[1st-mile-nm] Google Policy Blog: Local Fiber Networks

[Richard Lowenberg]

The following posting, relevant to this list, comes from young policy analyst,
Derek Slater, who seems not to be aware of the early 'open' fiber initiatives
starting to manifest in this country.   Good to see this coming from inside
Google, nonetheless.   RL
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>From the Google Public Policy Blog

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-if-you-could-own-your-internet.html

What if you could own your Internet connection?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Posted by Derek Slater, Policy Analyst

It may sound strange, and it's certainly not what we're used to. Today we have a
"carrier-centered" model; phone and cable companies spend billions to build,
operate, and own the "last-mile" connection -- the copper, cable, or fiber
wires that come into your house. Individual consumers then pay for particular
services, like phone service or Internet access.

In turn, we tend to think about broadband deployment in carrier-centric ways. If
we want to see super-fast fiber connections rolled out to consumers, the main
question appears to be whether carriers have appropriate incentives to invest.

But there's no law of nature that says this is the only possible model. Many
businesses, governments, universities, and other entities already own their own
fiber connections, rather than leasing access to lines. It may also be possible
to find ways for consumers to purchase their own last-mile strands of fiber.

Here, as anywhere, there would be certain advantages that come with ownership
over renting. No one necessarily needs to own skis or a car, but many of us do.
If you owned your own fiber, you'd be able to connect it to a service provider
of your own choosing. Over time, you might save money, and it could make your
house more valuable to have a fiber "tail."

This may all sound rather abstract, but a trial experiment in Ottawa, Canada is
trying out the consumer-owned model for a downtown neighborhood of about 400
homes. A specialized construction company is already rolling out fiber to every
home, and it will recoup its investment from individual homeowners who will pay
to own fiber strands outright, as well as to maintain the fiber over time. The
fiber terminates at a service provider neutral facility, meaning that any ISP
can pay a fee to put its networking equipment there and offer to provide users
with Internet access. Notably, the project is entirely privately funded.
(Although some schools and government departments are lined up to buy their own
strands of fiber, just like homeowners.)

The main challenges with this model are economic, rather than technical. Most
importantly, ownership has to be made appealing and affordable to consumers.
The construction company is using conservative estimates that only 10% of
homeowners will sign up and there will be a per-customer cost of $2700. If you
assume 50% take-up, then the per-customer cost drops to $1100. Both figures
might seem like a lot, but people pay for a variety of improvements to their
home -- like remodeled kitchens, or a deck -- that also cost large sums.

This model faces other significant obstacles as well and it may only be possible
in certain circumstances, if it's practical at all. But the only way to really
figure that out is to experiment. Cable television started out as CATV --
community antenna television, an experiment by individual entrepreneurs and
rural towns to deliver broadcast signals across longer distances. The Internet
started as an experiment in the research community before becoming the
worldwide network we know today.

It's also worth considering that, as recently as a few decades ago, personal
telephones were unheard of -- the telephone was owned by Bell and simply part
of the network. Similarly, the very idea of a "personal" computer used to seem
ridiculous, and people relied on sharing access to mainframes. Sure, there are
differences between owning your own computer and your own Internet connection,
but perhaps one day we may see that the differences weren't as great as we
thought.

Even if this experiment fails, it can be a worthwhile data point in discussions
about broadband deployment. We need as much creative thinking as we can get to
determine how to deliver fast, open Internet for everyone.

The Ottawa trial was driven forward by Bill St. Arnaud, Chief Research Officer
at CANARIE, a nonprofit research group devoted to promoting advanced network
infrastructure in Canada.


-- 
Richard Lowenberg
1st-Mile Institute
P.O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110;   505-603-5200 cell
rl at 1st-mile.com  www.1st-mile.com

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