Bit by bit, Anacortes has been taking steps to cultivate better connectivity in their community of approximately 16,000. Earlier this week, city leaders decided to move forward with a survey to determine if residents and businesses are interested in service from a municipal Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network.

Considering The Next Steps

At the August 21st City Council meeting, staff provided an update of the project that the city is working on with Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet) to improve city water utility efficiencies. Anacortes needed better communications between more than 30 pump stations, reservoirs, and water treatment plants and, working with NoaNet, determined that they could use abandoned water lines for fiber conduit. They’re nearing the end of what they describe as Phase I of the project.

Phase II involves determining whether or not the city wants to harness extra dark fiber capacity in the backbone for a municipal FTTH network throughout the community. Before they decide to move forward with a trial system, Anacortes and NoaNet will reach out to the community for their input starting with a survey. At the meeting the City Council approved $10,000 to fund the survey, which will also help determine which areas have the greatest demand.

If the community decides it wants a municipal network, Phase III would depend on the success of the “trial phase” and would require installation of fiber within the community. While Anacortes is still developing solid details for this phase of the plan, early discussions indicate they will take an incremental or fiberhood approach based on demand in particular areas of town. 

So Many Choices

City leaders anticipate an open access model, but they are considering also taking on an additional role as a retail Internet Service Provider. In order to examine all the options, city staff are examining several possible models. One of their primary goals is to increase competition.

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems allow utility systems to gather and analyze real time data. The computer system reduces outages, keeps the utilities running efficiently, and allows staff to know where problems arise. Municipal utilities that use SCADA systems are increasingly taking the next step - using the fiber-optic infrastructure that supports SCADA to bring better connectivity to town. Clarksville took that route and is now considering ways to become one of the best connected communities in Arkansas.

"I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore"

As the seat of Johnson County, Clarksville is located in the northwest area of the state along I-40 and is home to just under 10,000 people living at the foothills of the Ozarks near the Arkansas River. The area is known for its scenery and its tasty peaches and every summer, the county holds a popular Peach Festival. The nearest urban areas are Little Rock, about 90 minutes to the east, and Fort Smith about an hour west. 

Large employers in the community include University of the Ozarks, Tyson Foods, Haines, and Baldor, a motor and control manufacturing processor. There’s also a Walmart Distribution Center in Clarksville.

When he began as General Manager of Clarksville Light and Water (CLW) in 2013, John Lester realized that one of the challenges the municipal electric utility faced was that it did not have a SCADA system for managing the electric, water, or wastewater system communications. Even though the Clarksville utility system was well cared for and managed, a SCADA system could push it to the next level in efficiency and services.

Lester had been instrumental in optimizing the use of the fiber-optic network in Chanute, Kansas, which had been developed for the municipal utilities. He understood the critical nature of fiber connectivity to utility efficiency, public savings, and economic development. Over time, the Chanute network had attracted new jobs, opened up educational opportunities for K-12 and college students, and created substantial savings. 

In Clarksville, the utilities commission...

Under the pavement of most cities run an old collection of pipes full of rushing water and some cities are adding fiber-optic cable to them for Internet service. The small city of Anacortes, Washington, is the latest community to repurpose some of their water infrastructure to also carry fiber. 

The new fiber cable will help manage the water system and may serve as the backbone for citywide, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Internet access. Anacortes approved about $265,000 for an international contractor to install the fiber in existing water pipes.

Fiber in the Water

Local paper Go Anacortes reported that the community will replace an old radio system with high-speed fiber to better manage the community’s water system. The city’s utility intends to connect water treatment plants and pump stations by running most of the fiber through abandoned water lines, but in some areas the fiber must run through active water pipes.

The utility found an international company that specializes in installing fiber through microducts inside water lines. This technique has been used in multiple countries, and the state health department approved the plan. Although this portion of the project will cost $265,000, the overall fiber project is directly on budget and ahead of schedule, Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer recently reported at a city council meeting. Officials estimate the tost cost of the water system project at $500,000 and expect to be completed by the end of summer.

Citywide Plans

This fiber will serve as the backbone to a network that can provide Internet access in the future. The library will host the hub of the network, enabling the utility to expand throughout the community if they so choose. At the end of 2015, Anacortes began to consider building a citywide network.

Last fall, the city enlisted the assistance of ...

Nestled in the Cherokee National Forest on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, not far from Virginia, is Erwin. Erwin Utilities runs the water, wastewater, and electricity for the town of 6,000 and long wanted to invest in a fiber network. After years of following industry trends, they developed a plan to build it and tell us how in Community Broadband Bits episode 235.

General Manager Lee Brown and Fiber-Optic Engineer John Williams join us to discuss what started as a pilot project but is now an incremental plan to connect the entire community with a Fiber-to-the-Home network offering high speed Internet access and telephone service.

We discuss the reaction from the community, financing, and how they are using it for smart utility management -- not only for electricity but also for water services.

Read the transcript of the show here. 

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Thanks to Admiral Bob for the music. The song is Turbo Tornado (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: Blue Wave Theory.