Appendix D - What Other Communities are Doing Municipalities have a critical role to play in the deployment of broadband services. They must be part of the solution and ensure that they are not part of the problem. This does not necessarily imply that municipalities must build and operate their own broadband networks. The following sections provide an outline of various initiatives aimed wholly or in part at enhancing the delivery of broadband communications in their respective communities. This outline is not intended to be an exhaustive list but instead to provide an overview of the activities being sponsored or encouraged by municipalities. Outside Ontario Palo Alto, California, USA The City of Palo Alto is active in providing broadband services through the City of Palo Alto Utilities, (CPAU). CPAU is the only municipal utility in California that operates city-owned utility services that include electric, gas, water, and wastewater collection services. In addition to conventional utilities, CPAU has an offering called Fibre-optic Services, based on the Palo Alto fibre backbone. Dark fibre can be leased directly from CPAU or managed services, carried over the network, can be obtained from independent service providers. Services available include voice, data and video. With the fibre backbone, customers gain direct fibre access to Internet service providers of choice. They interconnect telephone systems and computer networks across multiple Palo Alto locations. They connect directly to local and/or long distance carrier(s) of choice for a full range of telecommunications services. They also provision redundant telecommunications connections for enhanced reliability. CPAU offers the following benefits of connecting to the fibre backbone: Competition - With CPAU's fibre backbone, customers have access to their choice of service providers. They are no longer limited to a single source for telecommunications services. Reliability - The ring-based design of the fibre backbone allows for highly reliable network configurations. Flexibility and Control - With CPAU's dark fibre, customers are in control. They design their networks, install their choice of equipment, and provision the network to meet their needs. Flat Fee without Bandwidth Limitations - Customers pay a flat fee for the dark fibre. The only bandwidth limits are those imposed by the customers' hardware. More information is available at www.cpau.com/fiberservices/. In addition to the CPAU fibre backbone, which is targeted at commercial and institutional customers, the City of Palo Alto has undertaken a fibre-to-the-home, (FTTH), trial. The FTTH trial was approved in its current form on November 13th, 2000, by the Palo Alto City Council. There are approximately 70 residential participants in the FTTH trial. In addition, several FTTH installations were located in public buildings to allow public review and interaction with the project. The city expects to derive real benefit through the experience gained while deploying the network as well as real hard data for modeling a business case for a citywide deployment of FTTH. Construction of the network for FTTH was financed by the City of Palo Alto. Participants are responsible for service fees. A variety of services were planned to be provided through FTTH. Planned services included Fast Internet access, Broadcast video (CATV/DBS) and Telephony (Carrier class quality). Stockholm, Sweden The City of Stockholm has actively encouraged the development of high-speed communications since 1994 through a wholly owned commercial enterprise known as AB Stokab. The members of the Board of Directors of Stokab are political appointees representing the City of Stockholm. Stokab's operations commenced at a time when Sweden had begun de-regulation of the telecommunications market. Stokab now has approx. 4,000 km of fibre cable for a total of 500,000 fibre kilometres. More information is available at www.stokab.com . The key elements of the Stokab business model include:
Stokab has an additional goal of leveraging municipal facilities such as tunnels and ducts in order to reduce the impact of excavation on city streets. The development of the fibre-optic network started in the commercial district of Stockholm. Later, it was extended to the major industrial areas of the city. Finally it was extended to serve other municipalities, in the region. Stokab has approx. 60 telecom companies as customers. They include carriers, Internet service providers, cable companies and mobile telephone operators. Rather than constructing their own facilities, these companies lease dark fibre from Stokab. It is noteworthy that Telia, the ILEC, does not use the network. Other commercial enterprises needing high-speed telecommunications lease dark fibre from Stokab. Such enterprises include banks, insurance companies, retailers, media companies, universities and computer and IT companies. High-speed communications have made telecommuting, training, video conferencing, and telemedicine available. The Stockholm County Council's network, SLLnet, links emergency and local hospitals as well as some of the major medical centres in the county, from Södertälje and Nynäshamn via Stockholm to Norrtälje. SLLnet is the County Council's common infrastructure for data, voice, and graphics communications. It is a service network accessible by The County Council's own operations as well as other forms of operations procured by The County Council. Through connections via Stokab's fibre-optic network, it is possible for the operations of the County Council to work in entirely new ways. Organisations and companies working on behalf of the County Council within the area of healthcare enjoy secure and convenient communications.17 Chicago, Illinois, USA The City of Chicago is actively involved in a major project to encourage and directly participate in the development of high-speed fibre-optic communications in the City. Mayor Daley announced the project in February 1999 and stated the following vision: "I envision the entire City -residents, businesses, and institutions - using the network to access on-line education programs, video-on-demand services, telecommunicating, and on-line community organizing." CivicNet intends aggregates the communications requirements of the City, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, Chicago City Colleges, Chicago Housing Authority, and Chicago Transit Authority Chicago's internal requirements will be offered as an anchor tenant for the development of the new communications infrastructure. The City intends to partner with multiple entities in the private sector to build out this infrastructure, that will be managed and operated by the City's private sector partners and marketed by them to all interested parties in the private, public, and institutional sectors. The intent is to create a new communications infrastructure throughout the City for the Internet age, for everyone to use and to spur economic development. The City seeks partners to finance, build, manage, operate, and market CivicNet. The City also seeks partners to be co-tenants. Corporations, businesses, banks, universities, healthcare organizations, community technology centres, etc. that have locations throughout the City are offered the opportunity to participate in CivicNet, to procure high-speed communications at a lower cost than might now be possible. The project went out to RFP in December 2001 with proposals due March 29 2002. The city has not yet announced the successful bidders. The key elements of the Chicago business model include:
A prime tenant in the network is the fact that the City has specified that the network will have "Equal access-The City expects equal access throughout the network. All information content and service providers requesting access to the network infrastructure shall be treated equally. Facilities, wholesale, and retail services should be made available in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner". "Irrevocable rights to use (IRUs) (of dark fibre) should be made available on a reasonable, fair and non-discriminatory manner". Montreal, QC18 Montreal has the reputation across the carrier industry of "getting it right". All carriers that operate there praise the ease of access and the low cost of duct rental. Montreal created an agency called the "Commission des Services Électriques de la Ville de Montreal" (CSEVM) in 1907 to emphasize urban design and to adapt to changing technological requirements as the city grew and to contribute to the beautification of the city's streets and public places. The CSEVM has the mandate to operate the whole underground space. It builds, manages and operates the system of underground conduits. Since that beginning the City now has 19.2 million metres of linear conduits, covering 623 of the city's 2,123 kilometres of streets. It provides direct accesses to 38,500 private and public buildings through more than 18,000 access facilities. The City operates in the role of standardizing construction, consolidating demand from various sources and building additional space for the City to rent out to others. The City shares the capital cost with all and engineers additional capacity for resell. The City is also very active on retrofitting duct banks that are filled by adding additional internal ducts to be used. The primary advantage to the building partners is in cost reduction of duct construction. The primary advantage to the City is the minimization of infrastructure disruption (road cuts) and the resulting social disruption. The end result is that the carriers have only the highest of praise for Montreal as a territory in which they operate and the costs of duct rental are $3.65 per metre. This compares with Toronto Hydro's duct rental rate of $12.00 and Telecom Ottawa of $8.00 per metre. This is a key ingredient of making a city "telecom friendly" so that services will be extended to its constituents. Fredericton, NB The City of Fredericton has undertaken to build a Community Network through a Municipal Corporation, e-Novations Inc. The Community Network is a combination of fibre optic cable and wireless technology available to all businesses and citizens of the city. The objective of the project is to make available a network that has next to unlimited speed and capacity for the lowest cost and to maintain the city's position in the world of economic development as one of the most desirable places to live and conduct business. The Corporation, e-Novations Inc., was created with the approval of the Council of the City of Fredericton. E-Novations has applied for, and been granted, a Non-Dominate Carrier License from the CRTC, which permits it to build and maintain a communications system. The city gave the corporation a repayable loan of $50,000.00 and services in kind to assist with the start-up. The corporation is a not-for-profit organization and any excess revenues realized from its operations will be used to support and expand the network. The network will allow high-speed connections to destinations within the city as well as to service providers that are connected to other networks. Communication technology and connectivity are quickly becoming key drivers in energizing community development. Over the past few years, a number of drivers have been contributing to the rising profile of connectivity as an enabling technology for development, business and innovation. In fact, the City of Fredericton's Smart Communities initiative was built on the premise of innovation through information and communication technology. The City of Fredericton has been paying close attention to the rising profile of communication technology and "connectedness" with communities, government and educational institutions and in the private sector. This, coupled with Fredericton's strong IT sector provides an opportunity to clearly establish Fredericton as Silicon Valley East. This is not about technology; it is about economic development, high-paying jobs, and the quality of life. The Community Network is being built using a combination of leasing existing fibre network, purchasing existing fibre network and constructing new fibre network in areas where fibre network currently does not exist. This will mean that many businesses can be connected to the fibre backbone almost immediately. The opportunity for Community Network Members to connect to a second office, to a business partner or to the Internet can now be accomplished very quickly. The construction part of the network commenced in the fall of 2001. Building will take place to connect areas of the city where no fibre currently exists and areas that will need fibre to connect to the wireless portion of the network. Initial connections directly to the fibre backbone will run at 100 megabits/second. Each commercial location/firm will be charged an annual membership fee to use the network. The City of Fredericton's Information Technology Division currently manages a Municipal Area Network (MAN) consisting of 6 major and 13 minor sites spread across a 100 square kilometre area. This MAN consists of a combination of some privately owned fibre, some leased circuits and wireless (RF) technology. While able to serve most of Fredericton's immediate needs, this configuration is lacking and expensive. On one hand, the lower speed and RF connections are barely adequate while the faster leased circuits result in very high ongoing costs. By moving its MAN to the Fredericton Community Network, approximately $250,000 per year in current ongoing charges would be freed up and could be redirected to this project. In the meantime, this change would mean that the City of Fredericton's network performance would be dramatically increased (every employee could be connected as if they were in the City Hall building, no matter where they were located). Finally, this would open the door to new possibilities not considered with our current configuration. Video conferencing, broadband Internet/Intranet and IP telephony are just some of the new possibilities. The last, and probably most exciting layer of this project is that of the connection of residents to the Community Network. Access to the Community Network for residents will be made available on a membership basis. This would offer members a quantum leap in connectivity for a small membership fee. This is 10 to 100 times faster than DSL or Cable Modem. Membership charges would be tiered and will vary from least expensive for private residences to most expensive for business wanting to offer services to this Community Network. These revenues will be used to offset costs and reinvest in the network. This component of the Community Network is planned to be in place early 2003. B r o a d b a n d P l a n for the City of Ottawa April 2003 Within Ontario Simcoe County The installation of a broadband network has just been completed in Simcoe County. This initiative provides an excellent example of MUSH, (Municipalities, Universities, Schools & Hospitals), sector participants becoming a catalyst for the deployment of broadband services in a community. The Simcoe Community Access Network (SCAN)19 is a Non-Profit cooperative. SCAN was founded by20:
The SCAN mission statement is: SCAN'S mission is to provide a sophisticated community based telecommunications network infrastructure which will facilitate the delivery of services through IT applications for the benefit of citizens and businesses of Simcoe County that might not be enjoyed without this cooperative effort. This is achieved through co-operation across both public and private sectors, and community involvement and participation21. Following an RFP process, SCBN Telecommunications built a hybrid network servicing all of Simcoe County. SCBN is a telecommunications joint venture corporation composed of Hydro One Telecom Inc., Barrie Hydro Energy Services Inc., Orillia Power Generation Corporation, Innisfil Energy Services Limited. and Tay Utility Contracting Inc. 22 SCAN is expected to attract new and high tech business to Simcoe County by providing easier access to government and community resources. SCAN is expected to enhance tourism through easy to navigate interactive web pages. In addition for the first time rural communities will be able to compete on an even scale with large urban centres. The SCAN project provides a mechanism for the delivery of sophisticated telecommunications services and network based applications to the people of Simcoe County. Some of the key applications include Virtual Town Hall, Surgical Pre-Admission Clinic, Telemedicine (applications for patient assessment, consultations, education and meetings), Land Information Network Cooperative GIS applications, Connectivity for Schools and Libraries. Key objectives are to enhance telecommunications services throughout Simcoe County, to capture benefits and synergies of stakeholders and to encourage service providers and governments to enhance availability and affordability of services in the county. The technical solution is a hybrid of landlines and wireless technologies (5 sites are connected via 100 Mbps wireless technology.). The current telecommunications infrastructure in Simcoe County is highly diverse. In urban areas such as the City of Orillia, fibre optics at high speeds are available as is wireless in the City of Barrie, and the Towns of Collingwood and Midland. The new high-speed fibre backbone is available to users in the City of Barrie up to the City of Orillia, Alliston, Tottenham, Midhurst, Collingwood, Midland, and Penetanguishene. Upon completion of the new network infrastructure, all users in Simcoe County have access to the fibre optic backbone and connect through high bandwidth local loop facilities at speeds of 100Mbps. This robust, resilient, scaleable and open network will provide users in the County of Simcoe with access to a high-speed network that will easily meet their connectivity needs of today, and allow for future expansion within our community and connectivity to future neighbour broadband networks as they emerge23. Waterloo Region The following information is taken from the Waterloo Region Education and Public Network (WREPNet) website http://www.wrepnet.on.ca/frames-home.htm WREPNet24 is a high-speed, high-capacity information network that gives public sector organizations in Waterloo Region access to the technology needed to be at the forefront of information, education and business demands. WREPNet uses fibre optic cables instead of the standard telephone or cable networks. This technology dramatically speeds up data communications between sites on the network and provides cost-effective access to improved information services and emerging technology applications and solutions. Who is involved? The idea for WREPNet began in 1998 when the Waterloo Region District School Board and Waterloo Catholic District School Board put forward a joint proposal to the Ministry of Education to build an information network that could be shared with other public organizations. The Ministry approved a onetime infrastructure grant of $10 million, and an alliance of public sector organizations was developed to plan and manage the network. The WREPNet partners are:
The network has been designed and built with extra capacity that will allow other public sector partners to join. Governance Model WREPNet has a governance model comprised of committees and teams of appropriate representatives of WREPNet partner organizations. The Governance Model was established to facilitate business and technical planning processes. It was also established to ensure the thorough participation of all WREPNet partners in the processes used to define technical solutions and make business decisions about the approach used in defining, implementing and managing WREPNet. The governance model consists of the following committees:
Steering Committee The Steering Committee, co-chaired by the Superintendents of Business from WRDSB and WCDSB, is composed of CFO level representatives of the WREPNet participant organizations. The committee provides corporate direction and oversight to the project and program resources. It is the top approval body. Business Planning Group (BPG) The Business Planning Group (BPG), co-chaired by the WCDSB CIO and the City of Kitchener Director of IT, is comprised of IT Directors and managers from the participant organizations and Prescient International. The BPG provides operational direction to the project, reviewing all technical and business subjects and making recommendations to the Steering Committee for approval. Technical Team The Technical Team (TT) is composed of IT technical staff of the WREPNet participant organizations and Prescient International. Technical experts from Prescient International and vendor organizations provide direct consultation to the Technical Team and participate regularly at TT meetings. The Technical Team is co-chaired by the City of Kitchener Technical Support Supervisor and the WCDSB Manager of Technical Support Services. The purpose of the TT is to solve technical problems and make recommendations to the BPG on technical issues and subjects. Project Management Office As WREPNet moved through the negotiations, planning and prototype network stages, the need for a focused structure to manage the full WREPNet implementation emerged. As a result, a Project Management Office (PMO) was formed. The PMO is composed of key representatives of the WREPNet partnership and the business partners. To ensure the utmost continuity between the Business Planning Group, Technical Team and the PMO, the co-chairs of both committees sit on the PMO. One Technical Team representative from the Waterloo Region District School Board also sits on the PMO given the number of board sites to be implemented. The PMO is responsible for the day-to-day management of the network implementation and will end once full implementation has been achieved. Success to Date25 The WREPNet network is one of the few initiatives in Ontario where a dark fibre network has been established by a public sector consortium. Similar groups have initialized many other network connectivity projects but they have generally been a managed telecom service of some type. The only other network in the province of this magnitude that is a dark fibre network is the PSN in Peel Region. The network has been very successful through the implementation phase. Sites continue to be added as the members expand the facilities they have connected. In addition, new members, particularly the Health Care sector, are being encouraged to connect to WREPNet. Challenges for WREPNet going into the future include sustainability of the network (ongoing funding sources to minimize costs for the participants), operational issues (managing the ongoing requirements for maintenance and upgrades required to keep the network providing services and functions needed by the partners) and the need for a long term business strategy to provide directions for decision makers. WREPNet has won several awards for public sector technical achievements and continues to provide an extremely valuable service to its partners. PSN, Peel Region The Peel Region Public Service Network (PSN) is a fibre network connecting public (MUSH) partners within the Region. Partners initially included:
The following is a press release from November of 2000 regarding this implementation:
PSN Endorsements:
Peter Robertson, Mayor, City of Brampton
Hazel McCallion, Mayor, City of Mississauga
Emil Kolb, Peel Regional Chair and CEO Since the original PSN was built some of the planned expansion has occurred:
In addition to this expansion into Caledon, agreements are in place for services to:
Although the press release of November 2000 is somewhat out of date (there are larger networks now in place in Ontario), the initial goals of the PSN to serve the MUSH group in Peel Region have been accomplished. Upper Canada Network (UCNet) UCNet is a network established to serve a large mainly rural area southwest of Ottawa. It is one of the only community networks in Ontario providing wireless services over a broad area. UCNet is also one of the very few not-for-profit community networks that has been set up to provide services, not only for the public sector, but also for the commercial business sector in their territory. In the following information we outline: Community Groups involved, Governance, Funding Programs, Economic Model and comments on critical success factors from the UCNet perspective26. A brief summary of UCNet will then follow. Community Groups involved The MUSH group were the core members of UCNet originally. However, membership does not mean that all of the MUSH group currently receives services from the UCNet telecom network. About 20 customers are on network now (started in mid-May of 2002 providing services). They have yet to launch a marketing campaign. Customer knowledge is limited. IT people tend to be very knowledgeable about computing but tend to have more limited knowledge about telecom. Despite the demarcation of services (ending at the telecom connection to a facility), customers expect assistance right to the desktop. That has been a challenge for UCNet to provide that service. A user group is currently being assembled so the customers can share in opportunities together. There is difficulty in operating as a co-op (membership requirement). Member context is central to the community philosophy at UCNet. Practical application of this community idea is that the "customer" now looks on UCNet as a commercial provider and expects comparable services as he would get from a traditional Telco. School Boards are members but now that the service is ready to be available, they are uncertain that UCNet should be their second connection. Because of delays in getting the wireless service operational (about 1 year behind schedule) there is a lack of UCNet credibility with some customer groups. Need to make a special case for education of the customers. From the UCNet perspective, to become a self-sustaining business they need the MUSH group as customers. Generally, they do not have them as customers today. Governance Others community networks tend to have elected officials on the Board. UCNet whose preference is to have local business people involved at the Board level making the policy and main business decisions for the corporation has avoided this. On an interim basis there are three people on the official board today. The business is functioning almost as a virtual corporation. So far, the UCNet business has been run as a project with lots of volunteers. UCNet has an advisory board with a person in the high technology area, two educators, others in the Applications area, and one of the local mayors. Because of some of the start up issues and the challenges dealing with them, the advisory board has been neglected over the last 6 months while staff have been dealing with operational. Funding Programs $1.1 million has been received of $1.8 million in funding through the TAP program. $725,000 is yet to come and has been held back to this point because of the lateness of installation etc. In order to get this remaining funding an inventory of equipment has been completed and a financial audit has been required. At about this time (mid-October) a Provincial auditor is expected to be looking at the UCNet financial information. Economic Model Only cost effective solution has been fixed wireless into wireline. They can use DSL but don't because of focus on business and public sector and the need for synchronous traffic capability. Among community based groups like UCNet, there needs to be an understanding of the CRTC regulations and a broader understanding of how a community network should evolve. They did not realise the degree the business model would be constrained by Internet pricing from incumbents. This issue became a major cost barrier to providing low cost services and building a sustainable business. Currently at UCNet they are in a cash challenged situation with positive cash flow being a ways off yet (likely a few months). Vic commented that "The model does work from the services side but financing is difficult as a not for profit organization." It is difficult to find external sources for cash as a not-for-profit. Comments on Critical Success Factors Thorough understanding of technology to be used is required. Because they did not have this technical capability initially, they were approximately 1 year late in implementation of services. (The integrator they ended up using was not a wireless expert). Customer education and application development is critical to help establish the need for the services. At UCNet it has been done in the following 6 clusters (with comments on the status of each). Schools
Health Care
Agriculture
Tourism
Small Business
Big Business
Summary UCNet is a rural community model that the Provincial Government is very excited about. Mr. Allen attends numerous conferences throughout North America doing presentations about the UCNet business, the model and factors influencing success. The challenges faced by UCNet are significant. Being a not-for-profit business with members supporting the initiative has created challenges. Funding issues, the credibility of the business and its ability to deliver the services required by "members" are real issues and the resolution of these challenges will ultimately determine the viability of UCNet. South Dundas After recognizing the vital importance of providing high-speed, broadband communication capability to the community South Dundas implemented the South Dundas Fibre Project in the summer of 2000. The first B r o a d b a n d P l a n for the City of Ottawa April 2003 Page 95 business was hooked up to this network in February of 2001. Public and private sectors are working together in this venture to create a progressive and prosperous economic environment. Commercial access to the South Dundas Fibre Network is available through South Dundas Networks. Note comments on South Dundas as a part of CEONET. CEONet27 The Communities of Eastern Ontario Network is a not-for profit corporation and was formed in March 2002 to pursue Information Technology projects in Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry and Prescott-Russell. Because this initiative took place after the province's TAP programme had been prematurely brought to an end, CEONET has not been involved in building network infrastructure. It should be noted that neither the United Counties of SD&G nor the United Counties of P-R, nor their respective Community Development Corporations applied for funding under TAP. For this reason, the provision of high-speed networks for this rural has been fragmented and inconsistent, ranging from the remarkable initiative taken by the Township of South Dundas, to the frustration of virtually no infrastructure development in the Townships of North Stormont or East Hawkesbury. The challenge of this rural region to bring high-speed to its citizens is considerable. Apart from the City of Cornwall, geographically located within SD&G but falling outside its political structure, there is only one town of any size, Hawkesbury (about 10,000 population). Its industry and commerce are widely scattered throughout the region though their location is arguably influenced by Highways 401 and 417. Agriculture is a significant economic activity (worth $900 million) but by implication the rural population has a low density over more than 6,000 sq km of territory. The relative proximity of Ottawa and Montreal is attractive to home workers who value living and working in the country but want to be near the cities. Many businesses compete with their urban counterparts, are branch operations of national/international companies, or require access to professional databases (insurance, real estate). Other major users are predictably the schools, libraries, health and environmental authorities. Governance CEONET has a 15-person Board of Directors, broadly drawn from the community it serves. There do not appear to be any other community advocacy groups promoting high-speed for the region though at least one local broadband action committee is known to have been formed (in Embrun). For the Connect Ontario project, CEONET proposed a partnership based on the two United Counties, the City of Cornwall and Mohawk Nation Akwesasne. Working together for possibly the first time, the United Counties decided in favour of forming a Steering Committee comprised of representatives from the counties/partners offices, but no others. Uncomfortable in working with an independent not-for-profit corporation, CEONET was become a guest of the Steering Committee for its own project, and faced at least one attempt to be dislodged as lead partner. This was eventually resolved by the Ministry responsible for the project. The Steering Committee displayed its strength in managing the RFP for writing the business case and subsequent deployment of the contractor but the narrow representation has contributed to a lack of communication with municipal councils, other groups such as health and education, and with the community at large. The CEONET Board of Directors recently formed a Broadband Committee with community representation. For the moment, this committee acts in an advisory capacity to the Board for future projects. Local initiatives taken to build infrastructure Township of South Dundas The Township of South Dundas is located along Highway 401 on the St. Lawrence River. Although agricultural land, it has some industry in the two larger towns of Morrisburg and Iroquois. South Dundas took the unusual step of investing its own funds to build a community-owned hybrid network infrastructure in three largest rural communities: Morrisburg (pop. 2400), Iroquois (pop. 1200) and Williamsburg (pop. 800). Engaging Prophet Technologies, the township first carried out an engineering study, then built its network. The network was designed to bring fibre optic cable to all businesses, giving each the option of paying for and making the media connection. As of October 2002, about 24 businesses have chosen to do so. By a Council decision, the community-owned network does not serve residential areas, some of which have access to cable Internet service. Wireless radio provides the link between the three communities. The strategy was simple.
Township of South Stormont The adjacent Township of South Stormont is very similar to South Dundas: a small industrial base in Ingleside and Long Sault, backed by an agricultural hinterland. South Stormont took a conventional approach. After weighing the perceived merits of the South Dundas model and hearing the arguments of commercial providers, its Council chose to sign agreements with two commercial providers to provide wireless service. Although the intent was to introduce competition, only one of the two companies has responded to date. Wireless high-speed service is now delivered from water tower mounted antennas within two small towns. Some distribution is available through fibre optic cable, partly by agreement with a cable television company. The infrastructure is owned by the respective commercial interests. The advantage to South Stormont is that it has been spared having to invest its own capital to build the network. However, it has neither control over rates nor network topology, both of which are determined by market forces. Companies that are located at a distance from existing cable face installation surcharges for bringing fibre optic cable to them. Time will tell which model serves as the best choice. Elsewhere in the region Commercial interests have been left to develop the infrastructure on their own. At times, political representatives have had to intervene. One example is the Town of Hawkesbury where last year the hospital faced an unexpected crisis without high-speed. Outside intervention by the local MPP brought in a wireless company that resolved the problem. But where there is a weak business case, development falters. Both North Stormont and East Hawkesbury are largely agricultural, have several villages but no towns or industry of any size. Neither is likely to have much interest from commercial providers of broadband access in the near future. Here then are two models. The first is the unusual enterprise of a rural community that took action out of concern for its future. The second is a commercial model that works reasonably well where there are acceptable returns but poorly where those returns are in doubt. For areas that are largely agricultural with widely dispersed populations, the best model is probably self-help where such enterprise still exists in the social psyche. For the rest, the achievement of a vision of uniform access to broadband services seems to require an intervention from a higher level of government. 17 www.stokab.com The Market, County Councils |
Official site of the City of Ottawa
