community broadband networks

Netflix has continued to publish monthly rankings of ISPs average speed in delivering Netflix video content to subscribers. Though they first published data about the largest, national ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and the link, they have an expanded list with many more ISPs.

I recognize two municipal networks on the expanded list of 60 ISPs. For March 2014, the Chattanooga EPB network is ranked 4th and CDE Lightband of Clarksville, Tennessee, is ranked 7th.

With the exception of Google Fiber and Cablevision, the top 10 are regional or somewhat smaller ISPs. Combined with the significant spread across the rankings of the biggest ISP, we see no empirical evidence for any kind of benefits to subscribers from scale. That is to say, Netflix data shows that bigger ISPs do not deliver better customer experience.

We do see more evidence that fiber networks deliver faster speeds on average, with cable following, and DSL trailing distantly. This is why DSL networks are losing customers where people have a choice and cable is gaining (most often where there is no fiber option).

Any claims by Comcast that allowing it to merge with Time Warner Cable would result in better service should be subject to extreme skepticism. Many much smaller networks deliver faster connections and raise rates far less often that Comcast, which is at the high end of frequency in rate hikes.

The problem with the biggest companies is that they focus on generating the highest returns for Wall Street, not delivering the best experience to Main Street.

The proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal will be on everyone's mind for many months to come. Thanks to Harold Feld, it is now possible to follow the process as it moves forward. Feld began a series of posts earlier this month that map out the review as it moves from the Department of Justice Antitrust Division to the Federal Communications, and finally to Congress. As Feld notes, the entire process will last six months at least and could run for more than a year. 

In addition to drawing a process map, Feld provides insightful subtleties on the purpose behind each step in the review. He also offers political analysis that may influence the outcome. Feld gets into the unique review process, burdens of proof, and relevant definitions at each stop along the way. Highly recommended, especially for law students.

Part I - Introduction

Part II - Antitrust Review at the DOJ

Part III - Federal Communications Commission analyzes public interest

Part IV - The proposal moves through the committee process and the public has a chance to express themselves to their elected officials (including lobbyists)

This is the second in a series of posts examining a premier Gigabit Community - Wilson, North Carolina. The first post is available here.

It's all about the Upload. If you are the owner of a small engineering business with dense blueprints to send to your European clients, or a specialized country doctor who depends on the quick transmission of x-rays, a digital film effects company, a photographer or a local broadcaster, your ability to upload your dense information to your colleagues, clients, and residents means business. For Gig City, Wilson in North Carolina, offering gigabit upload speeds to its community is essential to ensure local businesses thrive.

According to a recent Speed.Net report, upload speeds in the United States compared to the rest of the world are dismal. If you live in Hong Kong (60 Mbps), Singapore (47Mbps) and South Korea (44Mbps), you are in the drivers' seat with the fastest upload speeds in a world where time wasted means money. If you are in the U.S., as of February 2014, you're in the slow lane. We rank 41st at 6.69 Mbps. But not if you live in Wilson. With access to Greenlight's gigabit residential upload speeds, living in Wilson means being competitive and working easily with the world's top achievers.

The owners of Wilson-based Exodus FX know this. Digital artists Brad Kalinoski and Tinatsu Wallace found Wilson in their nearly impossible search for small-town affordability but world-class broadband infrastructure. Two years ago, they started a small growing boutique that caters to the visual effects needs of global film and television production companies. When their broadband rates in West Virginia skyrocketed despite the local broadband infrastructure seriously underperforming, the company's survival depended on relocating.

"We had to choose an area that could offer a low cost of doing business, while delivering an infrastructure better than that of other states and countries," wrote Mr. Kalinoski, a three-time, award nominee for his special effects contributions to Black Swan and LOST, the Final Season. "We even considered places like Seattle, Japan, Austin and Kansas City for its Google fiber. But when weighing the cost of living, cost of doing business, diversity and broadband infrastructure, it really wasn't much of a debate." They moved to Wilson."In less than an eight hour period, we pushed almost 18 Gigabyte of data to and from New York, Los Angeles, Canada and to other states. We are finding that the bottleneck is no longer us, it's the client's bandwidth."

"Timing out" and "that bottleneck" drew web-designer and digital musician, Dave Baumgartner, to Wilson as well. "I was doing consulting web design work from my home in Raleigh using Time Warner Cable's "Turbo boost" Internet access, but could not get my file uploads to clients on the west coast to complete because they would time out." This was the fastest residential internet access available in Raleigh. "I would start an upload before dinner, it was still going when I went to sleep, and failed by the next morning."

Dave moved to Wilson which allowed him to serve and provide innovative web design to clients anywhere in the country. "Having a fast and reliable connection also allowed me to test bandwidth-intensive technologies like embedded HD video and audio, and various streaming technologies." (Greenlight does not data cap the way other large incumbents are known to do.) Dave recently recorded a vocal drum track in Wilson for a group based in another state, and then sent the files to their producer in California in what seemed like fractions of a second. He is now in talks to be involved in a recording project where no two performers are in the same state, and a few of them are in Europe. In between all that, Dave and Wilson's Greenlight operations found each other. He is now Greenlight's web designer.

Designing the future is what also attracted Wake Forest fiber optic entrepreneur, and aviation photographer, Dan Holt, to Wilson. He can't move to Wilson because he owns his home in Wake Forest, so he commutes 30 minutes each way to access Wilson's gigabit symmetrical speeds from his satellite office at the City's local business incubator. His vision for the Wake Forest Fiber Optic Initiative started years ago "even before Time Warner Cable released their 30/5 and 50/5 tiers." "I am an aviation photographer, and rely on service like flckr and smugmug (and more recently Google+ and Google drive) to backup my photos. More often than not, each one of my photos averages about 25 Mb each." A couple of thousand of these after a weekend shoot and you have a multi-gigabyte upload. "This would take days to upload... you can only do partial uploads." So Holt found himself juggling his work schedule so he could upload his photos, and projects would sit for six months "Having access to gigabit fiber allows me to upload everything I have in one sitting, allowing me to focus more on editing and selling photos."

Holt has hooked up four servers to Greenlight's gigabit speed, which virtualize the home of the future with multiple, simultaneous, Netflix video streams and dense file upload exchanges for his Wake Forest Fiber Optic Initiative. "The future is about video," he stated, citing a study showing 50.2% of internet traffic is video -- Netflix and YouTube - not Bit Torrent." His Town officials now have been able to physically see through Wilson's Greenlight capacity, the economic vision he has for his own community.

An economic vision driven by bits of gigs, Whirligigs exactly, means something to Jeffrey Currie, Repair and Conservation Manager of the City's new world-renowned Vollis Simpson outdoor Whirligig Park, Currie drives into Wilson every day from Nash County to manage the taking apart and rebuilding of thirty, sometimes, fifty-foot wind-driven sculptures from a farm in the county to the City's downtown. The vision is to use this wind powered art to help drive the city's economic future with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS and Mathematics).

"Yeah, we like to use that word STEAM more and more." laughed Currie, as he displayed the hand-held tablets that record the intricate pieces of this gargantuan move. "We needed to know what the Whirligigs looked like before they were taken apart." Greenlight connected the warehouse to its Gigabit network. "We take high-resolution photographs of the sculptures before they are disassembled, scan older images of Vollis' work and just upload them to Dropbox. This lets the artisans have a clear picture of how they should be restored, assembled and painted, because often there is little paint left after 30 years out in Vollis' field."

What was amazing is that Currie described these large uploads like he was flipping a switch. "It's quick," he said, without thinking about it. "We're burning out the computers, not the internet," quipped Don Davis, who takes photographs and who does much of the uploading for the collections section. Greenlight's upload speeds facilitate the rebuilding of this important economic driver in seconds instead of months.

"The media consistently focuses on the download part of the broadband equation, but if your business handles information at any level, your business is really all about the upload. If you can't get your information out, whether it's your quarterly insurance reports to your corporate office, engineering blueprints to your China clients, or your latest digital art creation to New York, you simply can't compete. We are living in an information economy now," said Will Aycock, General Manager of Wilson's Greenlight system.

"The thrust of Greenlight is captured by our three guiding principles,' said Aycock. ‘Supporting the economic health of the community, improving the delivery of city services, and enhancing the quality of life for the citizens of Wilson. This is our gig in Wilson."

Whirligig photo courtesy of www.whirligigpark.org

The Logan Journal recently reported that the Russellville Electric Plant Board (EPB) now offers gigabit service to local businesses. The article notes that Net Index, an online tool to measure download and upload speeds, recognizes EPB as the first Gig city in Kentucky. To learn more about the community and its network, we talked with Robert White, General Manager of EPB.

The community of 7,000 is the county seat of south central's Logan County. Russellville is located in the center of several other larger communities: Nashville, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, and Clarksville, Tennessee. Manufacturing has been a large part of the local economy for generations, but community leaders recognize the vulnerability of a narrow economic base. In order to encourage a versatile economy, Russellville invested in its telecommunications utility.

The community wants to encourage small business while simultaneously providing manufacturers the connectivity they need. Leadership sees the ability to remain competitive directly tied to their network. In addition to the economic development opportunities a fiber network can provide, communities like Russellville rely on electricity revenue from large consumers. Retaining the large electric consumers that also provide jobs in the community is a must.

Russellville's electric utility created a strong advantage when it was time to venture into telecommunications. EPB had already established a strong relationship with its Russellville customers, says White, and locals felt they could trust their municipal electric provider.

EPB began offering wireless Internet to the community in 2005; at the time, there was very little choice for wireless or wired Internet. The product was competitively priced and it performed well for wireless service at the time but EPB eventually shifted focus to its next generation high-speed network. The wireless service is still available to customers who subscribed prior to the construction of the fiber network but EPB no longer offers it to new customers. Wireless speeds vary from 1-2 Mbps download and approximately 500 Mbps upload. The area now has several options from the private sector - Verizon and Bluegrass Cellular provide wireless up up to 10 - 15 Mbps.

According to White, Russellville's inspiration to build the network was not to compete, but to fill the services gap. He told us:

"We support Logan County residents having the best product. If that means us offering the product, that's fine. If it means the private sector will step up to the plate and serve the areas we can't serve…that's fine as well. We want our residents to be served, whether by us or an incumbent."

Larry Wilcutt, White's predecessor at EPB, began studying the possibility of a fiber network in 2007, but external forces motivated Wilcutt and EPB to seriously pursue the project a few years later.

In early 2010, EPB learned that its power supplier, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), would switch to time-of-use wholesale rates and begin using smart grid technology by 2012. In order to participate in the new technology, EPB needed meters that could communicate with its electrical system operations. EPB installed fiber optics for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and for future expansion into telecommunications. A News-Democrat & Leader article from October, 2010 (reprinted at MobilityTechZone.com) reported:

The EPB's goal is to eventually install fiber optic cable to every home and business in Russellville, is installing the cable to every home in the Russellville, city limits -- even those that are serviced by other electricity providers. There are also plans to include some locations outside of the city limits to extend service to the more populated areas adjacent to the city limits of Russellville. 

The article quoted Wilcutt:

"The Board has been working on this project for over two years and we are extremely excited to finally start construction on this project. We want to provide the citizens of Russellville with a system that is second to none, one they will be proud of, one that will entice new investment in the community. Whether that new investment is in the form of capital, technology or people, we believe the City of Russellville and Logan County will benefit well into the future" Wilcutt said.

At the time, the best connectivity in Russellville was AT&T's DSL at 6 Mbps download. Satellite Internet was available but was unreliable, expensive, and maximum speeds were 1 - 2 Mbps download.

The community was also starved for quality video service. Suddenlink did not offer HD channels and made it clear that HD service was not planned for Russellville. Large corporate providers had no interest in Russellville so EPB felt it was time to take control of their own connectivity.

Construction of the 99% aerial, 120-mile network began in October 2010; EPB began offering services in December 2011. White presented the results of an audit in November 2013 to the City Council showing that 8% of EPB's total revenue came from its broadband division. The audit also showed that the network was ahead of its projected take-rate with 1,300 active subscriptions out of 4,000 passed homes. 

The network capital costs were approximately $11 million with approximately two-thirds designated for electrical system expenditures. In 2010, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) offered Build America Bonds (BABs), some of which provide federal subsidies to help communities pay back interest to bondholders. BABs, backed by electric system revenue, provided funding for the entire project and contributed to interest expenses.

EPB offers services to every home and business in its service area and hopes to expand further. They expected video to be the lead product, but  Internet service is the most popular. White considers the lack of high-speed Internet in the region the driving force. The commercial gigabit product is new and no customers subscribe yet but local businesses take advantage of the fiber network. One local contractor tells White he enjoys the ability to share documents and bid for projects online without fear of technical glitches. When he used unreliable DSL connections to transmit data, he was perpetually concerned about deadlines and the status of data sent via DSL.

Local public safety agencies, the local library, Russellville City government, and Russellville Independent Schools now use the network. EPB and the Logan County Schools may soon be working together.

In addition to providing much needed connectivity to the community, the network provides an increased stream of revenue. EPB submits a payment in lieu of taxes (PILoT) to county and city governments based on electrical and broadband services revenue. As EPB gains customers transitioning away from satellite video service, its contribution to the City increases; satellite providers do not pay a franchise fee to Russellville. At a July 2010 City Council meeting, EPB expected broadband services to add approximately $25,000 in PILoT within the first five years. EPB also pays a separate and voluntary video franchise fee to the local municipality. 

These days, White and EPB are concentrating on raising awareness of the commercial gig product and service to residents. To spread the word, EPB holds regular workshops for the community to explore ways to maximize the the network's possibilities. Commercial gig service is available for $1,499.95 per month.

White and the EPB understand that the private sector must make decisions based on returns. In the case of this publicly owned network, some key returns take the form of benefits to the community. Since EPB lit its network, White and his crew often hear from customers who rave about their service. White says:

"They hate to pay electric bills but they say getting superior broadband services from EPB is all worth it."

EPB's residential fiber Internet services begin at 20/5 Mbps for $39.95 per month with higher speeds at 100/25 Mbps for $69.95 per month. Video services from EPB range from $29.95 per month to $62.95 per month with the option to add over 100 HD channels. Voice packages start at $14.95 per month.

For Chris' recent interview with White, check out episode #82 of the Broadband Bits podcast.