As originally posted on the Blandin on Broadband blog…

Doug Dawson, in his always interesting blog “Pots and Pans”, has an informative article about Chattanooga and their efforts to support entrepreneurship, spur innovation and address digital equity (https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2020/01/06/leveraging-the-benefits-of-fiber/).  I highly recommend that you subscribe to this blog as well as the Blandin on Broadband (blandinonbroadband.org) blog for daily updates on all things important to community broadband and economic development leaders.

Minnesota is lucky to have fiber networks like Chattanooga’s in many rural communities and counties.  When you look at the DEED broadband maps, these areas shine bright green as having at least 100 Mb/20 Mb broadband service that includes all of the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks and most cable modem services.  The 100% FTTH areas are likely have a minimum of symmetrical 100 Mb/100 Mb service and probably symmetrical Gigabit services available not only in the community, but also in the rural countryside.  It is interesting, maybe even disturbing, that Chattanooga has established a national brand as a tech-centric, fiber-connected community while Minnesota’s thousands of square miles of fiber networks are virtually invisible on the national economic development scene.

Why?  I think that while some Minnesota communities and regions are active in promoting some elements of technology-based economic development, it seems to me that they are too few in number, too limited in scope, and certainly, too limited in self-promotion.  This is a missed opportunity for collaboration between communities and broadband providers, individually and collectively!  If you think that I am wrong on this, let’s hear about it so we can promote it on the Blandin Blog!

If you think that your area has unrealized potential for technology-focused community vitality, you should know Blandin will soon be selecting four Blandin Broadband Communities shortly after the January 24th application deadline.  In addition to community facilitation using the six element Intelligent Community framework (www.intelligentcommunity.org), the Foundation provides financial resources to implement projects to spur community vitality.  The Blandin team is happy to help your cross-sector leadership team fully consider this program as an option for your community.   Check out the program details at broadband.blandinfoundation.org.

Even if you decide to pass on the Blandin Broadband Communities opportunity, you should know that thirty-two hours of ad hoc community technical assistance is always easily available via Blandin’s Community Broadband Resources Program to help spur either broadband infrastructure, adoption and/or economic development initiatives.

Chattanooga’s municipal network ownership enables easy integration with other city initiatives.  With private and even co-op ownership of most Minnesota’s broadband networks, it takes some additional effort for collaborative provider partnerships. More and more sophisticated broadband users are good for providers; they should be interested in helping your community to thrive via technology. I urge you to contact your broadband provider(s) to discuss partnership opportunities. In addition to the Blandin Broadband Communities Program, a good starting point would be completion of DEED’s new Telecommuter Ready (https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/telecommuter-forward/) certification program.

Last week the Blandin Broadband crew led a group of intrepid broadband community leaders to the ICF (Intelligent Community Forum) Summit in New York.

It was a great opportunity for us to learn from the Top Seven Smart Communities about what is working in their areas. It was very inspiring. We made some great connections. And we got to talk about some of the great things we have going in Minnesota. It feels like several Minnesota communities might be a good fit for becoming a Smart Community.

ICF co-founder, John Jung will be attending the Blandin Fall Broadband Conference to talk about such opportunities.

At the ICF Summit, Bill Coleman led the session on How to Connect to the Countrywide.

As originally posted on Blandin on Broadband…

5G Wireless as Rural Solution: Not any time soon.
(Download as White Paper)

5G Wireless as Rural Solution: Not any time soon.

Minnesota legislators are now hearing that a market-based broadband solution is near. 5G wireless to the rescue!  Learning that public dollars would not be necessary for rural broadband development would be soothing music to elected officials’ ears as other groups line up for funds– roads, schools, health care, tax cuts; the list is endless.

After all, many counties and regional entities are growing desperate for broadband and are actively studying the options for spurring broadband delivery to meet at least minimum FCC broadband standards.  Alternatives range from subsidizing incumbents to partnering with new or existing broadband cooperatives.  While the State of Minnesota is seen as the major finance partner, even townships are writing checks for broadband!

So the question “Is 5G coming to rural America anytime soon?” is critical for policy leaders and elected officials.  They wonder, “If we wait, will our future pass us by?” Conversely, they question “Will our investment in fiber be a waste of money as wireless becomes the preferred and available technology?”

After doing a lot of reading and talking with technologists, it is clear that 5G wireless is coming to the marketplace, but it is not coming to rural America anytime soon.  5G wireless does offer promise, but only to high density population centers such as  campuses, large office buildings and apartment buildings.  5G’s chief feature is very high bandwidth– 1 Gigabit or more!  Once established, 5G promises to have the ability to connect many devices with very quick responses, especially applicable for self-driving vehicles or many smart devices in a factory, on urban streets and so on.  5G would also be great for large file sharing applications like HD movies.

So why not 5G in rural areas?  That answer is easy and indisputable.  Deployment of 5G wireless services will require significant fiber deployment, more than either the current 4G wireless cellular network or the new CAF2 Fiber to the Node (FTTN) installations by large incumbent providers.

Rural 5G wireless services would require installing radios every 1,000 – 3,000 feet on towers and poles.  These small cells would require direct fiber connections and all of them would require electricity to power the radios.  The radios would connect to wireless devices in customers’ homes and to other devices on the network and, of course, back to the network backbone.

For comparison, today’s fiber-fed 4G towers might be four to fifteen miles apart depending on terrain and the number of customers.  We know that 4G services have yet to reach many rural customers at their homes since these services are often focused down state and federal highway corridors in tandem with existing fiber routes leaving those in the bulk of the rural countryside without modern service.

In today’s CAF2 environment, providers are making significant investments to deploy FTTN, shortening copper loops to approximately 7,500 feet.  These shorter loop lengths will allow some customers to exceed the 25 Mb download and 3Mb upload FCC broadband standard while others at the end of the line will more likely receive 10 Mb/1 Mb. While this may be a significant improvement from current services, it lags far below the Minnesota broadband goal of 100 Mb/20 Mb by 2026.  Optimists view these CAF2 improvements as an interim step to future FTTH deployment; others view these improvements as the last incumbent investment for a generation.

There are many questions yet unanswered on 5G wireless technical standards and final standards may be years in the making. There are just as many questions on the different business models that will drive deployment in urban, suburban and rural markets.  These deployment strategies will likely vary by location and provider mix.

For example, ATT and Verizon are dominant wireless carriers seeking to use more wireless in their old wired local exchange areas.  They could relatively easily transition their landline customer base to the new 5G networks adding to their existing wireless customer base.  In Minnesota, these wireless companies use a combination of their own networks and leased facilities from a variety of providers to reach large customers, but primarily to reach cell towers.

In Minnesota, incumbent providers CenturyLink and Frontier are just one year into a five-year process to deploy their CAF2 FTTN networks.  Once completed in 2020-21, likely to coincide with 5G technology and devices entry into the marketplace, will they be willing to open these deep fiber networks to competitive 5G wireless providers?  Or will they offer their own 5G wireless services on enhanced CAF2 networks?  Or, will these companies decline to sell access to their networks to wireless providers to preserve their own customer base.  In that scenario one has to wonder if there would ever be a business case for wireless carriers like ATT and Verizon to install duplicate fiber networks to reach rural customers?

So 5G is coming, definitely and soon, but only to metro areas, just as new technologies always seem to hit metro markets first.  But will and when will 5G reach rural?  For those rural residents and businesses still waiting for 4G wireless services, the answer is clearly not any time soon.  Fiber networks, to the home or to the node with very short loop lengths, will be a requirement to support future 5G wireless services.  First fiber, then 5G.  Not the other way around.

My advice: keep pursuing local fiber deployment so that all innovative broadband services – wired and wireless – can be offered in your community.

Steven Senne of Finley Engineering reviewed this article for technical accuracy.

As originally posted in the Blandin Foundation eNews…

The Connect America Fund 2 (CAF2) is a significant federal commitment to broadband in rural Minnesota. CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream have all agreed to accept CAF2 funds totaling almost $500 million dollars over six years. This amount is more than half of what the state broadband taskforce estimated as the minimum cost to meet the current state broadband goal and 20 percent of the way to 100% fiber to the home status. So the CAF2 funding is a big deal with great potential.

The broadband blogosphere is now abuzz with opinions as to whether CAF2 is a positive development. The Blandin on Broadband blog has the FCC CAF2 press releases. Doug Dawson of CCG Consulting has an intriguing post on his blog. I won’t rehash Doug’s column here except to note that his main question is “How well served will consumers feel in five years with networks that have been designed to deliver to the FCC CAF2 standard of 10 Mb down and 1 Mb up?, especially since the FCC has already moved to a broadband standard of 25 Mb/3 Mb?” The CAF2 standard does not meet Minnesota’s broadband goal, set in the Pawlenty administration of 10 to 20 Mb down and 5 – 10 Mb up. Our state goal is now in line for reconsideration.

These state and federal broadband goals have long been surpassed, by a factor of 10 or more, in our metro areas, within most rural community city limits, and in the rural countryside served by broadband cooperatives. Within communities, these service improvements have been driven primarily by competition; in the well-served rural countryside, these services are enabled through smart, consistent support mechanisms available to small providers. Through CAF2, investment will be stimulated by the larger carriers. Unfortunately, if these networks are only improved to deliver 10 Mb/1 Mb, many would say that it hardly seems worthwhile.

There is an opportunity for our Minnesota leadership – from the Office of Broadband Development to the Governor’s Office, with legislative leaders and industry. Together, they should find a way to steer this CAF2-funded network deployment to meet a new, world-class Minnesota broadband standard. By combining CAF2, provider capital, significant Border to Border Broadband funds (general fund or bonding), USDA broadband funds, Universal Service Funds and other sources, we would set Minnesota far ahead globally. The federal broadband plan calls for 100 Mb services; let’s aim for that as a minimum. That network would enable citizens access to any school, any hospital, any government service and unlimited job and entrepreneurial opportunities. Minnesota’s innovation culture would be unleashed. Picture a Time Magazine cover with a group photo of Minnesotans holding up fiber optic cable and devices like northerns on a stringer. Another Minnesota Miracle!

Originally posted in Blandin Foundation eNews…

This morning, I saw a picture of one of the famous Wallenda family crossing between Chicago skyscrapers.  So routine was the crossing that Nik Wallenda wore a blindfold.  One of the crossings was downhill at a steep 15% grade.  Obviously that shows great talent and lots of repetitive practice. Even so, the Wallenda’s have had disastrous events in their history.

Many communities and broadband providers are now out on the wire of public-private partnerships.  Available funding from the FCC and MN DEED have pushed both providers and communities out onto the wire in relatively large numbers for the first time.  It remains to be seen of the program rules and regulations will be safety nets to prevent disaster or tall barriers blocking otherwise safe implementation.   I expect that these first rounds of funding will give us examples of the full range of partnership experience, from smooth stepping to swaying in the wind to severe difficulties.  I give a lot of credit to all of the prospective partners for their courage and determination to move ahead on these projects!

We will learn about some of these partnerships at the Border to Border Conference!  Attending and learning will give participants to a bit of a safety net as you consider your own partnerships!