Friends of Broadband

How fast is fiber optic cable?

2009-10-18T06:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-09-21T16:55:00.002-07:00

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.

Communication problems again today

2009-09-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

A frustrating morning...one of our reservation lines is not working again. Phone calls come in and when we answer them no one is there and we can not figure out which phone number is not working. No one at the telephone company seems able to help us.

We so need the upgraded telephone service to go with the broadband project.

Where has CCG worked?

2009-09-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

On Cook County Conversations, Steve Schack in Croftville asks:

How can we get names of companies or communities for which CCG Consulting was project manager that are "in the ground and working?" I'd like to get a feel for how those FTTH systems are working.

For the uninitiated, FTTH stands for Fiber To The Home (although FTTP, for Fiber To The Premises, is often substituted).

Here are four communities where CCG has been active:

Bristol Virginia. BVU Optinet is perhaps the most successful community owned fiber optic network in the country. On the basis of Optinet, Bristol was the only American community named to a 2009 list of the top 7 most intelligent communities worldwide, for what that is worth (http://www.bristolva.org/files/Download/Top7newsrel.pdf) You can learn more about this system at http://www.bvu-optinet.com
My favorite, because I attended college in Monmouth, Oregon, is the Monmouth-Independence fiber optic network. You can read about Minet at http://www.minetfiber.com.
The Lafayette, Louisiana, fiber system Web site is http://www.fiberforthefuture.com.
Finally, although it is not quite up and running, but almost, is the Monticello, Minnesota, system, which had to fight its way through tremendous opposition from current service providers. That delayed its inauguration by about 18 months. Monticello's Fibernet Web site is http://monticellofiber.com

CCG Consulting's clients are actually tilted heavily toward the private sector. CCG's Doug Dawson writes:

"We are probably the most successful consultant in terms of number of clients, and this broad experience has helped us to become very good at what we do. Most of our competitors have no more than a few dozen clients, and I am not aware of anybody else who works with both municipalities and for-profit companies. We think our experience in helping firms make money is invaluable for the municipal space."

John Nelson's question

2009-09-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

Over at Cook County Conversations, where I am moderator and cannot really participate in discussions, John Nelson of Tofte asks, essentially: If we approve the 1 percent tax, what is to keep the county board from funding all the Grand Marais projects and leaving the rest of the county with zilch?

Really, it's unfair to tag the proposed new community center or the outdoor recreation fields or the library as "Grand Marais projects." Everyone would benefit from them. But here is what I can predict will happen that is guaranteed to benefit the entire county:

Cook County will build and own the proposed broadband project itself. So if the 1 percent tax wins voter approval, and if the broadband project gets the federal grant for which the county has applied, county residents can be confident that the county board would provide broadband with the 1 percent funding it needs to succeed (the amount recommended by the 1 percent steering committee was $9.2 million). Shortchanging broadband on 1 percent money would just make the county board's task in building the broadband system that much more difficult. It would mean more bonding would be required for broadband, and that would drive up the cost of the system. The county board would have every reason to ensure broadband gets the 1 percent funding it needs.

Consultants and the things they leave behind

2009-09-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

A friend told me point blank this morning that we face an uphill battle persuading Cook County residents that the broadband project is a good idea. County history is the problem, he said. To paraphrase his comments: You haven't lived here 20 years. You haven't seen the parade of consultants through here, telling us we should do this and we should do that, and when we followed their advice, it usually went quickly wrong. Look at the EDA and their business park, just as an example. Now we're on the hook for $1.6 million because of that mistake....

I can't answer for the EDA and the business park in Grand Marais, or for any of the other projects that have involved consultants. All I can do is ask that we not be judged by the mistakes of others. That's more than a little unfair. Judge us on what we do and the information we are making every effort to provide. This project is simply too important to the future of Cook County to throw away because, in the past, other projects went astray. Please examine the wealth of information available at cookcountybroadband.com. Please ask serious questions and demand serious answers. This project deserved to be judged on its own merits.

When CCG Consulting and Doug Dawson were hired to do the feasibility work on our broadband project, we had probably about a dozen submissions from which to choose. We worked hard at getting the right consultant, checked out their bona fides carefully and did video interviews with the finalists. One reason CCG Consulting was chosen was because it had numerous projects in the ground and working, and we could talk to the people responsible for those projects to learn what they had to say about CCG. Universally, they gave CCG high marks.

Sitting around the table doing this work were me, Danna MacKenzie of the county IT department, Jack McDonnell of Boreal, Bob Fenwick of the County Board, Scott Harrison of Lutsen Resort, Tim Kennedy of the Grand Marais City Council, Don Stead of Arrowhead Electric, Grand Marais City Administrator Mike Roth, Bruce Kerfoot of Gunflint Lodge and a few others who came and went. The latter group included new schools superintendent Beth Schwarz and School Board Member Leonard Sobanja.

Later in the process, we were joined frequently by County Auditor Braidy Powers and County Attorney Tim Scannell.

It was a good group of strong individuals. They brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the project, and none of them is shy about asking the difficult question and insisting on a full, complete answer. Most of them, however, are public employees who cannot be involved directly in the political process surrounding the 1 percent sales tax referendum.

We have taken our due diligence duties seriously. We believe you can have confidence in the broadband project that has emerged.

It's Now or Never, and Nothing to Fear

2009-09-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

In the past few days, I have heard county residents express several variations on the following fears about the Cook County broadband project:

Yikes; I hear that broadband will cost each of us $5,000 (or some say $10,000). Way, way too expensive for me.

Even if the broadband project is successful, it's gonna put a huge financial burden on the county, laying all of that fiber optic cable, putting in a telephone system, replacing stuff that wears out, hiring lots of new people and paying their benefits, buying new buildings and huge amounts of equipment, paying off bonds, maybe for decades. We can't afford that. And if the system fails, we'll be in debt up to our ears, paying for something that does us no good. It's just too big a risk.

Perhaps you have heard similar comments; they certainly seem to be making the rounds. But while those fears may be understandable, they also are groundless. None has any basis in fact. Let's give them the long, long rest they deserve.

Let's substitute instead some provable truths about this project:

1. Apart from the small amounts they would pay toward broadband in county sales taxes if the 1 percent tax wins voter approval, Cook County residents would not pay a single dime in taxes to build the proposed broadband system.

2. Revenue to operate and maintain the system would come entirely from subscription fees paid by customers who decide they want the broadband services offered and sign up to receive them.

3. Embracing this critically important project would carry zero financial risk for the county or its residents. This is a sweet opportunity which isn't likely to ever come our way again. We may never have another chance at a federal grant for broadband, and the Legislature is almost certain to never give Cook County another chance to pass a 1 percent sales tax. As Elvis sang, “It's Now or Never.” Tomorrow will indeed be too late.

The proposed broadband system – which would offer county residents and businesses higher quality services at lower prices for television, ultra high-speed Internet and telephone – is projected to cost $52 million to build. As I said in a previous post, Doug Dawson of CCG Consulting, who prepared the business plan, has done scores of these projects and has never had one come in over budget. When Doug says it will cost $52 million, you can take it to the bank that it will cost that amount or less. The only flaw I've found in Dawson's judgment is that he's a Washington Redskins fan.

Doug's summary of the broadband business plan for Cook County is available at cookcountybroadband.com under the Broadband Blog banner.

Of the $52 million needed to build the system and carry it through the early days until it is profitable, we fervently hope that $32 million will be paid by the federal government in the form of a broadband stimulus grant for which Cook County has applied. We have very high hopes for this grant because the grant program almost seems as though it were written with Cook County in mind. We are isolated, rural, and most of the county is badly underserved in the television, Internet and telephone services they now receive.

That federal grant, covering more than 60 percent of the project costs, would not need to be repaid. If we get it, we get to keep it no matter what.

Similarly, if the county puts $9 million in 1 percent revenue into financing the project, it would not require repayment.

Finally, the county would finance the remainder of the project costs, somewhere in the neighborhood of $11 million, by selling some form of revenue bonds, backed by and repaid from the revenue collected from county residents who purchase the system's television, telephone and Internet services. The bonds used would not be General Obligation bonds, which pledge the full faith and credit of the county and which must be repaid no matter what happens (and require a referendum of their own). They would be revenue bonds, and the bond holders would have no claim against county taxpayers, only against revenue produced by the broadband system.

Thus the system would get built without exposing county residents to any financial risk.

The same is true of ongoing expenses. All costs of operating and maintaining the broadband system would be paid from the revenue it generates. We can be confident it would generate that revenue.

When the feasibility of this project was being evaluated, CCG consulting commissioned a survey of county residents. That survey showed, with a reliability of plus or minus 5 percentage points, that 90 percent of Cook County residents would be likely to purchase the services offered on a county-run broadband system, provided those services saved them money.

Doug reported that in all the years he has been doing this work, he has never seen a survey that shows a prospective subscription rate approaching 90 percent. The survey demonstrated that the very large majority of Cook County residents was hungry for the telephone, television and Internet services the broadband project would provide.

Doug adds that he also has never seen a broadband system that, once built, varied much between the percentage of people who actually subscribed to the services and the percentage predicted by the feasibility survey. We have good, strong reasons to be confident that these services will find willing customers in a large majority of Cook County homes and businesses.

It gets better: Financial success for the system – defined as the ability to repay the bonds and finance ongoing operations – does not require subscriptions remotely near the 90 percent level found in the survey. Based on the projected costs of building and operating the broadband system, CCG projects that a subscription rate in the neighborhood of 50 percent would generate the revenue needed to make the system successful.

The process of evaluating the feasibility of this broadband project, of developing a business plan and preparing a federal grant application that must pass stringent technical and financial evaluation, has been just as rigorous as we could make it.

This isn't a gamble. It's an opportunity the likes of which Cook County probably will never see again. Moreover, it's an opportunity that many forward looking communities in Minnesota and elsewhere recognize and are energetically embracing. In Minnesota alone, those communities include Windom, Red Wing, Northfield, Lake County, Monticello, Anoka County and Dakota County.

Seize this opportunity, for yourself and especially for your children. Build a stronger, healthier, economically more viable Cook County. Vote yes on both questions on the 1 percent sales tax ballot. Bring to Cook County the modern communications services you deserve.

It's Now or Never ... Tomorrow Will Be Too Late.

Greetings

2009-09-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this new effort on behalf of the Cook County Broadband Initiative. Friends of Broadband is an informal group of advocates for broadband and the coming referendum on the 1 percent optional sales tax. We believe that the fiber optic project is essential to the future of Cook County in many ways we hope to outline here, and that a successful 1 percent referendum is essential to the fiber optic project.

Change does not come easily to Cook County. We tend to argue every issue into the ground, whether it be the design of a downtown park in Grand Marais, changes to the harbor or whether there should be a bike path up the Gunflint Trail. One woman put it well when she said to me that the folks who live here do so by choice, and they are all passionate about this special place. So they have strong opinions about what happens to it.

Ironically, I believe that is the key reason why folks should embrace this broadband project. It is the best available way you have to preserve and strengthen the way of life we now enjoy. Consider the "mom and pop" resort. Across Minnesota, they are disappearing, but in Cook County many of them still are in business. They desperately need the services that broadband would bring them: ultra high-speed Internet; crystal clear, reliable television service full of programming choices, and telephone service they can depend on day in and day out. And all of this would become available at prices that are easy on the pocketbook.

What is true for our small resorts also holds for our small businesses, for our library, our hospital and clinic. All can offer more and better services to you -- and thus help ensure their own prosperous future -- if they gain access to the services the broadband project would make available.

Broadband is an investment, a safe investment, in preserving and strengthening the life we all cherish here.

One woman is reported to have said derisively of broadband, "Well, hell, next thing you know, we'll have a Walmart in Tofte." The point is precisely the opposite: Broadband is the best insurance you can have that Cook County will continue to be strong enough to resist the blandishments of bigness. It is an economic development tool that strengthens the small businesses we all support and want to see thrive.

I have attended meetings of the broadband initiative from the very start. I am quite impressed with the professionalism of Danna MacKenzie, the county IT wizard, and the consultant hired for this project, Doug Dawson of CCG Consulting, headquartered in Maryland.

Doug has done literally scores of projects like this, and he has a very good track record. We thoroughly vetted him before his firm was selected, and nothing he has done since has shaken our confidence in him one bit. The business plan he has developed is first rate.

Someone asked: What if the Cook County project goes over budget and drives up the cost of the services to the point they are uncompetitive? Of all the worries we can conjure up if we try really hard, that is one of the easiest to answer: Doug is a thorough professional, and he has NEVER had a project come in over budget. Costs are projected carefully and with a generous safety factor built in. Doug reports that 90 to 95 percent of the costs are building the system, and those costs are well known, without a lot of room for error. He knows this system inside and out because he has designed many like it.

Enough for now. I hope we can have a discussion of many issues in the coming days. I hope that the discussion is respectful and serious. I hope people do not treat this issue as though it were the topic in a high school debate or moot court, where the aim is to win by throwing extraneous questions and dubious assertions at the issue in hopes they will overwhelm the other side. This is not a game. The point is to exchange information honestly and have a fruitful discussion.

Jim