The report, commissioned by the Research Foundation of SUNY on behalf of the CBN Connect (community broadband network) Advisory Board, and conducted by Stratum Broadband and Xit Telecom, provides market research and needs analysis for the CBN Connect project.CBN Connect seeks to expand broadband services in the Clinton, Franklin, and Essex County area of New York, including a section of the Adirondack Park. The CBN Connect project is being coordinated by the Technical Assistance Center (TAC) at SUNY Plattsburgh.

Andy Abdallah, chair of the CBN Connect Advisory Board, said that the report answers many of the questions needed to move forward with the ambitious project. “This report describes the opportunities provided by a robust fiber network that is available to all carriers. Similar infrastructure has been installed in counties to our west, and in northern Vermont. Our region must have expanded wired and wireless services to be competitive in the global economy.”

The report also provides a conceptual technical design for the network. Forty three individuals, representing hospitals, businesses, colleges, telecom providers, and municipalities, were interviewed during the study over the summer of 2007.

CBN Connect would provide wholesale transport services to service providers. This will enable service providers to offer state of the art broadband services in more underserved areas and allow many users to have a choice of service provider.

In addition, cellular telephone service could be significantly enhanced if CBN Connect is constructed, the consultants found.

According to Stratum Broadband’s John Reynolds, “The region's remoteness and lack of broadband connectivity appears to have stifled general market understanding and appreciation of today’s broadband services and their benefits.”

Stratum recommends that CBN Connect should work with carriers to provide better access to their fiber optic networks. Stratum says that key carriers have expressed support for the CBN Connect concept; more discussion is needed with others.

Through its interviews, the consultants found that potential end users expressed widespread consensus and enthusiastic support for the CBN Connect project, as well as agreement with its stated objectives:

• Expanding affordable wired and wireless broadband coverage including cellular coverage;
• Enabling telecom providers to deliver more cost-effective services, helping them lower the cost of service delivery while increasing revenue by reaching new markets;
• Enabling better regional collaboration for public safety, medical care, and education ;
• Improving social, cultural, and economic development within the Tri-county region; and
• Helping the region better capitalize on its unique character.

The result, according to Reynolds, is the creation of a “smart community” which allows organizations to create virtual alliances and partnerships, sharing skills, costs, and network access with one another. The reports says that the real long term return from CBN Connect to the Adirondack region will be the infrastructure to enable regional collaboration and regional solutions to shared problems.

According to the consultant’s recommendations, CBN Connect could outsource as much of its operation as possible, contracting with other firms to support the requirements for network operations, network accounting, and maintenance and repair.

Summary of Revenue Projections based on a $35M capital investment

The next step of the project is to complete the business plan necessary to seek the funding and to guide the engineering design stages.

Contacts:

When Rhode Island boomed, it was because it was ahead of the curve — both with its involvement in the nefarious trans-Atlantic slave trade, and later, when Samuel Slater introduced the water-powered mill in Pawtucket.

In fact, an argument can made that just as the Industrial Revolution was sparked in Rhode Island, so, too, did the withering of the Industrial Age, with the loss of the manufacturing infrastructure that once made Providence the richest city in America, begin here. As it often goes, the first to flourish was the first to decline.

This is a story about people who hope to change all that...

Highlights of the Altman Vilandrie research study:

• RI-WINs will target mobile workers in the enterprise wireless data market, the fastest growing segment of the telecommunications market.
• The enterprise wireless data market in Rhode Island is forecasted to grow from $16 million in 2007 to $97 million in 2012.
• The study forecasts over 35,000 users and $11 million in revenue by year 5 of operations.
• Users represent individual mobile enterprise workers as well as network access points for remote monitoring and sensing.
• The study projects that RI-WINs will be self-sustaining by the end of its third year of operations.

• Article in Providence Journal
• Article at Public CIO Magazine site
• Full Study From CDW Government site

Links:

• Offical City of Springfield, MA web site
• RPM
• Stratum Broadband
• An Article from The Republican (Springfield Newspaper)
• An Editorial from The Republican (Springfield Newspaper)

A potential solution to this underlying weakness of DAS is the Community Fiber-Optic Network (CFN) projects that are growing in popularity. Whether being built by an RBOC like Verizon or SBC, or by an underserved community itself, these networks entail a fiber deployment of a density never before seen. A very dense fiber network with many nodes is the perfect backbone for an outdoor DAS. By renting part of someone else’s network rather than building his own, a potential DAS builder has eliminated the major economic stumbling block for the project.

The gains of a DAS/CFN partnership are not one-sided. The economic stumbling block faced by a potential CFN builder is the uncertainty of relying on many small churn-prone customers as the primary revenue source. By signing up a DAS as a customer, the CFN has gained the churn-proof equivalent of hundreds of residential customers. Now, the CFN has a far better chance of making or beating time to payback projections.

This basic concept of a CFN leasing dark fiber for use in a DAS can be taken a step farther by incorporating the concept of Neutral Hosting into the CFN. In this model, the DAS becomes an integral part of the CFN rather than just an adjunct to it. Not only does the CFN operator provide client carriers with equipment to transform their traditional network into a DAS, or build a new network with a DAS topology, but also makes available hotel and remote antenna locations. Ideally these locations are part of the infrastructure used to create the CFN or are already owned by the CFN operator. A further evolution of this concept uses software-defined base-stations to allow the Neutral Host to offer a completely turnkey solution, using generic equipment at the hotels, to the carriers. When considering how many potential clients a Neutral Host DAS could have, remember that this solution is applicable to any wireless carrier, not just mobile telephony companies.

While DAS and CFN is a match made in heaven, the two must still find a way to come together. The simplest cases involve wireless carriers soliciting CFN operators for fiber to use in constructing their own DAS or the CFN operators soliciting carriers to rent their fiber for that same reason. The case of the CFN operator becoming a Neutral Host is more complicated, but also a much larger business opportunity. Then, there is the case of a third-party renting fiber to, become in turn, a Neutral Host. In any case, making the deal happen requires the right expertise – expertise that neither a wireless carrier nor a CFN operator is likely to possess. Clearly, finding the right partner to aid in the identification and evaluation of potential opportunities is key. Stratum Broadband specializes in finding the right solution for each client’s needs.

]]> Publications http://www.stratumbroadband.com/index.php?itemid=19 Fri, 7 Jul 2006 16:50:59 -0400 http://www.stratumbroadband.com/index.php?itemid=18 If your company is interested in partnering with Stratum Broadband, feel free to give us a call or use the contact form to send an e-mail. ]]> Partners http://www.stratumbroadband.com/index.php?itemid=18 Fri, 7 Jul 2006 16:32:31 -0400 http://www.stratumbroadband.com/index.php?itemid=17 Stratum Broadband is proud to have worked with the following organizations: If you want to learn more about what Stratum Broadband can do for you, feel free to give us a call or use the contact form to send an e-mail. ]]> Clients http://www.stratumbroadband.com/index.php?itemid=17 Fri, 7 Jul 2006 16:11:25 -0400