[PLUG-TALK] Satellite

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com> writes:

Keith> A more realistic goal might be reenergizing the terabit of dark
Keith> fiber already feeding the Convention Center from Seattle, built
Keith> for Supercomputer 2009.  Then work outwards through the Lloyd
Keith> District, feeding the businesses and hotels that support the
Keith> conventions.  Then the high rises in the Pearl (do they already
Keith> have CenturyLink FTTH?  Much new buildout does).  

There is no FTTH anywhere in Portland (except as noted in then next
paragraph).  CenturyLink does fiber to the node, then DSL2 over the
last 1000 feet or something.  And that, only in isolated pockets.

You can get fiber in Portland, if you are lucky to be near enough
existing infrastructure and willing to pay $2k/month.  There are half
a dozen providers with networks that will do that for you.

The incumbent model is: maintain a choke hold on the last-mile,
because that's all they've got.  Keep bandwidth scarse and expensive,
and ride the gravy train into the ground.

Keith> Put internet on the bridges and public buildings, not for
Keith> websurfing, but connecting instruments that look for corrosion
Keith> and concrete decay, prolonging lifespan and facilitating
Keith> maintenance.  Then spread out, a neighborhood at a time, to the
Keith> rest of the city, as bake sales and neighborhood activism
Keith> permit.

My proposal has been, pretty much all along, to start with a 2000-home
demonstration project.  It would cost a few million.  Show that it
either works or doesn't.  Go from there, with much less risk and
consequently lower bond rates.  

Borrowing costs are at all-time lows right now.  We should be taking
advantage of that to build lasting infrastructure.

There is lots of money available in consumers pockets for network
services to fund the whole thing.  Consumers positively hate the
incumbents.  Make the deal compelling for them, by making it their
network, and it's "game over".

The incumbents deal with this by buying state legislatures and banning
it by law.  Not yet in Oregon, but in numerous other states.  They are
terrified of facing their own legacy of underperformance and
overpricing.

Keith> If you want to claim Amsterdam as a precedent, don't
Keith> expect to reach farther and faster than they did, with less
Keith> funding.

I didn't claim Amsterdam as a precedent.  I just pointed to them as an
example of a project that engineered their system for easy upgrading
in the future.

There are lots of precedents for municipal fiber, several in the US.
The hot one recently is Chattanooga.  But also Lafayette LA,
Burlington VT, and a consortium of towns in Utah.  There is also MiNet
in Monmouth/Independence OR, not a particularly dense deployment.
Sandy, OR is in the process of building a fiber network, after
successfully operating a municipal wireless network for years.  Many
other examples overseas.

Density can actually be a big problem for deployment.  Getting
permission to enter buildings and get to customers on upper floors was
one of Amsterdam's biggest problems.

See: 

  http://www.muninetworks.org/
  http://www.muninetworks.org/communitymap
  http://www.muninetworks.org/content/successes-and-failures


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net