Worth a read to understand the difficulty of providing fiber broadband to sparsely populated areas. No mention in the story of the possibility that 4G wireless may be a realistic option. Then again, no one wants to wait for that.
"...The economic stimulus package, which sets aside $7.2 billion for broadband initiatives, could provide a crucial lifeline to municipalities struggling to bring broadband access to millions of Americans who don't have it -- a key initiative of President Barack Obama. The saga of the central Vermont project shows how the financial turmoil has exacerbated the already daunting challenge of reaching the most sparsely populated areas of the country.
From accountants to small-business owners to housewives, the residents of the 22 towns that hired Mr. Nulty are effectively living in the dial-up era. One Tunbridge resident, Kathi Terami, who runs a nonprofit group, keeps a list of things that require a broadband connection -- downloading "Sesame Street" podcasts for her two small children, watching YouTube links sent by her sister -- and goes into town once a week to a library with a high-speed connection. Another, sheep farmer Marian White, pays $60 a month for a satellite Internet service to get a slight boost over dial-up, but says the service is unreliable, especially when it snows and the dish stops receiving a signal. She has perfected a solution.
"I open a window and I take a pan of water and, a cup at a time, I launch warm water at the satellite dish until I have melted all the snow off the dish," Ms. White says. "It works."
3 comments:
Mr Nulty serves on the Jericho Selectboard and he did a fantastic job leading the town meeting discussions this year, not as moderator but as the most informed person in the house. I became a big fan of Tim's for this excellent performance. They were so organized and put thing together so well they left nothing for the citizens to argue over.
But was very doubtful about his idea of making a Jericho-Underhill-Westford fiber optic group based the Burlington Telcom system. The Big carriers already had service to the easiest to serve locations... so how is this locally-owned service going to make money serving all the rest... the hardest locations? Seems like you'd need a core concentraited area to begin with... So, it sounded very doubtful, but I'n not a number cruncher. But when I heard that the profitability of the Burlington service was in serious question by critics, I became more doubtful of the local initiative.
When they first started floating this idea at last year's town meeting, they explained how easy it would be to roll out the networking system and it would take only a year to deploy the entire system. Suddenly Fairpoint targeted our area and promised 100% coverage. That was the last we heard of this GOVERNMENT-based plan.
On the surface, Tim seems like what the republicans are supposed to be like... fiscally conservative, small government. I have even thought it's a ploy because he knows he can get more votes in Vermont in this age if he's a democrat, regardless of policies, as Vermont has takens such a shift to the left. But his goverment run fiber optics project sure shows a different side... So, I need more information...
Finally, I'm delighted to be in a small dialog with him locally about our local online community (indeed I made a public prayer today on the list that his new presence on the list might bring some badly needed rationality to the effort. We'll see!
Franco just reported the preliminary results of Tim's re-election bid:
Timothy E. Nulty = 594 votes
David L. Villeneuve = 339 votes
I have never met Tim, but I've heard he's quite competent. Good news that you've established a dialogue with him.
The problem with all these capital intensive local telecom systems rests with the financing, the payback period, and the customer 'take' rate. Running a telecom company, small or large is NOT a trivial matter after it's funded and built. I can tell you that from experience.
Post a Comment