WWP Fiber (WWPF), a wholly owned sub of WWP, showed up here last =
Thursday afternoon
with an offer to put "unlit" fiber optic cable into the Moscow =
community.....for a price. This offer
is one of many being made throughout the WWPF coverage area (@500,000 =
people in 4 states.
I quickly called folks at the city, county, school district, and =
hospital, who I've spoken with=20
before, and had a brief meeting Friday afternoon to lay out the facts of =
the offer as I know them.
A second meeting will happen at 10am Tuesday (tomorrow) at our offices =
with WWPF people
to handle primarily technical questions.
Here's a brief outline of the offer:
1 - the community identifies points on the city map where people can =
"commit" to wanting
"points of demarcation", or connections, to the fiber.
2 - WWPF takes the map away and engineers the layout of the fiber =
coverage.
3 - WWPF comes back with the layout and the monthly connection rate =
which they
will require of those who wish to connect to the fiber.
4 - those connecting will be asked to sign a 5 year "lease to use" the =
fiber.
5 - WWPF will install (over a period of 3-6 weeks) the fiber.
Sounds simple. Estimated cost/month of the un-lit fiber access ---- =
@$300-$600/connection/month
depending on the amount of fiber run to connect the people who commit.
Sounds expensive to me. I'd prefer somewhere in the <$50/mo range. The =
cost is a factor of the
amount of fiber and the number of connections. The denser the map, the =
lower the cost.
Using the WSU Greek row connections done last year as a model, the 40 =
connections there
are costing $300/mo. Of the folks that met last Friday =
(city/county/hospital/schools), there were
17 connections - and all thought that $300/mo was way too expensive - =
for example the city had
@5 connections, which would be a total of $1500/mo. The school district =
can't commit to 5 years at
that price b/c of the pending federal support to wire them. (I would =
suggest no one should commit to=20
such a long time in this rapidly changing world).
So I suggest that we attempt to bring the density up by a factor of at =
least 10 (i.e.: @200-400 connections)
and try to bring the price down to a target of <$50/mo. Not sure how =
best to do this, but it will take a=20
community effort to pull it off. Any one out there that wants to have =
their "dots" put on the map, Tuesday
at 10am is the first deadline. The map is in my office.
johnt
(p.s.. "un-lit" fiber gives a 10mb connection to the point of =
demarcation. What WWPF is suggesting
is to build a Moscow "local area network", or in the market parlance, a =
Moscow "intra-net". WWPF is
providing only the un-lit fiber. What it takes to connect services to =
it is $3000-$10,000 of additional HW/SW. Services can be data, voice, =
and/or video, depending on what you want. Services cost additional =
monthly=20
money in some cases. I missed the discussion on the fiber topology, so =
that will be covered on Tuesday.
In some cases, services provided over this communication medium might =
offset costs currently going to=20
other places. The voice capability of the fiber is the best example of =
this. Basically, a local alternative
to GTE phone service could be put in place. Other examples of services =
which might be interesting are:
1 - voice/video/data communications b/t the sheriff and city police =
dispatchers.
2 - school-district voice integrated into the local phone grid
3 - hospital<-->local physician voice/data/video connections
4 - internet connections for those that want them (through who-ever =
wants to provide them)
5 - community wide e-mail services
WWPF is not doing ANY of the service provisioning for the project (thus =
the $3000-$10000 additional
HW/SW cost). FSR can help with some of this, firewalls, hubs, switches =
etc.=20
Additionally, we are working with wireless technologies which (although =
lower bandwidth) provide
a lower monthly recurring fee structure. An integration of the two =
worlds might provide interesting
capabilities as well.
Anyway, that's an overview of what's happening. If you want more info, =
come to the meeting tomorrow.
I think WWPF's first offer (high monthly cost) is way out of line, but =
maybe we can work with them
to bring it down. It would be very nice to have full density coverage =
(i.e. fiber to everyone who
wants it) at a below $50/mo price point if that can be achieved.
till later,
johnt