Information Technology Toolkit

Community Leadership/IT Planning

Intellectual Infrastructure

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Applications

Toolkit Committee

Success Stories

• New! Saline County, Nebraska:  Public-Private Partnerships Bring Broadband Access to Communities
• Blacksburg, Virginia:  Developing Community-Based Infrastructure
• Norfolk, Nebraska: Building a Community Fiber Optic Network
• Wahoo, Nebraska: Working Together on Wireless Solutions
• Imperial, Nebraska:  Learning through the Internet

Saline County, Nebraska:   Public-Private Partnerships Bring Broadband Access to Communities

By Anne Byers, Nebraska Information Technology Commission

Located 40 miles southwest of Lincoln, Wilber is the county seat of Saline County and the nation’s Czech capital.   Thanks to a public private partnership between local governments and a small telephone company, this community of 1,700 also boasts wireless broadband access.

With assistance from University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, Wilber formed a technology committee in 1996 to address the need for local dial-up access in the community.   The committee proved to the local telephone company that sufficient demand existed in the community.

Over the next 6 years, the committee has met three additional times to discuss developing a community Web site, developing and maintaining a county Web site, and obtaining broadband Internet access.   Technologies Across Nebraska, a University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension-led coalition, has provided assistance to the technology committee in these efforts.   Randy Pryor, Extension Educator in Saline County, and Jim Emal, University of Nebraska Director of Strategic Technologies, have provided training in the use of technology and have helped residents understand the benefits of broadband communications.    Their expertise in working with communities and telecommunications providers contributed to the committee’s success.

To address broadband availability, the committee worked with Diode Communications, a subsidiary of Diller Telephone Company.  In exchange for being able to locate an antenna on the Wilber water tower, Diode agreed to give city offices free Internet access.  Diode purchased a T1 to the water tower in Wilber and placed three antennas on the tower, making the tower a hub for the area.    An open house held in Wilber netted approximately 25 subscriptions for broadband service.  Residents within 8-9 miles and an unimpeded line of sight to the tower can receive broadband service.      

Randy Sandman, President of Diode Communications explained how Diode works with communities: “Here at Diode we use various means to build community support.  Most times, communities that are needing access to broadband services give us a call.  Those leaders really want to work with us hand in hand.  One of the first things we do is to ask those community leaders for their help in doing some surveys of their business folks and how many people in those communities need the service, want the service, would take the service from us.  ”  

Sandman  added, “Another way that we build interest is doing open houses in each community that we roll services into.   Most of the time it is done right after we start the service, but sometimes we will have an open house to get interest generated before the signal is really being transmitted from different tower sites.”

Diode Communications has also worked with co-ops and local governments in other communities in Saline County to provide broadband service.   

“Partnering with the cities and the counties to bring wireless Internet out to their underserved areas has really been a win-win situation,” commented Sandman.

Sandman offers the following advice to communities:

1. Research the technology and what it can and cannot do.   Wireless may not be feasible for every community.   Too many trees and hills can interfere with wireless reception.   

2. Research the vendor or the company that is going to be providing the service.  Choosing a well-established company that provides good customer service is important.  

3. Be willing to negotiate.  Communities should be willing to allow providers to place antennas on water towers, grain elevators or other high spots in exchange for Internet service.   

For more information contact Randy Pryor, University of Nebraska Extension Educator, Saline County, (402) 821-2151, rpryor1@unl.edu or Randy Sandman, President, Diode Communications, (402) 793-5330,   rsand@diodecom.net.

Saline County case study is also available as a PDF (text only or with photos)

Blacksburg, Virginia:   Developing Community-Based Infrastructure

Blacksburg, Virginia has been a pioneer in the development of community-wide telecommunications infrastructure.   Blacksburg was the first community to have residential broadband access.  Over 60% of Blacksburg residents have broadband access in their businesses and apartments.    

Blacksburg has employed public-private partnerships to build telecommunications infrastructure.   Andrew Michael Cohill, the director of Blacksburg Electronic Village writes, "The solution is for communities to invest in [the] minimum amount of telecommunications infrastructure needed to create a level playing field for the private sector, and to do no more than that."  Cohill recommends community investment in telecommunications infrastructure including:  duct, dark fiber, co-location facilities, and Multimedia Services Access Point (MSAP).     Co-location facilities provide a place for telecommunications providers to place their equipment.    Communities may want to consider both wireless and wireline co-location facilities.   The MSAP provides a common exchange and switch point for local voice, video, and data services.  By keeping local packets (or data traffic) in the community, network resources are more efficiently utilized.   

(Back to Success Stories Index)

Norfolk, Nebraska:   Building a Community Fiber Optic Network

In 1997 the City of Norfolk embarked on a pilot project to link five City buildings with fiber optic cable.  The local cable TV company agreed to allow us to use their excess fiber optic capacity for this project at no charge.  The project was a resounding success.  It resulted in much improved communications between City offices, savings on computer hardware, software, and maintenance, and many intangible benefits.  After approximately one year, the cable TV company informed the City of their intent to begin charging for the use of their fiber optic cable.

As a result of the success of our pilot project, our desire to link additional City buildings, and the possibility of significant costs to continue use of the cable TV fiber, other options were evaluated.  In 1998 the City of Norfolk began a project to create a city-owned fiber optic network.  During the design phase of this project, local banks, hospitals and schools asked the City to determine the feasibility of including them in the network.  The final outcome was the first segment of the Norfolk Community Fiber Optic Network.  

This network currently connects seven City office buildings, four school buildings, two hospitals, and three financial institutions with over ten miles of fiber optic cable.  Future plans call for installing an additional 10 miles of cable to connect ten more school facilities.  The network is constructed of 144-count single mode fiber optic cable and is capable of speeds in excess of 10GBs per second.  The network termination equipment and electronics installed in each building are simple off-the-shelf components that are very inexpensive. 

All participants on the network are equity owners in the infrastructure.  They pay a one-time purchase cost and have no on-going fees for use of the network.  Fiber optic cable is installed on existing utility poles.  Due to the limited space on the poles and the economics of cable design and installation, a larger cable was installed to provide future capacity.  This decision was made with the vision of making fiber optic connectivity available to additional community partners on a cost basis.  Our analysis established that the price to install the fiber optic cable was less than one tenth the price to lease a comparable telecommunications service for a period of five years. 

The benefits of this type of high-speed connectivity are both financial and operational.  The City of Norfolk effectively operates as single LAN connecting seven different buildings.  What this means is that all City computer and information resources are equally accessible in every facility.  A staff member can print to any printer in any building from any other building; thereby giving all divisions access to faster more functional printers.  Files and information are shared between divisions at local area network speeds.  A single high-speed Internet connection feeds all the buildings through the fiber network. 

The fiber optic network has allowed the City of Norfolk to reduce equipment costs.  Prior to installing the network, the City owned two AS/400 computers; one located at the Police Division, and a second located at the Administration offices.  After the network was completed, one AS/400 computer was eliminated and all operations were consolidated on a single shared AS/400.  This resulted in significant savings in annual maintenance and support costs, as well as reduced replacement and upgrade costs.  Major computer and office equipment such as a data server, high-speed copier, color laser printer, and plotter are shared across the network, also reducing equipment costs. 

The benefits are not only in costs, but in data security and efficiency as well.  By having a single data server that is accessible in seven separate buildings at LAN speeds, the City is able to centralize all data for security, sharing, and backup.  Users are freed from the time consuming and often forgotten task of backing up local desktop PCs.  Important data is no longer vulnerable to loss from a hard disk failure.  The shared data server contains redundant drives to maintain continuous operation through a disk crash without interruption or loss of data.  The server is backed up on a single tape, which is stored off-site in a magnetic media fireproof safe. 

The Norfolk Community Fiber Optic Network demonstrated commitment to bringing advanced and affordable communications services to Norfolk, and possibly encouraged providers to offer newer advanced telecommunications services.  Since the construction of the network, four different providers have begun offering broadband services in Norfolk.  These include DSL, cable modem, and wireless.  It is important to note that these services, while 10 times faster than dial-up modems, typically run at speeds only 1/10,000 that of the fiber optic network.  They are however, essential for this stage of development in Internet access.  If trends in data communications for the past 20 years continue to hold true, transmission speeds in the year 2020 will need to be over 1000 times faster than the fastest connection available today. 

Future plans for the Norfolk Community Fiber Optic Network revolve around efficiency, sharing, and new ideas.  Video conferencing is effortless across the network because of its capability to transmit data at very high speeds with no on-going costs.  Video conferencing could be used for more efficient meetings, delivery of medical services, distance learning, language translation, and easier access to government services.  One project being investigates is to provide citizens with a single point of contact for many various government service that previously would require the citizen to travel to several different offices.  Other ideas include the sharing of limited staff such as translators across geo-political boundaries over the network, and the sharing of certain types of network equipment between independent organizations.  It is through this type of sharing that we will continue to achieve greater results and deliver better services at lower costs.

 (Back to Success Stories Index)

Wahoo, Nebraska:   Working Together on Wireless Solutions

Wahoo Wireless (AOL Rural Telecommunications Award Nomination)   The Wahoo Economic Development Office and CityWeyed, Inc. worked together to bring high-speed wireless Internet Access to Wahoo.   Other AOL Telecommunications Award nominations can be viewed at the AOL Awards Web site. 

(Back to Success Stories Index)

Imperial, Nebraska:  Learning through the Internet

Chase 3000 Wireless Internet Network provides high-speed wireless Internet service to residents of Imperial  and surrounding communities.    The cost of end-user equipment was subsidized through a USDA Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning grant.  As of Sept. 2000, 100 subscribers were using the service.    By the end of the year, it is expected that the numbers of subscribers will reach 500.   Users are being asked to document their use of the Internet for educational purposes. 

(Back to Success Stories Index)

Because the appropriate role of public entities in the development of telecommunications infrastructure continues to be discussed at all regulatory and policy levels, community decisions regarding telecommunications and Internet services should be made with input from legal counsel.

If you would like to suggest a resource, please e-mail abyers@notes.state.ne.us

12/06/2002