[Ww-snww-regional-list] Hybrid Model Perspective
Al MacIntyre
almackable at gmail.com
Thu Aug 20 10:18:39 EDT 2015
After some of the discussion last night, I've been endeavoring to learn
from whatever is available about other rural broadband solutions and
came across this article on*///Stop the Cap!//http://stopthecap.com/
/*It brings into perspective the attempt at using a fiber/wireless
solution, and the actual financial pitfalls of the hybrid model within
our regional service area (Hawley). The rest of the site has some
useful and intriguing articles, as well, and is well worth reviewing.
Also, I wanted to point out that as I recall (and I will "dig" into it),
dedicated wireless is not permitted on cell towers, according to Wendell
By-Law, and possibly restricted, in general, per this town document, but
I will pull it up for confirmation.
Al MacIntire*/
/*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*"There is strong evidence voters across western Massachusetts are not
looking for a government handout and have more than stepped up to pay
their fair share to guarantee their digital future, but some challenges
can be insurmountable without the kind of help the FCC already gives to
private phone companies that spend the money on delivering dismally slow
DSL service. Western Massachusetts has demonstrated it can get a bigger
bang for the buck with fiber to the home service — a far better use of
*/*Connect America Funds*/*than spending millions to bring 3Mbps DSL to
the rural masses."*
/
http://stopthecap.com/category/providers/wiredwest/
Broadband Excitement Continues in Western Mass.; Big Support for
WiredWest
<http://stopthecap.com/2015/06/03/broadband-excitement-continues-in-western-mass-big-support-for-wiredwest/>
Phillip Dampier June 3, 2015 Broadband Speed
<http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/broadband-speed/>, Community
Networks <http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/municipal-networks/>,
Consumer News <http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/consumer-news/>,
Editorial & Site News
<http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/editorial-site-news/>, Public
Policy & Gov't
<http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/government-legislation/>, Rural
Broadband <http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/rural-broadband/>,
WiredWest <http://stopthecap.com/category/providers/wiredwest/>,
Wireless Broadband
<http://stopthecap.com/category/issues/wireless-broadband/> No Comments
<http://stopthecap.com/2015/06/03/broadband-excitement-continues-in-western-mass-big-support-for-wiredwest/#respond>
fiber wiredwest
WiredWest is a public co-op seeking to deliver fiber to the home
broadband across western Massachusetts.
Despite the dreary drizzle, fog, and unseasonably cold weather that has
plagued the northeast since last weekend, 191 residents of New Salem,
Mass. crowded into a basement for the town’s annual meeting Monday
night, largely with one issue in mind: better broadband.
A reporter from /The Recorder/ noted
<http://www.recorder.com/home/17133801-95/new-salem-voters-turn-out-to-ok-borrowing-15m-for-broadband>
Moderator Calvin Layton was surprised by the overwhelming vote for fiber
broadband — 189 for and only one apparently against.
The town clerk for New Salem typically counts around 60 heads at such
meetings, but this night was different because the community was voting
to spend $1.5 million to bring broadband to a town completely ignored by
Comcast and Verizon. That fact has hurt area property values and has
challenged residents and business owners alike. The town is fed up with
inaction by the state’s dominant phone and cable company, which has done
nothing to expand access in western Massachusetts.
“Our goal is to make this broadband available to every house, not just
the places that are easy to wire,” said MaryEllen Kennedy, the chair of
the town’s Broadband Committee.
New Salem isn’t alone.
Monterey passed its own bond authorization with a vote of 130 to 19,
becoming the 10th consecutive town to vote in favor of bringing 21st
century broadband to the region. The community of Beckett followed a day
later.
Phillip "There are no broadband magic ponies" Dampier
Phillip “There are no broadband magic ponies” Dampier
Residents in 16 of the 17 towns asked so far to authorize the borrowing
necessary to cover their community’s share of the fiber to the home
project have usually done so in overwhelming majorities
<http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_28225436/wiredwest-advocates-energized-by-town-votes>.
But it has not been all good news. The town of Montgomery in Hampden
County voted down paying its share by just two votes. Supporters claim
low voter turnout may have done the project in, at least for the time
being. A call for a new vote is underway.
Perhaps the most contentious debate over WiredWest continues in the
small community of Hawley, where one activist has organized opposition
for the project
<http://www.recorder.com/news/townbytown/hawley/16526714-95/letter-not-the-only-option>
based on its cost to the community of 347. Hawley is in the difficult
position of being a small community spread out across a lot of hills and
hollows. The cost for Hawley to participate in the fiber to the home
project would be around $1 million, a figure many residents decided was
out of their price range. Participation in WiredWest was shot down in a
recent vote and the repercussions continue to this day in the opinion
pages of /The Recorder/ as residents fire back and forth at each other
<http://www.recorder.com/home/17048179-95/letter-divided-hawley>,
sometimes with strident personal comments.
While easy to vote down participation in WiredWest, finding an
alternative for Hawley has proved difficult.
Kirby “Lark” Thwing, a member of both the town finance and
communications committees, is trying to find the cheaper broadband
solution
<http://www.recorder.com/home/16989622-95/hawley-is-cheaper-broadband-possible>
advocated by Hussain Hamdan, who has led the charge against WiredWest’s
fiber to the home service in Hawley.
Thwing has run headfirst into what /Stop the Cap!/ feared he would find
<http://stopthecap.com/2015/05/07/western-mass-voters-stampede-for-fiber-optic-broadband-in-communities-big-telecom-ignored/>
— the rosy budget-minded alternatives suggested as tantalizingly within
reach simply are not and come at a higher price tag than one might think.
Installing a Wi-Fi tower to bring wireless Internet access to a resort
park.
Installing a Wi-Fi tower to bring wireless Internet access to a resort park.
Thwing is looking at a hybrid fiber/wireless solution involving a fiber
trunk line run down two well-populated roads that could support fiber
service for about half the homes in Hawley and lead to at least two
large wireless towers that would reach most of the rest of town. He’s
also hoping Hawley would still qualify to receive its $520,000 share of
broadband grant money from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to help
cover the alternative project’s costs.
If Hawley can use that money, Thwing predicts it will cover much of the
construction cost of the fiber trunk line. After that, each homeowner
would be expected to pay to bring fiber from the trunk line to their
home, definitely not a do-it-yourself project that will cost at least
several hundred dollars, not counting the cost of any inside wiring and
a network interface device attached to each participating home.
Residents should also expect to spend another $100 on indoor electronics
including a receiver and optional router to connect broadband to their
home computer and other devices.
But the expenses don’t stop there.
Thwing also has to consider the cost of the wireless towers and
provisioning a wireless service to Hawley residents not immediately
adjacent to the fiber trunk line. He will be asking residents if they
are willing to pay an extra $25-50 a month ($300-600 a year) to pay down
the debt service on the town’s two proposed wireless towers. It isn’t
known if that fee would include the price of the Internet service or
just the infrastructure itself.
As Thwing himself recognizes, if the total cost for the alternative
approaches the $1 million the town already rejected spending on fiber to
the home service for everyone, it leaves Hawley no better off.
As /Stop the Cap!/ reported last month
<http://stopthecap.com/2015/05/07/western-mass-voters-stampede-for-fiber-optic-broadband-in-communities-big-telecom-ignored/>,
we believe Hawley will soon discover the costs of the alternatives Mr.
Hamdan has suggested are greater than he suspects and do not include the
cost of service, billing and support. Fiber to the home remains the best
solution for Hawley and the rest of a region broadband forgot. Other
towns that want to believe a cheaper alternative is out there waiting to
be discovered should realize if such a solution did exist, private
companies would have already jumped in to offer the service. They haven’t.
At the same time, we cannot ignore there are small communities in
western Massachusetts that will find it a real burden to pay the
infrastructure costs of a fiber network when there are fewer residents
across wide distances to share the costs.
That is why it is critical for the Federal Communications Commission to
expand rural broadband funding opportunities to subsidize the cost of
constructing rural broadband services in communities like Hawley.
At the very least, state officials should consider creative solutions
that either spread the cost of network construction out over a longer
term or further subsidizing difficult to reach areas.
There is strong evidence voters across western Massachusetts are not
looking for a government handout and have more than stepped up to pay
their fair share to guarantee their digital future, but some challenges
can be insurmountable without the kind of help the FCC already gives to
private phone companies that spend the money on delivering dismally slow
DSL service. Western Massachusetts has demonstrated it can get a bigger
bang for the buck with fiber to the home service — a far better use of
Connect America Funds than spending millions to bring 3Mbps DSL to the
rural masses.
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