Hearing call for faster Internet at lower cost, Boulder laun
Source: Daily Camera
If you live in Boulder, your Internet provider is likely either Comcast or CenturyLink.
That relative lack of competition means a few things, in most cases: monthly costs that often run in the neighborhood of $100, speeds well below what modern technology is capable of delivering and the bare minimum of customer service.
What Boulder tech officials consistently have heard , including at a pair of public meetings Monday, is a desire for more choice when it comes to Internet service.
"I feel like nobody's happy with their Internet," said Matt Monaco, of Boulder, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science, at one of the city's Monday meetings. "I'm interested to what options there are for bringing competition to the area, but technically how that happens is not as important as it just happening."
Boulder has hired Maryland consultant CTC Technology and Energy to perform a study over the next four or five months into how the city can take advantage of its existing fiber assets to deliver a cheaper, faster Internet product to its citizenry.
The two public meetings, hosted by CTC, represented the firm's first steps in the process, and a study session with the City Council on Thursday should provide additional direction.
There are a number of ways to get online in this evolving market, from glacial dial-up to the adequate and widely used 4G, DSL and cable modem options.
But the "holy grail of communications infrastructure," as CTC President Joanne Hovis describes it, is Internet passed through fiber directly to homes and businesses.
Fiber ― long strands of glass bundled together by sheath, and feasible both above and below ground ― is not only faster, but it's also infinitely scalable, whereas DSL and cable mostly continue to upgrade in minor increments.
Whatever Internet use looks like in 30 years, fiber will be able to support it, Hovis said Monday.
'Economics 101'
In a country where most towns are shackled by Internet oligopoly, only a lucky handful can boast widespread fiber service.
Some cities, such as Kansas City, Kan., and Provo, Utah, struck gold by having Google Fiber come to town ― Google chooses you, not the other way around ― transforming those local markets by both demonstrating fiber's feasibility and limitless potential, and also forcing the Comcasts and CenturyLinks of the world into upping their own games.
Other cities, such as Chattanooga, Tenn., and, more recently, Longmont, have gone the route of putting up their own municipal broadband fiber networks.
While that strategy has had varying degrees of success depending on locale, the general wisdom says that fiber networks raise the bar by providing an option that all but forces existing providers into competition.
"It's economics 101," Hover said.
Boulder has about 100 miles of fiber presently, but that network (which is really more of a hub-and-spoke system, as opposed to something lineal) needs a heavy addition if it's to serve city customers. The existing fiber in the city is a start, officials say, but the last-mile service that would bring fiber lines to homes and businesses isn't there yet.
Though Boulder (in 2014) and many other U.S. cities have voted in favor of exemptions on state broadband service limitations ― more than 40 towns and counties in Colorado alone overwhelmingly voted that way last week ― simply having the public's go-ahead to pursue Longmont-esque municipal broadband service isn't enough to bring fiber to the individual.
"There's a very substantial investment that has to be made to get Boulder to that point," Hovis said. "Whether it's public, private or some kind of a partnership, there's a long way to go."
And that's precisely what CTC, in conjunction with the city, will be exploring in the coming months, on a contract of $150,000 from Boulder.
'A very attractive market'
The range of options sit on a continuum; Boulder could attempt what Longmont has done and stand up its own fiber network and then operate it, or it could partner with a private-sector company that would either set up the last-mile fiber, or operate the system, or both.
The City Council, which has three new members as of Election Day, may change its tune on Thursday, but it has expressed no interest in going the Longmont route. A partnership of some kind seems much more likely.
"Would we want to bring a party in to do the actual operation?" Boulder Information Technology Director Don Ingle wondered aloud Monday. "Who would actually run the network? And who would invest in the last mile fiber?"
Those are questions that will be answered when CTC goes out seeking bids from private companies in coming weeks. The fiber field is so young that even a city like Boulder ― educated and rich with tech types ― may not find the kind of partner that would make a widespread fiber project possible in the next couple years.
But Hovis is cautiously optimistic.
"Boulder represents a very attractive market, which is a great benefit, but from the standpoint of private investment, it's important to note that there's still very limited private capital coming into the fiber-to-the-premises market," Hovis said.
The city's reputation and existing fiber assets "help enormously," she added, "but it's no guarantee that private sector investment to the home and business will emerge."
Alex Burness: 303-473-1389, burnessa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/alex_burness
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