Economic Development America
Competing Globally - Growing Regional Economies - Creating Jobs Spring 2005
In this issue:

BRAC - The Denver Experience

Rural Sourcing, Inc.: Bringing High
Tech Jobs to Rural America

Revitalizing Brownfields: New Benefits from Old Sites

Kalamazoo's Economic Revitalization

Broadband Access in Rural Areas

Georgia Communities Bounce Back

National Leadership Through Regional Cooperation: Tennessee Valley Comes Together to Create Jobs of the Future

Using Department of Energy Assets for Community Benefit

Enterprise Facilitation: Growing Entrepreneurs One Contact at a Time



Subscribe

About Economic Development America


Broadband Access in Rural Areas (cont.)



  • Broadband objectives. Click for larger image.
    If attempting to target the consumer and business market, it makes sense to open the network to multiple ISPs, both from a legal (non-competitive) perspective and to provide local residents and businesses with the most options.

  • Creating coalitions – whether for spectrum usage coordination or to bind together interested businesses or ISPs – will help shape the business model and get funding for the network.

  • Wireless is one of the best technologies of choice because it reduces cost and time to deployment. Use of multiple types of both licensed and unlicensed spectrum helps target different types of end users.



  • Broadband examples. Click for larger image.
    If municipalities use fiber, they leverage existing assets such as fiber run by the electric utility.

  • Municipalities have the advantage of cheap access to government-owned buildings and sites for transceivers, such as water towers and other towers.


Market Impact

We expect to see significant growth in the number of municipalities and cities using various access technologies to reach public entities, businesses and consumers. Most current deployments use fixed access technologies to provide basic broadband services. The predominant means of delivering services are fiber and broadband wireless. Although this model will remain, new applications will continue to emerge using portable wireless technology.

Pressure will also mount from the private sector. There is an ongoing debate regarding whether the public sector should be allowed to play a role in broadband service delivery. As municipalities target services at the private sector, incumbent telcos and cable companies will expand service availability and likely create regulatory debates on this subject. Most municipal deployments already demonstrate this as a fact.


Municipality Recommendations

  • Develop a carrier-class network. If a municipality develops a network for wholesale use, but decides to manage and maintain the infrastructure, high quality and reliability are crucial in determining the success of the ISPs. Increased service calls could easily drain ISP resources and prohibit their future investment in the network.

  • Enable coalitions before launching service. Governments can often fund the development of surveys that aggregate demand for services in their area. This type of initiative – as well as cooperative development of service providers that want to partake – can help lead to early successful business models. These coalitions can also work to develop relevant local content that drives community members to use the broadband network.

  • Leverage existing assets where possible. Government entities often maintain access to either fiber capacity or buildings that can serve as the foundation for a wireless network. This can play a crucial role in diffusing network costs.


The Yankee Group is a Boston-based consulting firm that helps clients plan for, execute or optimize the use of technology.


« Page 2