Sonic.net — a well-known, albeit small, independent ISP based in Santa Rosa, Calif. — is going to operate the trial fiber-to-the-home network to be built by Google on the Stanford University Campus. The network, whose construction is going to start in early 2011, will provide gigabit speeds to nearly 850 faculty and staff owned homes on the Stanford campus.
Category: News
News and other note worthy events
Bucolic Barrington Hills hotbed of technology
Mark Welsh, Staff Photographer
Nestled among rolling hills, massive horse farms, 5-acre minimum lot homes and thousands of acres of forest preserve, Barrington Hills remains unadulterated by suburban sprawl.
Straddling roughly 29 square miles over four counties — Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry — the village has little more than 3,900 residents, lots of trees and open space.
But along with the benefits of living in a quintessential rural setting comes spotty cellular phone service and dropped Internet connections.
Quincy, UK firm continue to work toward fiber optics network
- Image by gnackgnackgnack via Flickr
- Image by gnackgnackgnack via Flickr
By MATT HOPF
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
Quincy [IL] and a United Kingdom-based company remain in contact in hopes of reaching an agreement to install a fiber-optic network throughout the city.
The City Council approved a pilot project in September that allowed the company to install 1,300 feet of fiber-optic cable in municipal sewer lines along South 46th Street.
The cable is laid on the bottom of sewers and anchored down with mats, a process that has been used in the UK.
Sides fight over fiber
Image via Wikipedia
This insightful article describes the typical woes that municipalities and counties go through with the incumbent carriers. Lake County wants to build an open-access network that will offer modern telecom services to this beautiful part of the country. This network could benefit not only the residents but also the incumbents. The problem is that the incumbents are happy with the status quo because they do not have to compete for market share or invest capital in their network; thereby, preserving their margins. Companies like Frontier and Mediacom should embrace these networks as a way to reach more customers and increase ARPU without massive capital expenditures.
My family has vacationed in this area for years. It was one of the few areas of the country where I could truly disconnect from work and the world. My pager wouldn’t even work in many parts of the Gunflint Trail. Such a build-out in Lake County would mean an end to my escape from civilization. It is a small loss for me and a huge gain for the citizens of this wonderful part of Minnesota.
The first public shots have been fired by a potential competitor with Lake County’s fiber-to-home phone, television, and Internet service project.
By: Mike Creger, Lake County News Chronicle
The first public shots have been fired by a potential competitor with Lake County’s fiber-to-home phone, television, and Internet service project. Mediacom, a cable and internet provider in Two Harbors and Silver Bay, sent letters to the mayors of both cities late last month asking them to reconsider the joint powers agreement the city councils approved as part of Lake County’s application for funds for the countywide project.
But the company may have misfired. In the letter, it cited a portion of the agreement that doesn’t exist; county officials say they believe Mediacom was basing its argument on an early draft of the final document.
New software to solve municipal broadband issues
Image by meghansvoyages via Flickr
Scientists at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth have devised a solution to what is a major challenge for cities worldwide − the provision of widespread, free, effective broadband.
For more than 10 years this has been a goal of cities in their drive to support the ’smart economy’, but it had remained elusive due to technological limitations.
iProvo still has some tough hills to climb
iProvo has had a tough time making a go of their network initiative, but now Veracity is doing much better. Veracity is marketing the network and selling services as well as maintaining the network. They are generating cash so Provo can make the bond payments minus some operating expenses. Over time they should be able to generate cash to make the bond payments, operate the network, and eek out a modest profit. The Provo example shows that municipalities need private sector partners with experience in operating broadband networks and a business.
Genelle Pugmire – Daily Herald
After five years, a couple of owners and few other course corrections, Provo’s fiberoptic network, otherwise known as iProvo, seems to be coming of age, according to Mayor John Curtis.
As he looks back on the year, Curtis said he felt talking to residents about what the fiber optic network is, and is not, has been a benchmark.
Former BT manager Nulty defends own tenure
Image by Selv1a via Flickr
The financial and legal woes with Burlington Telecom’s municipal fiber deployment is typical when only one individual is holding the plan together. Municipal broadband deployments have many working parts that require support from several individuals throughout the city government and community to make them successful. In the case of BT, one man was driving the project and support: Dr. Timothy Nulty. When Dr. Nulty left to head up ECFiber, the city of Burlington failed failed to provide the long-term support to BT required to make the project successful.
Burlington Telecom under the direction of Dr. Nulty thoroughly planned and implemented their business plan, and by all indications they were on track compared to other successful deployments. As Dr. Nulty indicated in his open letter, municipal FTTH networks typically take approximately 5 years before reaching a positive ROI. BT was a bit more conservative in their estimates to account for any potential cost increases that BT may incur. Under his leadership, they were well on their way to meeting their business case objectives.
When Dr. Nulty left to take his current position heading up ECFiber, most of the experience, leadership, and drive left with him. Support in City Hall was weak which left no champion of the project to hold it all together. It is this lack of leadership and support that drove the Marketing Director to resign. Without a strong sales and marketing drive to keep signing up new customers, the network was is doomed because it could not keep up with its debt payments and operating expenses.