health care services over fiber optics for vulnerable communities, and for demonstrating vision and innovation in community broadband solutions.

Community Broadband Hero of the Year:
John L. Byrd, Mobile Command Unit leader and Sergeant of the Harris County (TX) Sheriff’s office, for building mobile command unit capabilities that, during and after Hurricane Ike, deployed to the affected area for a record 72 days to enable emergency communications and field emergency 911 calls. In the absence of this effort, the affected community would have been without emergency services during a major natural disaster.

Community Broadband Organization of the Year:
City of Monticello, MN, for its vision and courage in planning a community fiber-to-the-home network and for fighting in the courts against an anti-competition incumbent for its right to determine its own broadband and economic future.

Community Broadband Project of the Year:
MI Connection, a public broadband communications network owned and operated by a consortium of municipalities in North Carolina that refused to accept sub-standard broadband and cable service and decided to deliver better quality themselves.

Community Broadband Wireless Network of the Year:
Digital Redwoods, Digital Rio Dell, and Access Humboldt, a series of municipal and community wireless broadband media projects that make wireless service available to vulnerable communities in six areas of Humboldt County in rural California.

Community Broadband Fiber Network of the Year:
Bristol Virginia Utilities, for pioneering community fiber to the home and for demonstrating how true broadband can bring jobs and economic development to rural America.
Honorable Mentions for Community Broadband Awards for 2009:

• Wes Rosenbaum, President and CEO, Bristol Virginia Utilities
• Alvarion and the City of Binghamton’s Public Safety WiMax Program
• Alvarion and City of Elmira Public Housing Wireless Program
• City of Boston Fiber Network and IT Department
• Michael Butler, Director of Network Services, Palm Beach County, Florida
• Oregon Regional Fiber Consortium
• Mayor Thomas Menino, Boston, Massachusetts
• Click! Network, Takoma, Washington
• IRNE Network, Portland, Oregon
• Palm Beach Broadband
• Pleasant City-Delray Beach Digital Inclusion Program
• Steve Bordelon, CIO, Palm Beach, Florida

For more information on the award recipients, the NATOA Community Broadband Awards, and NATOA’s efforts to bring about a national broadband strategy that recognizes the vital and integral role of local governments, visit www.natoa.org or contact Tonya Rideout, acting executive director, or Mary Beth Henry, president, at the number above.

NATOA promotes community interests in communications. A national trade association based in Alexandria, VA, NATOA represents local government jurisdictions and consortiums, including elected and appointed officials and staff, who oversee communications and cable television franchising.
###

Over the weekend, 13 communities were recognized in a Community Pride Contest. People could nominate a community based on whatever made them proud. So it was fun to see that the Staples area signed up (and won!) based on their fiber broadband initiative.

Here’s their story:

Project/Initiative: Fiber Broadband Initiative

Reinventing and connecting rural and urban communities statewide is the goal of a consortium effort in Staples, a community of 3,100 in Todd County. Leaders from the K-18 system, area businesses and nonprofits, and the City of Staples see broadband capacity as key to economic growth and development and a means to ensuring long-term survival of the community: “This is truly an opportunity to reinvent a low-income, rural area by establishing the groundwork necessary to bring in new people, new ideas, and new economic opportunities.”

This initiative involves the installation of fiber optic lines to bring high speed internet to all homes and businesses in Greater Staples. In February 2009, phase one of this effort—installation of a direct wireless system to make wireless internet available to those just outside Staples city limits—went live. Phase two will involve installation of the broadband ‘backbone’ that will link each collaborative entity.

Planners believe that the community collaborative team approach is unique; the collaborative team is willing and excited to document and share its methods with other communities undertaking ‘big picture’ projects.

Selected Key Partners: City of Staples; Lakewood Health Systems; Central Lakes College; Motley-Staples Schools; LEAP Staples Business Group.

They won for communities with a population between 1,000-4,999.