Powell, Wyoming: Population 5,500, Fiber Fed Municipal broadband project getting lit Tipped by koolkid1563 
We've previously mentioned how the small town of Powell, Wyoming hopes to see an economic resurgence through the building of a $4.9 million fiber network through a public-private partnership with little to no taxpayer risk. The project broke ground back in May, and local Broadband Reports user koolkid1563 says he's close to getting service. "Our ONT shell just got installed today and I have two Cat5e lines (one for phone the other for internet) and a RG6Q coax line for services," he says. "Now they just need to blow the fiber to it and get our zone turned up!" He's also been providing us with photos. The user, who is jumping from local cable competitor Bresnan Communications, says the PowelLink service will be offering a symmetrical 5Mbps tier, while Bresnan is apparently offering 15Mbps service in the area to compete. He directs your our to the Powell Tribune, which says the first of thirteen fiber zones is going live: The first of 13 fiber-optic zones around Powell will be up and running this week if testing goes as planned. Construction for the Powellink project began in May and, when completed, will provide a network of fiber to every home and business in Powell. Project Manager Ernie Bray said he expected test results for the first zone on Monday. The first zone that will be lit up is the central office zone, encompassing about 175 homes and businesses in the area of South Bent and South streets. One of the project's developers has previously posted in our forums to explain the financials behind the deal, and this Broadband Properties Magazine article is also worth a read.
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  MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 |  Good for them!
This project sounds like they've done their homework and have taken much more into consideration than most muni projects. The suggested reading in Karl's article is enlightening.
Of course, the anti-muni trolls will be along soon saying how it will fail and the taxpayers will be on the hook, etc etc.
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| MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 | Re: Good for them! No, not an pro-muni troll, but a pro-forward thinking troll perhaps, or even a pro-let's try something new troll, maybe even a pro-if the incumbents won't build it, it's the job of government to step in troll.
I think those would adequately describe me.
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| | |  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Good for them! Damn, TK proved you right  | |
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| | | "The service provider, TCT West, is partnering with the city to offer triple play services over the system and TCT is providing bond guarantees in exchange for this right."
This is what makes this different. IF the project fails the taxpayer is not on the hook, TCT is. This is different from someplace like Chattanoooga, TN where if EPB's FTTH fails the Rate payers will see an increase in their electric bills to cover the failure. | |
| | | MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 | Re: Good for them! said by battleop:"The service provider, TCT West, is partnering with the city to offer triple play services over the system and TCT is providing bond guarantees in exchange for this right." This is what makes this different. IF the project fails the taxpayer is not on the hook, TCT is. This is different from someplace like Chattanoooga, TN where if EPB's FTTH fails the Rate payers will see an increase in their electric bills to cover the failure. I 100% agree. This is an example of how a muni deployment can work. I just take issue when the mere mention of a muni deployment brings the lemmings in here talking about it's imminent failure and how there is no way a muni deployment will ever work.
I think sometimes people forget someone has to blaze the trail and the folks (municipalities in this case) who live on the bleeding edge usually fall off, but that can be used as a lesson for others to improve upon the idea, if it's fundamentally sound.
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 knightmbEverybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN | Just goes to show You don't have a big a ultra sized city to get good Internet along with someone willing to provide the service that you want. Supply and demand, there is a demand, they meet with the supply.
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| |  jester121Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Re: Just goes to show Au contraire, I'd suggest that you're much better off being in a very small town, and hopefully far away from a large incumbent. This small town might even be resistant to the corruption and waste that make change difficult in larger municipalities. | |
| |  en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | I know of a bunch of small towns in Canada that are wired pretty well (population of less than 5,000)
OC-192 backbone, and offer both Cable internet and DSL for less than $40/month w/o bundling.
»www.shaw.ca/NR/rdonlyres/B9CF057···bone.pdf
Town of White River, Ontario, population of less than 1,000, with access to Shaw's OC-192
Standalone 5Mbps DSL
»www.vianet.ca/residential_dsl.php
Standalone Cable HSI (unfortunately with Caps)
»www.vianet.ca/cable_nwestern_on.php
Sadly enough, the cable company (Shaw) doesn't offer digital TV though
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
| | | | | Re: Just goes to show TCT will also offer a triple play package, though I am not entirely sure on pricing. I have a brochure here, though some things aren't entirely clear to me just yet. I intend on calling them later today to clarify a few things while hopefully getting on the test list for our zone. HSI speeds for now will start out at 5Mb/s and TCT is eventually going to offer their fastest tier at 100Mb/s with room to expand faster than that since they are using GPON and the ONT has a GigE port in it. TV will be IPTV based and phone will have two options from what I understand. There is a VoIP option served from an additional Linksys ATA or the second option which is POTS from the ONT. | |
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 dnoyeBFerrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI |  On a side note
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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| | jester121Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Re: On a side note Weed barrier underneath and Round-Up by the bucketfull. | |
| | | | We do have a weed barrier under the rock with irrigation to the shrubbery using a drip system. Water from the downspout and any additional runoff is directed toward the curbing around the rock which has small PVC 'drains' under the curbing that drain into the grass. Any weeds that do happen to get through we just pull, though round up isn't a bad idea either. | |
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| | Nice Of course, I expect that if the area is served by Qwest or AT&T. Or if there is cable broadband in that town (I imagine there is) that the big boys will try to take the town to court and sue the socks off of the town for offering this kind of service.
One day I hope there is a court ruling in this country that sets a legal precedent against the CLEC or cable company suing or barring local governments from offering fiber networks. These big companies shouldn't be able to tell the towns what to do at all. They may sell the connection somewhere for a backbone connection to that town and yes they get to charge for that but outside that they shouldn't have any say at all over whether a town or county, etc builds their own network. | |
| | | Fiber Where I live the outlying areas of the county are served by a small local ILEC. Like many Skybest/Skyline is building out a fiber network. If the small guys can do it then why are these big guys so afraid to do it? | |
| | | | Re: Fiber That's what they pay lobbyists for, to prevent them from having to spend a lot of money in areas where their return on investment (ROI) is going to be much lower than in more densely populated cities. The telecommunications laws (& FCC) in the U.S. unfortunately favor the rich telcos & other corporations. There has to be a meeting point in the middle somewhere, inbetween sufficient profit and adequate services for small town America.
The Health care situation is not dissimilar. There should be a hybrid public-private system which opts for the best of both worlds- increasing/providing coverage for millions of americans, but also retains private companies ability to turn a profit and thrive. As much as the current system is broken, any universal health care system that has been suggested will also fail for different reasons. | |
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| Core0000Premium
join:2008-05-04
Somerset, KY Reviews:
 ·New Wave Communi..
| Powell, Wyoming Fiber At least Powell Wyoming is doing something that will create more revenue constantly, and in unique ways.
The small city I live in decided to have a water park built. IT takes 10 to 12,000 dollars a day to operate.Source:»www.somerset-kentucky.com/local/···157.html The city I live in has a large population of Welfare people, and people that live in government assisted housing. .. The median income for people in the city I live in yearly is only 23,000 a year gross, meaning they don't have a lot of money to spend.
With gas prices high as they are. I personally do not know how its going to work out. Because it was supposed to work as a tourist attraction.
Plus the land it was built on is off of old highway 27. I am guessing the deal was done a little before new 27 came in.
The real kicker is, that this is going to split tourist from the lakes, to the water-park.
Thank god the people in Powell Wyoming are a lot smarter than where I live. They have a place that invested in the future, in a smart way.
If your going to spend the public's money, might as well get something really good out of it. | |
| | NormanSPremium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
kudos:4 Reviews:
 ·SONIC.NET
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Re: Powell, Wyoming Fiber said by Core0000:If your going to spend the public's money, might as well get something really good out of it. It sounds like they already spent the public's money on a fiber ring; eight years ago. Now they are getting private venture capital, and a regional ILEC, to supply the "Last Mile" fiber links to the existing public infrastructure. If I am reading Karl's links properly.
Now, here in San José, there is no such public infrastructure. Such fiber as exists in the neighborhoods has been deployed by the cableco (Comcast), and, more recently, the ILEC (formerly SBC, now AT&T). There is no regulatory requirement left, that I know of, for those operators to allow competitive access. Cable never had it, and telco got it tossed.
I think I saw, somewhere, that it would cost TCT roughly $400 per premises to run FTTH; in a town of 5,000, roughly $2,000,000. San José has over 900,000 residents; say, $360,000,000. And then there are the other cities nearby, several of which are near, or over 100,000 residents each. And still no core to tie to, other than what is owned by Comcast and AT&T. I wonder; does that Korean firm, Incuvest, have that kind of money lying around?
A tax-supported bond issue would be a tough sell in "Taxifornia".
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
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| | Hope i live right across the border near Billings. I hope my town of 7,000 will get smart and the local isp (cable montana) will start doing fiber or something. | |
| | | Broadband in small towns Actually, some small towns have surprisingly good internet access for what they are. For instance, when I look up the statistics on North Carolina, Boone, (where I live now) is listed nearly at the top in terms of highest average speed. However, it is also a college town and many students demand 10mpbs internet from Charter (the cable company) and of course plenty of other students here use AT&T DSL and I am sure that the numbers are skewed somewhat by the large number of users on campus at ASU who have used speedtest.net on a campus computer (with a commensurately higher speed than their home internet access). For instance, the campus computers typically clock around 20mpbs downstream and 2-5mpbs upstream. | |
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