As some of you aware, the federal government will be spending about $7.2 billion shortly to provide grants and loans to areas that are unserved or underserved by broadband. $3.75 billion in grants is currently available via the National Telecom & Information Agency. Many groups and individuals in Wisconsin are scurrying to meet the very short deadlines. One initiative titled "Go Gig" here in Wisconsin will be focusing on constructing the "middle mile" fiber in the first wave of funding. However, phase 2 grant proposals (later this year), and phase 3 (2010) will focus on the building of some pilot Community Area Networks (CAN). CAN's could best be described as coordinated regional communication infrastructure which promotes innovation, competition and economic viability. A community could be defined as a city, County, region, or some other geographic region.
I am interested in hearing from our County CNRED faculty and staff about your knowledge of local discussions regarding CAN's or simply the provision of broadband services. If you have been involved in these efforts, I would also like to learn more about how you have been involved. Some CAN discussions have already taken place in Platteville, Kenosha, Eau Claire, River Falls, Superior, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Wausau, Stevens Point, La Crosse, Madison, Janesville, Whitewater, and Milwaukee. Obviously, many of these communities would be viewed as being served by broadband, but one doesn't have to venture far outside of these cities to reach underserved areas. But, I am also interested in hearing about communities that are far more remote than these that have had serious discussion about how they might pool resources to create CAN's. These are the kind of communities that would be well positioned to be written in to these grants.
So here is your chance to inform me of your local initiatives. For more information on "Go Gig", see: http://wire.wiscnet.net/go-gig-broadband-stimulus-information/
Andy
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9 comments:
I have been working for several years with our regional economic development corporation, Grow North. I have assisted them with several initiatives, and we did establish a "Broad Band" sub-committee of this group to look at broad band solutions up here. Because we have been repeatedly disappointed in how little of the stimulus money has found its way north of highway 29, our Oneida County Economic Development Director requested and received a commitment of $200,000 from the county as a loan to a wireless broadband provider in our area. With this loan, we are estimating that we may be one of the first rural counties in Wisconsin to have almost 100% broadband coverage within the coming year. Jim Kumbera can be reached at his e-mail address OCEDC@newnorth.net if you wanted more details. Of course, if you could help steer any stimulus money this direction, that would be good too:-)
Dan Kuzlik, Oneida County
Dan
Daniel E. Kuzlik, Assistant Professor
Community, Economic and Natural Resources Agent
University of Wisconsin-Extension
Oneida County Extension Office
3375 Airport Road #10
Rhinelander WI 54501
(ph) 715-365-2750
(fax) 715-365-2760
(em) dan.kuzlik@ces.uwex.edu
Andy: I have not been part of any discussions here in Calumet County or the region.
Mary Kohrell
Hi Andy-
Thank you for your email/ I have been involved in some discussion about this initiative with Tom Martin (CESA 3) and Marion Macej Heiner from UW Platteville Continuing education. Marion presented some information on this to members of the Southwest Economic Development Council (mainly economic dev practitioners but I represent Crawford County) last Friday. The Council has been active in advocating for rural broadband access but we have not had any significant conversations about it within the county.
I have a rough idea of what the Go Gig initiative is about but I know there is some concern from the economic development side that even if infrastructure exists to make broadband available to public facilities there are not resources for the "last mile" to get fiber out to homes and business. I also expressed concern to Tom Martin that the fiber line proposed route would travel down 61 in Crawford County and not route 27 where there are existing schools, more residences, and a greater likelihood of development.
This is a major issue that I would like to focus on in the coming year more significantly as part of my economic development programming. I'd be interested to see how other folks are approaching this. Count me in!
- Laura
************************************************************
Laura Brown
Community Development Educator
Crawford County UW Cooperative Extension
225 N. Beaumont Road, Suite 240
Prairie du Chien, WI 53821
608-326-0224 Fax: 608-326-0226
laura.brown@ces.uwex.edu
www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/crawford
Andy - Our county economic development committee had a broadband subcommittee earlier this year. I researched and created a spreadsheet of all the Internet providers in the county (narrow and broad)and mapped out service territories. We had 3 different provider types represented on the committee and they agreed to work together to try to cover the unserved areas, with assistance from whatever resources we could get our hands on. Two of these providers are co-chairs of the Grow North committee (see Dan K's comment) so our ED Committee deferred to the Grow North Committee for further direction. We have done a lot of PR and have had good input into the PSC coverage survey, but Oneida Co. put the money up first for wireless towers, so attention is going there at the present time.
Kelly Haverkampf - Vilas County
Hi Andy,
Hi Andy,
Fond du Lac County is working on county-wide wifi with the company Dotnet. I have not been involved in this at all, but I could connect you with Ellen Sorensen, the Director of Administration, who could give you more details.
Diana Tscheschlok
Fond du Lac County UWEX
The only entity pursuing this in my "neck of the woods" is the Northwest Regional Planning Commission.
Beverly Stencel
Washburn County UWEX
We are a part of this effort and have a CAN in Superior.
Fariba Pendleton
Douglas County UWEX
Hi Andy
Besides the "go Gig" initiative, which I believe the local conversation is in part hosted by Northcentral Technical College, Marathon County has a task force on technology that has been taking input from local officials and residents about service especially outside of the Wausau metro area. The chair of that task force just presented to the county board yesterday. I missed the presentation but could probably get a written report if that would interest you.
Mary
***********************************************
Mary Kluz
Community Resource Development Agent
Marathon County University of Wisconsin - Extension
212 River Drive, Suite 3
Wausau, WI 54403-5476
Phone: (715) 261-1241 fax: (715) 261-1238
Website: http://marathon.uwex.edu/
Hello, my company One Prospect Technologies is coordinating a Northwoods wide coalition for a broadband grant application. We know through many communications and Washington DC visits with USDA, FCC, and US Dept of Commerce, that coalitions are being viewed very favorably. To that end, for 3 weeks we have been working with Grow North, Tribal Organizations, Nicolet College and private providers to build a case for our application. We welcome anybody interested in joing this coalition to join us at One Prospect Technologies in Rhinelander at 2pm on Monday, August 3. At this meeting we will be putting forth our final ideas before the grant application work is begun in full force. One Prospect will be speaking at the Nicolet College Broadband Meeting on August 5. Contact Brad Kowieski at brad.kowieski@oneprospect.com with any questions.
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