Case Studies

Small-Scale Local Aggregation: Fossil, Oregon

In June 1997, a Portland-based Internet Service Provider, began providing local-dial internet connection to Fossil in remote Wheeler County, Oregon. The company began to specialize in connecting rural Oregon to the internet. It decided that it could do it profitably with as few as 50 accounts each paying about $20 a month plus a one-time setup fee. Wheeler County, thinly populated, has a per capita income of $16,735, or 82 percent of the statewide average.

Community-Wide Network: Central Oregon Telecommunications Task Force

Central Oregon Telecommunications Task Force proposes to improve the political and economic strength of central Oregon in relation to the major metropolitan centers by creating a community-wide network to realize and enhance central Oregon as a community. The network will be a tool for education (K-12, community college, and higher education), the medical community, government, industry, and commercial interests which all serve the larger community to expand current programs and services. By banding together, telecommunication providers, service organizations and end users can consolidate resources and deliver information to an economically disadvantaged, educationally disenfranchised, and underemployed population. Video- and computer-based education programs will expand to new areas in the region. Not-for-profits will extend on-line information and referral systems to cover social services and communities currently not connected and county service offices will have improved capacity to share client information. The Central Oregon Hospital Network will further augment its telemedicine options to remote physicians and hospitals as well as expand its health and wellness programs geared to the general population. A one-stop career information network will assist workers in transition to locate family wage jobs through a vast array of services centralized and streamlined into one functional unit. Regional offices of the USDA Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will use the network to provide public information.

Community Media Center: Tualatin Valley Community Access

Tualatin Valley Community Access (TVCA) is a nonprofit community media center serving sixteen communities in the Tualatin Valley. TVCA's mission is "to increase civic participation by promoting understanding and informed use of media".

TVCA provides the following:

• Media Education. TVCA helps local individuals and organizations learn to become effective communicators in the Information Age through media literacy workshops which include hands-on learning and critical analysis of media messages.
• Media Access. TVCA makes media tools available to the public for non-commercial community communication. This includes direct access and technical assistance with camcorders, editing systems, television studios, local cable access channels and on-line communications.
• Strategic Communications Assistance. TVCA provides organizations and individuals with assistance in assessing their communication goals and utilizing community media.
• Media Production. In partnership with a variety of organizations, TVCA develops community television programming which celebrates local culture, builds awareness of the growing diversity within the Tualatin Valley, and stimulates discourse and problem-solving around community issues.
• Community Information Exchange. TVCA makes a broad array of local information available on the Worldwide Web and area cable systems. This includes public affairs and arts programming, Spanish language shows and other multi-lingual programming, educational telecourses, local government meeting coverage, local election information and much more.

People's Utility District: Central Lincoln People's Utility District

Central Lincoln People's Utility District, a publicly-owned electric utility, supplies power to over 27,000 residences and 4,000 businesses along 120 miles of the central Oregon coast. Central Lincoln built a 65 mile fiber and synchronous optical network, (SONET), for its power grid management. By adding ten percent to the cost of the fiber construction, Central Lincoln added 90 percent to the system capacity. It leases some excess capacity to school districts, hospitals and libraries. Central Lincoln also established an internet provider service. By leasing additional unused fiber to telecommunications providers Central Lincoln may become a carriers' carrier, profitably.

Non-Traditional ProviderExample 1: Springfield Utility Board, Eugene Water & Electric Board

The Springfield Utility Board, (SUB), and the Eugene Water & Electric Board, (EWEB), are embarking on separate plans that eventually could wire the entire Eugene-Springfield area with fiber optic cables. The Springfield utility will start work during the summer of 1997 on a $1.5 million project to lay fiber optic cables along most major streets, with the idea of eventually spending up to $20 million to hook up every home and business in town. A number of private companies will be able to lease space on SUB's fiber optic system, offering competitive rates to homeowners and businesses.

The Eugene utility plans to hire a private company to install fiber optic lines to its own facilities and public agencies --the city, University of Oregon, public schools and the like-- sometime in 1998, but EWEB commissioners haven't decided yet how widespread a system they want. Wiring all of Eugene with fiber cables could cost as much as $100 million.

The utilities would recover their costs by charging access fees and leasing space on their fiber optic systems to cable TV, phone, internet and other telecommunications companies that want to serve homes and businesses.

The push into fiber optics fits in with SUB's and EWEB's traditional role as a public agency. They want all their customers to have high-speed access via fiber optics, not just the big customers which the private telecommunications companies are more likely to serve.

While SUB is pushing forward with installing the first fiber optic cable, EWEB is going much slower.

The two utilities had been working together on a common project for three years until they decided to go their separate ways earlier in 1997. There's a question of whether EWEB has the authority under the city charter, or Eugene's telecommunications ordinance, to take on the fiber optic project.

EWEB probably will have to go to the Eugene City Council to ask it to transfer that authority to the utility.

Non-Traditional Provider Example 2: Lusk, Wyoming

Lusk, Wyoming, population 2499, with the help of the Wyoming Municipal Power Authority and US West, installed a seventeen mile fiber optic and coaxial cable network that links 600 homes, two schools, a hospital, a library, government offices and local businesses to the world. Utilizing the municipally owned electric utility's rights-of-way, city officials obtained funding for the project from an obscure source. The Petroleum Violation Escrow Fund was established in 1986 after Federal court rulings forced major oil companies to hand over illegal profits earned in the 1970's. The Fund is administered by the U. S. Department of Commerce. Lusk is providing cable tv and local telephone service using the fiber network.

Municipal Ownership Example: Glasgow Electric Plant Board

Glasgow Electric Plant Board (Kentucky) receives all of its electricity from the City of Glasgow which purchases it from the TVA and distributes it through the Plant Board. In 1985 to keep the cost of electricity down the Board instituted a load management program which has evolved into an extensive broadband network including video services, telephony, interactive video and data networking. This system is providing economic development benefits beyond the utility management services to the community by providing video competition and dissemination of information through its computer network links. The project costs $2.8 million and provides customers with cable service by direct connection to TVs, data through broadband interface cards in computers or file servers and a voice interface unit that provides dial tone. On a per capita basis this system costs (14,000 population) $200 per person. The savings from load management related benefits alone was calculated as $175,000 per year or $12.50 per person. However this does not account for the many other externalities, for instance, improvements made to traffic signals, the savings in cable tv rates, (Glasgow's rates are among the lowest in the country), improvements in government operation by the broadcast of government meetings, educational network linking the schools and providing access to shared databases with schools, libraries and even local real estate agencies. Future broadband services include at home shopping, customized cable packages and bank at home services.

Community-Wide Access, Network and Technical Assistance: Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (PLCMC), opened The Virtual Lab on April 3, 1995. Accessible to the entire community through equal access use policies, the lab showcases new information and communication technologies and offers a full schedule of hands-on workshop and training opportunities. Twenty high-performance workstations are equipped with more than 70 applications for drawing, animation, desktop publishing, scanning, imaging, multimedia, and full Internet connectivity. Patrons gain free access to these workstations either by scheduling time in advance in 2-hour blocks or as walk-ins with a 1-hour time limit. Also available are more than 200 CD-ROM titles on topics ranging from science to history to art to music.

PLCMC also directs "Charlotte's Web" ­ a regional community computer network. Charlotte's Web's vision is to ensure that all citizens in the area have access to education information and communications resources to help make the region a better place to live, grow, and prosper. Since June 1994, Charlotte's Web has provided 7-day-a-week access to a wide range of information and communication services and resources.

Access to Charlotte's Web is also provided through 74 public access terminals located at local library branches, neighborhood youth and senior centers, school classrooms, school libraries, health care facilities, and shelters.

Startup funds for this project came from a $450,000 Department of Commerce/NTIA TIIAP matching grant, as well as other state and local funds.

Virtual Enterprise Zone: Colorado Rural Development Council

The Colorado Rural Development Council (CRDC) has developed a concept paper for a "Virtual Enterprise Zone," (VEZ), which borrows some of the traditional tools of enterprise zones, but differs in that it provides a tremendous amount of flexibility in application. It is grassroots-driven, so that a community must first lay the groundwork of an infrastructure needs assessment and inventory in order to determine what applications it needs to design an advanced technology infrastructure suited to its particular community characteristics.

VEZs would not be restricted to specific geographical or geopolitical boundaries and locations. VEZs can be specifically targeted to meet distinct needs of a wide variety of rural communities. They would be short-term and focused to address unique requirements of any rural community as it relates to technology infrastructure and telecommunications service deployment. This time component gives the VEZ concept a fluidity and flexibility to deal with a rapidly evolving industry, as well as to guarantee that Colorado does not find itself with a perpetual, border-to-border enterprise zone designation.

The VEZ designation would apply to local small businesses and to relocating larger companies that use the technologies and advanced telecommunications services. These two private-sector interests would help drive the market demand for deployment of technology and infrastructure. The advantages of VEZ would also accrue to the telecommunications providers which deploy the actual infrastructure required to make access to advanced services and technology available.

The concept encompasses the following components:

• Incentives for telecommunications infrastructure providers;
• Incentives for large employers who use technology and advanced telecommunications services, agree to locate in rural communities, and employ a certain percentage of those community residents in the industry;
• Incentives for indigenous small business owners who financially participate in a community networking center, or "technology incubator"; and,
• Assistance to community colleges to provide specialized training to rural community residents and small business owners on the technologies being utilized by relocating industries.

Statewide Network, Training and Information: NCexChange

NCexChange was the first statewide computer networking program in the country designed to meet the special needs of non-profits. Launched in September 1990 at the Rural Economic Development Center as a demonstration within the Ford Foundation-sponsored Rural Telecommunications Initiative, NCexChange developed an online community of 160 North Carolina rural, human service, and community development organizations linked electronically for information exchange, communication, and collaboration. NCexChange moved to the N.C. Client and Community Development Center in 1993 and as a result of a merger in 1996 is currently part of the N.C. Justice and Community Development Center.

NCexChange's current activities include:

• The NETworker Project is a national-scope demonstration funded through a US Department of Commerce grant which will provide for "technology champions" (or Community NETworkers) for non-profits and small businesses in four North Carolina project sites. Each NETworker will be based at a local host organization and will survey the information and communication patterns of key target groups in these areas and suggest ways that new technologies can be applied to solve organizational and community problems.
• NCexChange has recently launched the North Carolina Mentor Project which will recruit computer volunteers and place them with non-profits in need of technology support. Possible mentor activities range from basic computerization and getting organizations online to creating Web pages, implementing local area networks, and creating specialized databases.
• The Community Information Gateway Project will coordinate and support the efforts of fourteen statewide resource organizations to develop an integrated information library of community services, resources and policy issues on the World Wide Web.
• Support for Justice Center activities NCexChange will promote and support networking strategies to enhance the N.C. Justice & Community Development Center's organizational agenda for the next year.
• Promoting Public Interest Telecommunications NCexChange actively promotes public interest telecommunications policies that impact community-based non-profits and under-served populations in North Carolina.

Statewide Aggregation of Demand and Technical Assistance: New Mexico Rural Development Response Council

The New Mexico Rural Development Response Council, (NMRDRC), is playing a leading role in building the telecommunications capacity of that state's two Enterprise and twelve Champion Communities. NMRDRC has devoted significant resources to its involvement with Connect New Mexico, a 13-member consortium of private firms, state agencies, universities, and hospitals dedicated to developing collaborative leadership related to telecommunications issues and to addressing the telecommunications needs of under-served New Mexico communities. Connect New Mexico and the Council have come up with the idea to utilize these fourteen communities as telecommunications "models".

The initiative will involve providing residents and leaders in these fourteen communities with basic computer communications tools. This will lead to the communities becoming "hubs" in New Mexico's developing telecommunications network, and it will advance the goals of an already-existing "model" telecommunications community, LaPlaza Telecommunity in Taos. LaPlaza has agreed to provide technical assistance to this initiative; already, they have developed a telecommunications system used by up to half of their community that has led to enhanced opportunities for distance education (linking up with Northern New Mexico Community College, for example) and telemedicine. The project will start the fourteen EZ/EC communities off with the basics and help them build a communications infrastructure from there. As more of what is available is seen in the communities will be able to make more informed decisions about their telecommunications needs and opportunities.

The Connect New Mexico and NMRDRC efforts have benefitted greatly from the active involvement of New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson who signed a cooperative agreement with Los Alamos Laboratories to advance the project and volunteered to be spokesperson for the statewide telecommunications efforts. Also actively involved, as part of the intensive working relationship with the EZ/EC and Champion Communities, are officials from the state office of USDA/Rural Economic and Community Development (RECD).

Non-Traditional Partnerships: FiberCom

In the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado several small communities have created FiberCom, a collaborative partnership intended to give birth to a modern telecommunications infrastructure by connecting local service providers and large users to the national telecommunications backbone. FiberCom intends to aggregate demand across LATA boundaries; integrate the Four Corners into the network WEB; facilitate interstate cooperation among electric utilities to diversify their mission to include telecommunications infrastructure and services; build a business case for an intra- and interstate Carriers' Carrier major fiber optic connection to the network WEB, owned and operated on a cooperative basis among the participants; and, install "idealized" telecommunications routes and connections. Working with the Economic Development Districts of the Four Corner's area, the participants in FiberCom are working on a grant application to the US Department of Agriculture's Fund for Rural America for the purpose of compiling a business plan and feasibility analysis for a public telecommunications company which would own and operate a fiber optic system. The Economic Development Districts are motivated to pursue this concept to improve the telecommunications infrastructure ensuring that the region has adequate connectivity and bandwidth based on competitive pricing to support economic, educational, and health systems.