Tag: "Community Network Services"

Georgia Committee's Report Affirms The Role of Community Networks

Posted January 5, 2017 by htrostle

To improve rural Internet access, the Georgia Joint House and Senate Study Committee on High Speed Broadband Communications Access for All Georgians recommends that Georgia enable municipal networks and empower rural electric cooperatives.

The committee recently released their report on potential solutions for the lack of rural connectivity. They held six public meetings over the course of four months in 2016, consulting with stakeholders and concerned citizens.

Support of Local Government Networks

Specifically, the report recommended that the Georgia legislature:

“Reaffirm the state’s approval of competitive telecommunication markets by continuing to permit locally-owned and operated government broadband services”

In the economic development section of the report, they detailed the positive role of community networks and the challenges in finding financing.

The report pointed to the success of two community networks, Community Network Services (CNS) and ElbertonNet. ElbertonNet is the fifteen-year-old community network of Elberton, Georgia. The report praised the community network’s “tremendous public feedback” and “exceptional customer service.”

CNS is a regional network of eight rural communities in southern Georgia. We've introduced readers to CNS in the past and shared stories of how the network has helped create jobs, improved local STEM educational opportunities, and helped one of the communities it serves reduce taxes. Initially funded by a bank loan, the network contributes over $2 million into the local general fund.

Several statements referred to the fact that the current situation...

CNS Expanding Fiber in Rural Georgia

Posted July 16, 2015 by lgonzalez

Community Network Services (CNS) has been serving six rural southwest Georgia communities since the late 1990s. Recently, we learned that the network added two more communities to its service area when it took over a small municipal cable system in Doerun and purchased a private cable company in Norman Park.

CNS has been our radar since 2012 when we learned how Thomasville, Cairo, Camilla, Moultrie, Baconton, and Pelham joined together to create a regional network that reached into 4 counties. The network has brought better access to rural Georgia, improved educational opportunities, and helped lower taxes.

Mike Scott, Moultrie City Manager, gave us details on the expansions into both of these very small communities. Scott repeated the CNS philosophy:

We don't look at it as a just a business plan…we look at it as economic development for the entire county.

Doerun, population 774, had its own municipal DSL and cable TV system but it needed significant upgrades. Doerun also faced increased costs for content, technology, and personnel challenges, and customers wanted faster connectivity. CNS and the community of Doerun had discussed the possibility of a CNS take over of the system in the past but network officials hesitated to take on the investment until Doerun upgraded due to the condition of the system. Doerun's school was already connected to the CNS network.

In addition to the problems with the network, an upgrade required considerable make-ready work. CNS estimated that preparing existing utility poles for fiber would be expensive, according to Scott, and network officials did not feel comfortable making that additional investment.

Like many other small rural communities, Doerun operates its own municipal electric utility. The electric system was also in need of upgrades but due to lack of available capital, the city would need to borrow to fund the work. CNS and Doerun worked out an agreement to transfer the cable TV and Internet access system to CNS for mutual benefit.

CNS paid $100,000 as an advance franchise fee for 10 years, which reduced the amount...

Thomasville Removes Local Tax, Citing Strong Broadband Revenues

Posted November 20, 2013 by dcollado

Thomasville is one of six cities served by Community Network Services (CNS) in rural southwest Georgia. We’ve covered Thomasville and CNS in the past, highlighting the benefits of reliable high-speed broadband in these remote rural communities. But one benefit we haven’t covered yet is quite remarkable - Thomasville residents have been paying zero fire tax thanks in large part to revenues from CNS. The City’s fire tax first hit zero in 2012 and was recently maintained there by a Thomasville City Council vote in September.

Thomasville feeds its General Fund with net income (what the private sector would call profit) from its utility services. For 2013, this net income is estimated to reach $8.5 million. What’s more, Thomasville residents enjoy utility prices below the state average. So nobody can complain the City is taking advantage of utility customers by charging excessive rates.

According to a recent Public Service Commission survey, Thomasville residents pay $3.32 per month below the state average per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. And CNS customers who bundle services see annual savings of up to $420. It’s a true win-win - residents get affordable utilities and the City applies the net income to running public services like the police and fire departments, lowering property taxes in the process.

The result is millions in tax savings for Thomasville residents since 2009, when the City set its sights on phasing out the fire tax. In that year, the City collected $1.7-million in fire taxes. In 2010, the City dropped the rate to bring in $995,000. And in 2011, the last year a fire tax was levied, $610,000 was taxed. Based on the 2009 fire tax collection, Thomasville residents have been spared almost $5.2-million in fire taxes since 2010. Speaking about the zero fire tax accomplishment in 2012, Thomasville Mayor, Max Beverly, said “Without the City's...

Community Network Services (CNS) Brings STEM Education and More to Rural Southwest Georgia

Posted August 15, 2013 by dcollado

“With agriculture being the number one industry in the state, we are looking to inspire students to learn globally and live and produce locally. Agriculture and STEM education are a natural fit. With GPS-guided equipment and variable-rate irrigation and fertilizer applicators to better manage natural resources, education is key." These are the words of Beau Sherman, Regional Distant Learning and Video Coordinator for Education serving schools connected by Community Network Services (CNS) in Georgia.

CNS was formed in 1997 when several towns in rural southwest Georgia got together to form a public telecom utility. They started by connecting local schools and libraries with a fiber broadband network. While CNS has since grown into a full-service telecommunications provider - offering phone, video and internet access to business and residential customers - its impact on local education is a shining example of how community broadband networks can improve local education. CNS now serves 65 schools across 3,278 rural square miles including the cities of Cairo, Camilla, Moultrie, Pelham and Thomasville.

To help realize the network’s full educational potential, the school districts served by CNS teamed up to hire Beau Sherman. Mr. Sherman had long been a strong advocate for pushing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education in rural southwest Georgia. So he was the perfect fit for the role of helping the schools harness their new state-of-the-art broadband network.

One way Mr. Sherman is leveraging CNS’s high-speed fiber network is bringing live interactive science demonstrations into classrooms via Georgia Tech’s Direct 2 Discovery (D2D) program. With CNS and D2D, students in rural southwest Georgia enjoy live interactions with research scientists demonstrating principles of science in fields including astronomy, high-energy physics and nanotechnology. Students see in HD exactly what the scientists see and can ask questions as if they were all in the same room. Having worked with schools lacking high-speed fiber connectivity, Sherman attests that these two-way HD interactions would not be possible for his students without CNS’s fiber network.

Another way CNS is enabling new educational opportunities is by offering telepresence...