The office has been all a’flutter over the last few weeks because we have been preparing for a trip to Washington D.C. on Monday (June 23). It’s not that we are normally a’flutter over a trip to the capital; this time it’s for a particularly special occasion.
Several months ago, in conjunction with our governing board, we began to realize the need for a new piece of research. We needed something concise but powerful – a report that would compile the overwhelming facts and data to support the demand for increased broadband deployment not only in North Carolina, but throughout the entire nation.
The report was commissioned to Jim Baller of Baller Herbst Law Group in Washington, D.C. and is titled Bigger Vision, Bolder Action, Brighter Future: Capturing the Promise of Broadband for North Carolina and America. Basically, it outlines the benefits of broadband and the status of current deployment efforts while also looking at how much bandwidth capacity will be needed in the future. A major emphasis of the report is the need for a national broadband strategy. Strong arguments are made within the report for increased broadband deployment in the U.S. and more action on the part of telecommunications companies and community officials.
The report also includes a series of recommendations to the e-NC Authority and the state of North Carolina. The general ideas expressed in the report’s final recommendations are as follows:
- Push to make North Carolina one of the top five states in broadband adoption and use;
- Participate in a national broadband strategy;
- Work with local citizens and leaders around the state to gather input on how to move the state forward;
- Continue the e-NC Authority’s connectivity programs, but push for higher speeds than just DSL and cable modem service;
- Seek legislative authority for data collection from the providers;
- Encourage proactive policies to promote build-out by service providers; and
- Encourage localities to consider broadband initiatives as an option, along with all other options.
As the report was being finished, we were flattered to receive an offer by the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. to sponsor an event announcement to release the paper.
Want to come?
Keep your eyes on our Web site after 12 p.m. on Monday - electronic files of the full report and the executive summary will be posted at that time.
3 comments:
I have a few comments about this post before I dive into the report.
1. It'd be really nice if e-NC would release the "100 county report(s)" for 2007, since we're half way into 2008 and no new reports have been released since 2006.
2. When you say "Continue the .. connectivity programs, but push for higher speeds ..", I would strongly suggest doing the former before the latter. The latter is why so many people don't have access to broadband in the first place.
I think it's critical to get as high availability as possible before pushing for higher speeds, people cannot be left behind while others just get more of what they already have. If dollars are to be spent, they have to go to availability.
It's great to shoot for 5mbit+ and 10mbit+ speeds, but the reality is that most people don't need anything close to that. Even 1mbit (about 132 KiB/s) is very reasonable, very effective. There are very few things that you can't do with a 1mbit connection that you can with 5+. If I had any say, 1mbit 100% availability would be the standard before a single dollar were spent on getting faster speeds for those lucky enough to already have something, because let's face it, if you have DSL or cable, chances are you've already got the potential for 3mbit+ with both services.
Few telcos offer DSL under 1.5 (192 KiB/s) while Embarq is trialing 10mbit in Vegas (while offering nothing in Danbury) and it's all about a speed race for the cable companies now.
Satellite doesn't count, it's not really broadband (I'll happily explain my thinking if anyone is interested) and wireless just doesn't exist outside of the triad.
3. "Seek legislative authority for data collection from the providers" -- Wonderful to have, but you'll never get it. It would highlight all the areas that companies like Embarq have virtually abandoned because they'd rather be passive, waiting for enough people to beg them for DSL before deploying the necessary equipment instead of putting it out there to create that demand.
In the e-NC 2004 report for Stokes County, Embarq (then Sprint) had DSL access in "the Quaker Gap (80%) and Walnut Cove (42%) exchanges. The Danbury and Sandy Ridge exchanges do not have DSL access. The area served by the Madison exchange does not have DSL access, but the area served by the Pilot Mountain exchange has approximately 10% access."
In 2006: "Embarq provides DSL access in the Danbury (18%), Quaker Gap (40%) Sandy Ridge (35%) and Walnut Cove (46%) exchanges. The area served by the Madison exchange has 21% access and the area served by the Pilot Mountain exchange has approximately 32% access."
Quaker Gap actually lost availability, while others gained little. Embarq refuses to deploy DSLAMs fed from the Danbury exchange until enough customers "express interest", meaning nothing will happen until enough people beg for it. This has been verified by an Embarq tech I spoke with that was assigned to assist customers on the DSL Reports website -- Embarq won't lift a finger in a given area until enough people call and ask for it.
Even then there may not be enough to satisfy them because nobody knows what that number has to be.
Between 2004 and 2006, while cable availability increased 29.75% (mostly thanks to Time Warner), the telcos only managed a net increase of 6.3%. Time Warner seems to be driving deployments in Stokes County but they can't and won't service everyone. They still won't drop cable on roads that don't meet their density policy.
And let me explain something really quick just to illustrate how bad that is for where I live. North Stokes School road is so named because NS highschool is located here. The road is about 3 miles long with about 30 homes here, only about 10 homes per mile. Given the distance limitations of DSL, Embarq would have to deploy a DSLAM at one end of this C-shaped road just to service those people -- including myself -- and it's about 5 homes per mile short of what Time Warner is willing to spend money on. This road, even with a highschool on it, may end being one of the last places in the country to get broadband because of that, and for all I know, we may never get service.
While the Danbury exchange sat at 18% in 2006, an exchange directly west (and I do mean directly, as in the next exchange over) where my sister lives had already exceeded 90% and is probably at 100% today. Identical topology and economy, simply different companies.
I really hope somebody pays attention to this comment because Stokes County only looks good if you look at the entire county rather than how it all breaks down. The 2006 report says that 68.07% of the community has access to broadband, which sounds rosey, except for the people that are sitting in a DSL exchange with barely 18% coverage and home densitys too low to interest Time Warner. The net increase of availability for the county only rose 3.73% from 2004-2006, meaning that huge nearly 30% gain in cable availability was only in areas that already get DSL.
In other words, people who don't have it are being ignored, as always, and we call all forget about this "may be left behind" stuff and embrace reality. We've already been left behind.
We were left behind years ago.
Paul - we're on the same team friend. We'd love nothing more than to release the 2007 data, but that would require cooperation from some resistant telcos to provide their coverage info in the first place. We are still waiting for updated information from a couple of the biggest providers in the state. And saying that we are "waiting" is kind. We have an active and ongoing dialog with them to secure the information (none of it proprietary) - but we have no regulatory ability to force their disclosure or action. It creates a delicate balancing act for the e-NC Authority, unfortunately.
"Paul - we're on the same team friend."
I've no doubt about that. Just speaking my mind is all.
"We are still waiting for updated information from a couple of the biggest providers in the state."
At least knowing the holdup is somewhat comforting. A note about that on the blog or on the e-NC front page might be helpful, as I'm sure I'm not the only person waiting for those reports to come out.
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