How fast is fiber optic cable?

I know that you can make too much of Internet speed. Most people using their computers at home just need enough speed to do what they need to do without being frustrated. However, speed can be a significant concern at businesses, schools, hospitals, etc. It is fascinating to understand just how fast the Cook County fiber optic network would be, compared to the options now available to most county residents. At cookcountybroadband.com, you can find a nifty little gizmo that demonstrates the speed differences. You can find it at:

http://cookcountybroadband.com/index.php/categoryblog/56-fiber-speed-demo

Download the gizmo and play around with the various speeds. Check out consumer speeds, business speeds and society speeds, and you will see just how much faster some essential tasks, and nonessential ones, could be accomplished with a fiber optic network. I think you will be amazed.

Consumers Union advocates for rural broadband

In the November issue of Consumer Reports magazine, its parent organization, Consumers Union, has published an editorial strongly advocating for rural broadband. I have asked for permission to reprint the entire article, but they are taking their time about giving it.

Meanwhile, here's the money quote:

Those without high-speed, or broadband, access are at a disadvantage, shut off from valuable multimedia tools. High-speed Internet will soon be essential for education, health care, and information. And in this down economy, a fast connection is even more critical for job searches, distance learning, and home businesses.

The entire article is available at:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/november-2009/viewpoint/overview/internet-is-not-up-to-speed-ov.htm

Good news from financial advisors

I apologize for the long absence from this blog. The campaign for the 1 percent referendum has simply been too hectic.

However, we have received a letter from Ehlers & Associates, Cook County's independent financial advisors, and I wanted to reprint part of it here. It gives a very strong endorsement to the business plan that CCG Consulting has developed for the Cook County Broadband Project:

"As part of its August 2009 application for federal government grant funding, Cook County included a highly detailed fiber system business plan that CCG Consulting developed specifically for the proposed County enterprise. This business plan incorporated both the specific attributes of the proposed County system and CCG's experience gained from advising numerous public broadband systems across the country. The result is a project forecast that includes a line-item capital and working capital budget, ten years of projected business and residential customer accounts, and an operating proforme spanning two years of construction / start up and five years of full system operations.

"Each year, Ehlers advises Minnesota governments on more private and public sector development projects than any other consulting firm, and reviews budgets and proformas for a wide variety of projects on a daily basis....

"We are pleased to report that the CCG business plan for the proposed Cook County fiber system is one of the most thorough, well-organized and pragmatic projections that Ehlers has reviewed in the recent past. Although the plan contains numerous assumptions that are subject to change as the project advances, the level of detail within the budget and proforma mean that there is little chance that any major cost category or revenue variance has been missed – even at this early stage of system development. Our overall impression is that the CCG fiscal blueprint is a conservative projection of market penetration, operating revenues and capital replacement costs – all of which yields a reasonable estimate of annual net income."

Bruce Kimmel

Senior Financial Advisor

Carolyn Drude

Senior Financial Advisor / Executive Vice President

Windomnet

Windomnet, a community owned fiber optic broadband system in Windom, Minnesota, is a favorite whipping boy for service providers who are trying to defeat new public broadband systems. It happened in North St. Paul in February, and it is beginning to happen here, now. I thought readers might like to read a bit more objective story on the North St. Paul issue. The text below is copied from KSTP. Note particularly the statement on Windom's revenue bonds and what happens if they are not repaid. The story is admittedly not very flattering to Polarnet in North St. Paul. It's the windomnet information that I find interesting.

The city of Windom's fiber optic network, called Windomnet, began service in the fourth quarter of 2005. At the time it was built, Windom residents had no access to high-speed internet. The city says it asked Qwest to provide it but were told the company was not interested. After Windomnet was built, Qwest changed its mind. Qwest now provides DSL, competing with Windomnet's fiber service. To this day, Qwest DSL is the only competion for high speed internet. Comcast does not offer service in Windom. Windomnet's business plan called for it to lose money for the first five years, before finally breaking even. In 2008, the city tells us, Windomnet lost $108,000. The proposed North Saint Paul fiber optic network is called Polarnet. The Polarnet business plan calls for it to break even within three years. That, despite high speed internet competition from Qwest DSL and Comcast broadband. Windomnet was financed through revenue bonds. That means if Windomnet continues to lose money, the investors lose. Polarnet would be financed through general obligation bonds. That means if Polarnet does not make enough money to make the loan payments, the city still has to find a way to pay. And that could mean property taxes go up. Polarnet's business plan says it will break even if 27 percent of the city's residents sign up. Windomnet, after three years, provides phone service to 52% of the households, high speed internet to 45% of the households and cable TV to 76% of households. A Windom trucking company uses the fiber optic service to keep track of and communicate with rigs all over the country. The company told us they would have left town had the city not provided the service. Businesses in North Saint Paul already have access to Qwest DSL and Comcast broadband. Part of the city's pitch is that Polarnet will attract new business to North Saint Paul. We asked if they'd ever heard from businesses that decided against moving to North Saint Paul because of the lack of a fiber network. The City Manager told us a couple of "server farms," large computer storage facilities, decided against building there because the available bandwidth was not sufficient.

Economic development

Economic development is a touchy subject in Cook County. We have the problematic history of the EDA, and especially its business park. And we're not really certain we want many new businesses. Below are excerpts from a talk I gave to the Lutsen Tofte Tourism Association about the economic potential of broadband. At that talk, Mike O'Phelan of Cascade Lodge put it bluntly: He needs high-speed Internet for his business to survive. He said existing clients increasingly tell him that while they would like to come back, his lack of a good Internet connection means they can't. Although Cascade Lodge sits virtually on top of the existing fiber-optic connection to Cook County, the current provider quoted him a connection fee of $600,000 for a T1 connection (the slowest speed of the proposed broadband system would be about 6 times faster than T1 and cost a business $1,000 for a connection). Here are the excerpts:

*******************

From the research I have done, it seems clear that broadband does have great economic potential, but in ways that can be a little difficult to measure. It tends to strengthen existing businesses rather than lead, at least immediately, to lots of new companies moving in – and in Cook County, I'm not certain we actually want a lot of new companies moving in. Folks here tend to be very jealous about our existing life style, and broadband's ability to strengthen that life style is what we stress.

Let's take tourism. I've been told that people don't just “vacation” any more. Many of them want to vacation AND stay connected – via the Internet – with what's going on in the office. To do that, they need strong, fast connections to the Internet. They may actually want to connect remotely to their office computer. Dial-up and satellite do not allow that. But if they do have the connectivity they require, they may actually extend their stay, from Saturday and Sunday to Friday through Monday.

It's important to remember as well that broadband includes more than the Internet. It also includes television and telephone. In some areas of the county, the robust telephone service needed to sustain tourism simply isn't available. Bruce Kerfoot at Gunflint Lodge is pulling his hair out over their bad phone service and the phone company's inability to do anything about it. Last spring, he went 20 days without phone service. That meant no reservations, no ability to process fishing licenses for guests, no BWCA permit applications.

We also have lots of anecdotal information on how the absence of broadband retards the growth of the economy in Cook County. Sally Nankivell, for example, tells of the two Mayo doctors who were interested in purchasing a home near Lutsen. But they needed the ability to work remotely, and when they learned that their only Internet alternatives were dial up or satellite, they quickly lost interest in living here.

I have a study done of Lake County, Florida. It says, “In 2001, Lake County – a small county in central Florida – began generally offering private businesses and municipal institutions access to one of Florida's most extensive municipally owned broadband networks, with fiber optic connections to hospitals, doctor offices, private businesses and 44 schools. Our econometric model shows that Lake County has experienced approximately 100 percent greater growth in economic activity ... relative to comparable Florida counties since making its municipal broadband network generally available to businesses and municipal institutions.... Our findings are consistent with other analyses that postulate that broadband infrastructure can be a significant contributor to economic growth.”

One of those other economic analyses involved Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa. I'm quoting from a report by the Benton Foundation, which says it “works to ensure that media and telecommunications serve the public interest and enhance our democracy. It reports,

“One particularly striking illustration of the power of broadband to generate economic development is from Cedar Falls and Waterloo, two communities located side by side in the Cedar Valley region of Iowa. Unhappy with the pace of private broadband deployment in their community, local leaders in Cedar Falls chose to deploy a citywide municipal high-speed fiber network around that town. In nearby Waterloo, local leaders chose to rely only on broadband provided by the private local phone and cable companies (WE DO NOT HAVE THAT OPTION: THE PRIVATES WILL NEVER WIRE COOK COUNTY FOR FIBER OPTIC, AND UNDERSTANDABLY SO, BECAUSE THEY WOULDN'T PROFIT FROM IT) The result was that numerous companies and businesses relocated from Waterloo to Cedar Falls, creating [for Cedar Falls] new jobs, raising property values and providing other economic benefits that were not enjoyed by Waterloo.”

I was talking with Dan Olsen, who runs Windomnet in Windom, Minnesota. He told me of a trucking company located about a mile outside of Windom, and outside the service area of Windomnet. The company badly needed a fast Internet connection. It talked to the current service provider and got a price for the service. It then put $150,000 into retrofitting its building to make maximum use of this new connection. Then the current provider backed out. So the company came to Windomnet begging for service. The city agreed and allowed fiber to be strung to the business. As a consequence, the trucking firm has blossomed. Olsen said it always knows exactly where each truck is, where each truck can fill up with diesel at the best price, etc., and when, say, Land O'Lakes puts up a notice on the Internet that it needs a truckload of butter moved from A to B, the firm can put up a solid bid on the job within 15 minutes.

The local Windom newspaper has gained two hours on its deadline because of the faster Internet connection to its distant printing vendor. A small, local gas station is able to remain in business against the big boys because all of its pumps are wired into the Internet, and the station uses an Internet technology that allows you to hand the cashier a blank check, it gets run through the register, and you get your check back plus your receipt, in the correct amount.

The Windom stories make a very pertinent point: Applications of high-speed Internet technology are very industry specific, and I haven't the ability to tell you what each of you might do to take advantage of the possibilities made available by high-speed Internet. But there are a lot of possibilities, especially for those with the drive and imagination to make them pay off.

The promise of telemedicine

One of the most exciting aspects of building a true, high-speed Internet system, is the access it would give Cook County to the promise of telemedicine, defined as delivering medical services over the Internet. It is especially important to a place like Cook County -- remote, rural and a land of very cold, snowy winters.

The North Shore Hospital and Sawtooth clinic have access to faster Internet than most homes, but it's not fast enough and hasn't the capacity to support true telemedicine. For that, the hospital and clinic need the incredible speed and huge capacity of the Internet system that would be built as a part of the Cook County broadband project.

Winona, Minnesota, was a pioneer in telemedicine thanks to a municipal fiber optic system already at hand.

In a joint report prepared for The Alliance for Public Technology and the Communication Workers of America, Dr. Bill Davis says, "The biggest benefit is immediate access to the record any place, any time. I have patients calling me at home, and I look at their record. It's right there. It's hard to beat that. And electronic prescribing is a huge advantage. All their meds are there, the interactions are documented, and it avoids errors." Davis is chief medical information officer for Winona Health.

One aspect of telemedicine that might find terrific application in Cook County is the "E-visit" for non-urgent conditions. Imagine an 80-year-old woman living 40 miles up the Gunflint. It's the middle of winter, below zero and the road is snowy. She is scheduled for a routine visit with her doctor. With a good Web cam and a fiber-optic connection, that visit can occur over the Internet, eliminating the need for a cold, snowy and possibly dangerous trip to town.

A friend had cosmetic eye surgery done in Madison, Wis. She then traveled to Grand Marais. While here, she swiped her hand across her eye and pulled the stitches out. She called her doctor in Madison. Because she had a relatively good Internet connection, he was able to examine her eye using a Web cam and then provided instructions on what doctors here should do to repair the damage. She was spared a return trip to Madison with her eye in bad condition. Telemedicine works.

Winona Health Online maintains "complete medical histories with immunizations, test results, measurements, surgeries, allergies and medication for every resident." That information is available to EMTs on Winona ambulances over a wireless connection to the fiber-optic system. That is "especially important," the report says, "when treating unresponsive patients.... Emergency personnel can have instant access to pre-existing conditions, allergies and other critical information."

"Compared to similarly sized hospitals," the report continues, "Winona has demonstrated improved performance outcomes. Mortality rates are lower and hospital stays are shorter because efficient access to medical information helps avoid gaps or overlaps in care. At the same time, Winona Health Online has lowered costs. Care providers spend more time treating patients and less time on paperwork, particularly when managing billing with insurance companies."

Winona's story is far from unique. Increasingly, American communities are embracing telemedicine as a means to improve health care while reducing its cost. Those are goals within reach for Cook County if it embraces broadband, and with it the exciting promise of telemedicine.

"The Grid"

At Cook County Conversations, Thomas Kurschner says,

By the time Cook county finishes it's broadband the broadband network will be

obsolete - thanks to a high-speed internet developed in Geneva.  It's called

"the grid", it's more than 10,000 times faster than broadband.  Massive

information that takes the broadband hours to download can be done in a matter

of a few seconds with "the grid".

First, a disclaimer: I know very little about "the grid," but a bit of research suggested

to me that it is related to distributed computing, which involves linking together

a great deal of computing power and applying it all to the same problem

simultaneously. Distributed computing has been around awhile. 

"The Grid" is like that. But for The Grid to work, the computers must be linked by something,

and most often, that something is the fiber optic cable that will be the backbone of the Cook

County broadband system. Fiber optic is estimated to have a life span, if I remember correctly,

of 40 to 50 years. While the equipment that uses fiber optic may evolve and change, fiber optic

itself is not expected to go obsolete any time soon.

Don't just take my word for all of this. At the CERN site itself, I found an interesting article

entitled: "The Grid: Separating Fact from Fiction." Below, I have printed a few excerpts, but

you can read the entire article yourself at

  http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/Spotlight/SpotlightGridFactsAndFiction-en.html

Fiction: The Grid will replace the Internet.

Fact: Grid computing, like the World Wide Web, is an application of the Internet. When the LHC turns on, data will be transferred from CERN to 11 large computing centres around the world at rates of up to 10 gigabits per second. Those large centres will then send and receive data from 200 smaller centres worldwide. All this data transfer will take place over the Internet. Dedicated fibre-optic links are used between CERN and the large centres; the smaller centres connect together through research networks and sometimes the standard public Internet.
Fiction: People will be able to download movies 10,000 times faster using the Grid.
Fact: First, in order to get such data-transfer rates, individuals would have to do what the large particle physics computing centres have done, and set up (or lease) a dedicated fibre-optic link between their home and the source of their data. Second, today’s grid computing technologies and projects are geared toward research and businesses with highly specific needs, such as vast amounts of data to process and analyse within large, worldwide collaborations. While other computer users may benefit from grid computing through better weather prediction or more effective medications, they may not be logging onto a computing grid anytime soon. (Something called “cloud computing”, where your programs are run in a central location rather than on your own computer, may also be on the horizon.)
Fiction: The Grid was invented at CERN.
Fact: The first pioneering steps in grid computing were taken in the US. The term “grid computing” was first used in a book by Grid pioneers Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman, as a metaphor for making computing power accessible in the same way as electrical power. The LHC Computing Grid Project, led by CERN, uses resources contributed by grid projects around the globe.