[1st-mile-nm] Beset by Large Rural Areas, Arizona Aims to Blend Broadband Data Sources

[Richard Lowenberg]

Following is the BroadbandCensus report on Arizona.
There are links at the bottom of the web site report, to various Arizona
initiatives and state broadband related reports.

http://broadbandcensus.com/blog/?p=858

Beset by Large Rural Areas, Arizona Aims to Blend Broadband Data Sources

Broadband Census Arizona
By Drew Bennett, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com;
and William G. Korver, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

This is the 16th of a series of articles surveying the state of broadband, and
broadband data, within each of the United States and its territories.

October 15 ? ?Reliable, affordable access to high-capacity
telecommunications infrastructure has become as essential as water, sewer,
transportation and electricity service in creating healthy and successful
communities in the 21st century.?

So begins a 2007 report by the Arizona Department of Commerce, the ?Arizona
Broadband Initiative Framework.?

The report concludes: ?the opportunity for states to use ubiquitous broadband
deployment as a competitive differentiator is quickly passing.? Further,
?the realization of broadband connectivity in parts of rural Arizona will not
be accomplished by relying on normal market forces alone.? In sum, the report
urges government officials and others to expand and enhance broadband networks
in the southwestern state.

Arizona is now setting off on a path that a handful of other U.S. states are
already on. Officials in the Grand Canyon State sought to learn what other
states have done to expand broadband services beyond those provided by market
forces.

The Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council (ATIC) is tasked with
coordinating state, as well as public/private projects, to encourage wide-scale
deployment and availability of broadband services.

Initiatives include telemedicine projects, grants seeking federal funds to
improve broadband and employment in rural areas, improved digital
infrastructure in Native American tribal lands, and efforts to establish a
broadband authority that could focus state funds on filling existing gaps in
broadband access.

One of the key infrastructure gaps that the state is seeking to fill arises in
smaller, underserved communities in proximity to ?middle-mile? fiber lines
that connect larger cities.

The Arizona Broadband Connect Initiative, a project being developed by the
Government Information Technology Agency (GITA) in cooperation with the state
Department of Commerce, seeks to develop ?off-ramps? for these communities
that would be owned by the towns and managed by carriers seeking to deliver the
last mile of access.

Members of ATIC estimate that 30 communities could benefit from such an
approach. In order to pursue such an initiative, better and more complete
information about the existing infrastructure is needed.

?We don?t think it?s enough just to know where the users are,? ATIC
members have commented. ?It will also be useful to policy makers to know
where the middle-mile is, where the towers are, and where the rights of way
are.?

GITA has undertaken a study of best practices in broadband data gathering and
infrastructure mapping that looks both outward ? to comparable efforts in
other states ?and inward: to diverse state agencies that could contribute to
a full-scale broadband mapping project in Arizona.

For example, the report compared the broadband mapping approaches of Colorado,
which established a statewide public service network; the forging of a
?strong? executive through the establishment of a broadband authority in
the Vermont Telecommunications Authority; and the creation of a
?public-private partnership,? such as the approaches taken by the states of
North Carolina (through its e-NC Authority) and Kentucky, through its funding of
Connected Nation, Inc.

Through early results from the assessment study and a survey of officials in
other states, GITA and members of ATIC have identified a number of sources that
need to be part of any comprehensive data-gathering mission, including
proprietary data that is commercially available for purchase, unique state
resources, federal data, carrier-contributed information, and survey data
focused on Arizona?s unique , geography and market.

ATIC members refer to this diversified strategy on broadband data gathering as
the ?blended approach? and believe that there is a great deal of
information already at states? fingertips that can contribute significantly
to a more accurate picture of existing broadband infrastructure.

ATIC understands that resource constraints and restrictions on the distribution
of information that is deemed proprietary or competitively-sensitive data will
be just a few of the obstacles blocking the path toward accurate broadband data
acquisition and information-sharing. Still,  they aim to develop creative
solutions to these problems.

?Each and every data source is imperfect in its own wonderful and at times
maddening ways,? says Mark Goldstein, an ATIC member and the project manager
of GITA?s broadband assessment study group. ?But my belief is that in the
aggregate you can develop meaningful information.?

Mark also believes that ?crowdsourcing? may be an important factor in this
effort ? ?letting the public fact-check the data,? as he describes it,
could help inform better policy that in turn delivers better broadband to the
public.

ATIC sources summed up what would be required of the state: ?in Arizona, the
leadership and the will are needed?identifying key policies that have the
backing of the legislature are major factors.?


-- 
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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