Eleven communities and utilities in eastern Iowa are joining forces to study the feasibility of a jointly-owned middle mile fiber transport network. IAMU is coordinating the study, which is being conducted by Lookout Point Communications of Minnesota.
Participants in the study are the City of Bellevue, Cedar Falls Utilities, City of Charles City, Decorah MetroNet, Independence Light & Power, Telecommunications, Maquoketa Municipal Electric Utllity, Muscatine Power & Water, New Hampton Municipal Light Plant, Osage Municipal Utilities, and Reinbeck Telecommunications Utility. The study will determine the cost of a fiber network that interconnects the participating communities as well as the benefits to each participant, opportunities for public-private partnerships, and overall project feasibility.
The Need: Affordable Data Transport
Participating communities that already offer broadband services (Bellevue, Cedar Falls, Independence, Muscatine, Osage, Reinbeck) often have to rely on third-parties for transporting their voice, video, and data from the source back to the community at rates that are often many times higher than rates paid in urban areas. Having access to lower-cost data transport would allow these municipal broadband providers to offer substantially better service to customers at a lower cost.
Participating communities that do not offer broadband (Charles City, Decorah, Maquoketa, New Hampton) have all explored the concept of a municipal broadband utility, but find that becoming a provider is made more difficult by the lack of affordable middle-mile connectivity options.
The transport network would enable multiple network(s) communications, consolidation and pooling of resources, and platforms for software analysis/analytics. This can be applied to advance the communication requirements in triple-play, wireless networks, smart energy, education, government functions and much, much more.
Curtis Dean, IAMU Broadband Services Coordinator, says that the concept of a jointly-owned fiber network has several parallels in the energy sector. "Iowa has several joint action agencies that allow municipal utilities to pool their resources in order to secure affordable electric generation and transmission. This group is studying the concept of doing something similar for data." Dean says the explosive growth of Internet bandwidth by end users is the biggest challenge facing IAMU broadband members, and the transport network, if built, could allow members to have greater control over meeting that growth.
The study is expected to be completed by this summer.
The Need: Affordable Data Transport
Participating communities that already offer broadband services (Bellevue, Cedar Falls, Independence, Muscatine, Osage, Reinbeck) often have to rely on third-parties for transporting their voice, video, and data from the source back to the community at rates that are often many times higher than rates paid in urban areas. Having access to lower-cost data transport would allow these municipal broadband providers to offer substantially better service to customers at a lower cost.
Participating communities that do not offer broadband (Charles City, Decorah, Maquoketa, New Hampton) have all explored the concept of a municipal broadband utility, but find that becoming a provider is made more difficult by the lack of affordable middle-mile connectivity options.
The transport network would enable multiple network(s) communications, consolidation and pooling of resources, and platforms for software analysis/analytics. This can be applied to advance the communication requirements in triple-play, wireless networks, smart energy, education, government functions and much, much more.
Curtis Dean, IAMU Broadband Services Coordinator, says that the concept of a jointly-owned fiber network has several parallels in the energy sector. "Iowa has several joint action agencies that allow municipal utilities to pool their resources in order to secure affordable electric generation and transmission. This group is studying the concept of doing something similar for data." Dean says the explosive growth of Internet bandwidth by end users is the biggest challenge facing IAMU broadband members, and the transport network, if built, could allow members to have greater control over meeting that growth.
The study is expected to be completed by this summer.
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