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New
Lines, New Future
A
new CIT report outlines a number of strategies for
rural communities to wire their citizens and
businesses to the broadband future.
Karen
Jackson, director of e-business and broadband
initiatives at Virginia's Center for Innovative
Technology (CIT), never expected to be a headliner
in the Wytheville Enterprise. Who would? But there Jackson's comments were
in an article entitled, "Finding the best
Internet path," right next to the picture of
a tractor plowing the mid-January snow from a
Starz parking lot.
Jackson
was one of the featured presenters at a
telecommunications forum hosted by the Joint
Industrial Development Authority (JIDA) in Wythe
County, along with local luminaries and other
experts from around the state. The forum
highlighted the determination of Virginia's rural
communities not only to get more citizens and
businesses online, but to get them connected at
speeds -- 200 kilobytes per second or more -- that
define broadband.
How
Wythe County or any other locality can plan
broadband projects in a sluggish economic and
complicated regulatory climate drove a lot of the
questions at the JIDA forum that day. The latest
Federal Communications Commission proposal –
call it "Old Lines, Old Rules, New Lines, New
Rules" –
for example, would allow small broadband
companies continued access to copper phone lines
of the regional Bell companies at deep discounts,
but in return allow the regional Bell companies to
bar competitors from new lines they install.
The
forum experts discussed the relative strengths and
weaknesses of satellite broadband, wireless
Internet access, Digital Subscriber Lines, T1 and
T3 line and other technologies. But what CIT's
Jackson brought to the forum were findings and
recommendations from a study, "Advancing
affordable, high-bandwidth electronic networks in
rural Virginia," submitted to the governor
and General Assembly two months ago. CIT had been
tasked in 2002 to document "the
Commonwealth's need of a coordinated approach to
broadband deployment" to align forces and
organizations now working separately. Technical
questions were only the beginning.
Two
public-private partnerships, Net.Work.Virginia and
COVANET, seem to provide "widespread
coverage" at reduced rates, according to the
CIT report, and scores of companies appear to
provide adequate transmission facilities (wires,
fiber, switches, etc.) and services (speed, tech
support, reliability, etc.). But the report also
suggests that comprehensive information that would
allow a true systems approach to local planning
and effective broadband project design still is
missing.
Current
initiatives, the report continues, are now
concentrated where there are dedicated assistance
funds – Tobacco Commission, Appalachian Regional
Commission, Department of Housing and Community
Development. Not surprisingly, the report points
out, the Commonwealth has had "no specific
funding programs for broadband or infrastructure
that are applicable statewide" since a
CIT-administered Advanced Communications
Assistance Fund fell victim to budget reductions
in 2001.
Localities
in rural Virginia, at the same time, find that
tapping federal agency dollars for broadband and
connectivity projects can be difficult. Local
governments aren't necessarily aware of program
details and don't always have the
"staff/skill sets" to compile an
application. Local governments may not be able to
meet matching fund requirements and federal
dollars always bring expansive, often expensive
contract and audit requirements. But the CIT study
does make some recommendations that would allow
Virginia localities to move forward without
fronting huge amounts of money.
Recommendation
number one is to combine the recommendations of
the Commonwealth
of Virginia's Strategic Plan for Technology and
the Virginia Rural Prosperity Commission and
create a one-stop resource center to assist rural
communities through broadband infrastructure
assessments, planning and project implementation.
Legislation introduced by Del. James M. Scott,
D-Fairfax, to anchor such a resource center in
Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology is
moving in the General Assembly now.
Recommendation
number two is to develop stronger links between
the existing Net.Work.Virginia (a joint initiative
of Virginia Tech, Old Dominion Unversity and the
Virginia Community College System) and COVANET (Worldcom
and most state agencies) programs and local
leaders. As the report points out, while
participation in these networks has been limited
to public sector entities, schools and
universities, they could provide affordable
broadband connection points for more rural
counties, municipalities and schools.
Recommendations
three and four are to step up efforts in Virginia
to qualify for and participate in federal funding
programs. The report singles out two programs,
e-Rate and Rural Health, for attention, but also
suggests stronger federal-level advocacy in
general for information technology and
telecommunications policy, programs and funds.
Finally,
the report calls for accelerating the collection
of telecommunications infrastructure data
statewide and across discrete initiatives, whether
public (such as Secure Virginia and the Virginia
Geographic Information Network) or private.
Implementing
these recommendations does not have to increase
pressure on tight state budgets immediately.
Between the state's Advanced Communications
Assistance Fund, Tobacco Commission investments
and federally-funded projects, for example, many
localities and regions already are moving forward.
As
the CIT report points out, government incentives,
loans, guaranties and grants always have been used
to prompt faster and fairer deployment of
infrastructure networks. Broadband communications
networks, in that sense, differ little from the
canal, road, port, water and sewer systems, public
lighting, electricity or telecommunications
networks of the past.
And
most importantly, the study shows that the Virginia
broadband network isn't just the infrastructure.
In its study, CIT pulled expertise from public and
private sector alike -- Verizon, Virginia
Electronic Commerce Technology Center (VECTEC),
Worldcom, the Department of Information
Technology, the Virginia Telecommunications
Industry Association, Virginia Tech, Ntelos, the
Virginia Technology Alliance, the University of
Virginia, the Tobacco Indemnification and
Community Revitalization Commission, Terralogic,
the Rural Prosperity Commission, NextWave Internet
and local governments in Southside and Southwest
Virginia.
If
technical expertise, strong leadership and a
cooperative spirit are keys to broadband success,
the Commonwealth appears posed to move forward
steadily. More front-page coverage in Virginia
newspapers for the efforts of CIT's Karen Jackson
and others in 2003 may be a better indicator of
broadband progress than broad measurements of
national economic performance or the policy fits
and starts of the FCC. Attention from the Virginia
General Assembly to the report it commissioned
would help, too.
--
January 27, 2003
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