FCC Kicks Off Debate on How to Best Speed Gigabit Network Deployment

Genachowski also touched on his legacy as a chairman, mentioning the benefits of USF reform, the wireless facilities zoning Shot Clock Order and other efforts that form the “plumbing of our broadband infrastructure.” In January, Genachowski issued a challenge to the U.S. Conference of Mayors that every state should include at least a single gigabit community by 2015, a challenge he reiterated at the workshop. The FCC will soon launch a beta version of its promised clearinghouse of best practices, he said. “We weren’t going to have world-leading networks based on this kind of deployment,” said Gig.U Executive Director Blair Levin, who helped manage the creation of the National Broadband Plan released three years ago, when describing the market as he and his colleagues saw it then.

Chattanooga, Tenn., has prioritized attracting companies, said EPB Executive Vice President David Wade. Electric utility EPB runs the Chattanooga Gig network, which has helped the city add 4,800 jobs with a capital investment of $1.8 billion, he said. EPB customers would likely be paying 5 percent more for their electricity if not for the communications network, he said.

"There will be no city money in the buildout and operation of the network,” said Seattle Office of Cable Communications Director Tony Perez, describing an agreement with Gigabit Squared to use the city’s fiber. Seattle had sought to build a network in the past but found the costs “prohibitive,” prompting the move to a public-private partnership, he said. Gigabit communities can help the entire community’s bottom line, said David Sandel, president of the Sandel & Associates consulting firm. He described how Google Fiber is changing the Kansas City area and the “dramatic” change in worker productivity fast networks cause.

The network request for proposal bringing together communities and universities in North Carolina, issued earlier this year and with an April 1 deadline, started with collaboration with local businesses, said Marc Hoit, North Carolina State University vice chancellor-information technology. He pointed to developments like massive open online courses, the challenges of the digital divide and the promise of these next-generation technologies: “It’s the innovation platform.” He emphasized that the communities want a public-private partnership and don’t want to run the network. The coalition is trying to encourage its members to ease any barriers when necessary, Hoit said.

"The elephant in the room here is the incumbents,” said Silicon Flatirons Center Senior Fellow Dale Hatfield, a panel moderator, pointing to references about difficulties attracting partners and the existence of some barriers. “I have the Pollyanna view that this is an opportunity for the incumbents,” said North Carolina’s Hoit. “That’s why we're looking for a partnership.” Perez also said Seattle welcomes incumbents to provide competitive services over the planned network. The dynamics have evolved, he said. “The incumbents’ model has to change,” Evans said: “They're no longer monopolists.” ILECs have to realize the necessity of improving their networks, he added. “The problem is when you control the pipes, you also control what is possible,” Perez said, emphasizing that there shouldn’t be constraints on imagination in these new projects.

Incumbent executives largely defended their network efforts and described their own challenges at a later workshop panel. “I'm actually very hopeful that these gigabit communities will generate real demand for gigabit speeds,” said Verizon Executive Director-Public Policy Development David Young. Verizon is responsible for the largest fiber-to-the-premise deployment, passing 18 million homes, he added, rolling out speeds that were “mind-blowing at the time.” In 2004, speeds were 30 Mbps and now top speeds are 300 Mbps, with the most popular tiers around 50 and 75 Mbps, which customers “are extremely happy with,” he said. Verizon is “eager” to keep the lead as cable companies catch up, Young said of Verizon’s FiOS. He doesn’t see any sign of competition stopping. Time Warner Cable Executive Vice President Kevin Leddy touted the company’s fiber-focused public-private partnership with New York through the ConnectNYC project. Both Time Warner Cable and Verizon pointed to municipalities as potential obstacles -- Time Warner Cable likes city governments to serve as an intermediary between it and building owners rather than directly “plowing through the friction with landlords” itself, Leddy said. Young concurred, both executives noting the rights of way and permitting issues involved in establishing networks. The costs are considerable and often can be influenced by communities themselves, said Heather Gold, president of Fiber to the Home Council Americas. She urged communities to assess and leverage their assets and praised the work of Wisconsin and Minnesota in moving forward on this mobilizing front.

There’s a distinct benefit in taking “the community as a whole to a gig,” said Google Vice President-Access Services Milo Medin, with the gig as Google’s baseline product. Part of the key is driving prices down to allow for mass market demand, he said, noting Google believes it can make money. The draw of the Kansas City region was the ease associated with pole attachment issues, rights of way and the overall costs of deployment as well as the community itself. “They could move, they could move quickly.” There was always a “high level of communication” between Google and city staff, said Rick Usher, assistant city manager of Kansas City, Mo., often weekly and recently biweekly. Google Fiber’s style was “demand driven” in the Kansas City area, said KC Digital Drive Managing Director Aaron Deacon. There are areas “where there’s no market for a gig,” he added, noting the need to market any Internet at all to some neighborhoods. “In some sense we're selling on spec because a lot of these applications haven’t been developed yet.” US Ignite is focused on working as a facilitator, matchmaker and clearinghouse in developing apps as part of transitioning toward this “Internet of immersive experience,” said Executive Director William Wallace. Build to community anchor institutions first, then homes, if that’s what makes sense, said International Society for Technology At-Large Representative Kecia Ray, who stressed the needs for bandwidth in education. “Why are we limiting ourselves even to a gig?” asked Gigabit Squared President Mark Ansboury, suggesting several future options he said the country should look at.

Not all areas can rely on such partnerships with industry, multiple panelists agreed. “The important part to us is who’s making the decision as opposed to what decision’s being made,” said Institute for Local Self-Reliance Telecom Director Chris Mitchell, who has loudly spoken out against the 19 states that have, as he said, “limited what tools they have available” by restricting municipal networks. Some communities “may be unable to attract a private partner to do that,” Perez said, saying they're sometimes “best positioned” because they have a longer view on infrastructure and return on investments. He wants to “eliminate existing prohibitions” on municipalities choosing to build, he said, a sentiment also expressed by Washington attorney Jim Baller. “The problem is at least with some [ILECs], we have a very long way to go,” Baller said of incumbents embracing opportunities. He specifically slammed a provision of a recent failed Georgia bill that proposed restricting municipal networks. “That’s in my view immoral and absurd on its face.”