ETI Software Solutions sponsored an event to help untangle the set of considerations facing communities discussing what route they want to take to improve Internet access for families and businesses in the community. 

Heather Gold (HBG Strategies) presided over the panel which included ILSR's Christopher Mitchell as well as Ben Fineman, President of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative, Steve Lang, IT Manager for the city of Wadsworth, Ohio and its CityLink Fiber, and Will Aycock, General Manager of the Greenlight Network in Wilson, North Carolina. They cover a lot of ground, from the different models worth considering, to the phases of planning, to financing, construction, and customer service.

Watch the video at ETI's YouTube channel, or below.

An increasing number of local communities are realizing that investing in publicly owned Internet network infrastructure will lead to better connectivity. In order to help these communities in the early planning stages, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and NEO Partners LLC have developed the Community Networks Quickstart Program.

Learn more at cnquickstart.com or email info@cnquickstart.com for more details.

We're Considering A Community Network, But….

Fiber optic, fixed wireless, a hybrid network…there are different possibilities for what type of technology is right for your community. You will also need to decide where to deploy and where to begin that deployment in order to help improve future success. You’ll want to hire engineers and consultants, but it would be helpful to have that extra dose of knowledge about facts and figures prior to working with them You want to know what questions to ask.

The Community Networks Quickstart Program will guide you through different deployment options — full Fiber-to-the-Premise, full wireless, and hybrid — each based specifically on your community and its specific needs. We use data that includes the size, population, and other characteristics of your community; we offer resources and advice to help you get started on the right foot. You also receive a recommended design that you can use when you apply for funding and refer to when you work with engineers, designers, and consultants. Our goal is not to replace the in-depth work that will come later, but to enhance it and to make your time with your consultants and other professionals more effective.

If your rural county has limited funds to dedicate toward broadband infrastructure deployment, one of your biggest challenges is deciding where to target that investment. The Community Networks Quickstart Program will help by examining different options so you can determine where your investment dollars will be most effective.

We're Helping People

Rock Island, Illinois, IT Director Tim Bain said:

"As we reached year-end I was able to identify a source of funds to proceed with the study in December 2018, and we had the results by January of 2019.

…

Over the past few years, many cities in the rural state of Maine have begun exploring ways to improve local connectivity. Following in their footsteps, Biddeford has recently released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to assess Internet access in the community and develop a Broadband Plan. The RFP specifically notes this plan should include information on increasing digital inclusion in the city. Proposals are due April 26th.

Read the city’s full RFP.

Background on Biddeford

Biddeford (pop. 21,000) lies 15 miles south of Portland along the coast of Maine. Throughout much of the city’s history, textile mills were a major part of the local economy. After the decline of the textile industry in the region, the city redeveloped many of the abandoned mills and made attempts to revitalize the downtown area, resulting in a robust arts and food scene that belies the city’s modest size. (Eater even named a Biddeford restaurant as one of the “18 Best New Restaurants in America.”) These efforts, as well as a lower cost of living, have helped attract younger people to the area, making Biddeford Maine’s "youngest city" with a median age of 35.

Local governments in Maine have been going all out in the past few years to address the problem of lack of high-quality Internet access in rural areas. Now, Cumberland County is using Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to help develop a resource they hope will assist local communities interested in publicly owned Internet access infrastructure. They’ve released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to Develop Regional Broadband Planning and Management; proposals are due October 31, 2018.

Read the full RFP here.

The Playbook

Elected officials in Cumberland County report that local community leaders from different towns throughout the county have expressed an interest in a regional initiative for better connectivity. At least four towns and the Greater Portland area have been working to develop broadband plans with an eye toward regional possibilities. This RFP is an effort to bring all those separate plans together and examine the possibility of a regional utility.

The county has determined that the playbook should provide information in three main areas: resource mapping, financing, and utility development. 

Information to be included in the document will provide estimated costs and challenges of building fiber networks to each municipality in Cumberland County. This mapping portion of the playbook should compare last mile connectivity costs to middle mile network costs, consider specific plans for some of the county’s hard-to-reach areas, and examine working with privately owned fiber that is currently in place.

County officials want respondents to investigate and propose ways to finance a regional utility. They also want to know more about models that include both publicly owned and privately owned infrastructure. As part of the playbook, county officials expect a survey of residents in Cumberland County.

Determining if a publicly owned network is right for your community is a multi-step, complex process. Many factors will influence whether or not the residents, business owners, and local leaders in your community will want to make an investment in Internet access infrastructure. ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative is now working with NEO Partners, LLC,* to help local communities in the early phases as they consider investing in publicly owned infrastructure. For a limited time, a few select communities will receive special pricing to help spread the word about the Community Networks Quickstart Program. Apply by September 28th to be considered as one of the pilot communities.

Let us know at: info@cnquickstart.com

Please include the proposed study region, an estimate for the number of premises to be considered, and any relevant factors. We will select up to four communities with the goal of having a mix of rural and urban, large and small, and geographic distribution.

Knowledge of the Possibilities is Power

When it comes to planning for deployment or expanding existing infrastructure, one of the most challenging unknowns is cost. With our new Community Networks Quickstart Program, we will provide cost estimates for three possible models for communities who sign up for the service:

1. Full Fiber-to-the-Premise

2. Full Wireless

3. Hybrid

In addition to an estimate on cost, we will consider the size, population, and other characteristics of your community and provide advice and resources that will be the most effective for your community’s situation. You’ll also receive a recommended design that you can refer to as you work with consultants, engineers, and as you apply for grant or loan funding. Our mission is to give you some preliminary information and guidance to make your work with an in-depth consultant more effective. We are not replacing the need for in-depth design work.

Each community is unique, so after you provide some basic information about your community, we'll seek out more specific data to help with our analysis. We’ll hold a conference call with you to review the results and provide documentation on our analysis and additional resources that we believe will provide additional insight.

This is the transcript for episode 260 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. Author and journalist Alex Marshall discusses broadband infrastructure and the role of planners. Listen to this episode here.

Alex Marshall: Broadband is a type of infrastructure. So, it's a planner's job to think about how do we develop a system and to have the citizens connect to the system.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 260 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzales. Author, journalist and fellow, Alex Marshall visits with Christopher this week about broadband as infrastructure. They also discuss the role of planners, as broadband has transitioned into a necessity for economic development, education, municipal services, and many other critical uses. Before we get started, we want to remind you that this commercial-free podcast isn't free to produce. Take a minute to contribute at ILSR.org. If you're already a contributor, thanks. Now, here's Christopher with Alex Marshall.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell and today, I'm speaking with Alex Marshall, an author, a senior fellow at the non-profit urban planning organization, The Regional Plan Association, and that's in New York City, and a columnist for Governing Magazine. All in one person. Alex, welcome to the show.

Alex Marshall: Thank you. Nice to be here.

Christopher Mitchell: Alex, you and I have gone back and forth for a lot a years, actually. You came in town, one of the places you visited and promoted your book, The Surprising Design of Market Economies, a book that I whole-heartedly recommend. And I think we're going to talk about that later in the interview, but first I wanted to ask you more about planning. You are a planner. You do a lot of thinking about planning. You write about this sort of thing and the role of broadband within planning. Maybe the best place to start is just what's the historic role of planners been within the relation of broadband?