Open Access
Population Center in Chautauqua County May Be First City in New York With Municipal Fiber
Jamestown is hoping an open access network would make internet more affordable.
August 18, 2021 — Jamestown – home to 30,000 residents, the largest population center in western Chautauqua County – could become the first city in the state of New York to construct a citywide municipal fiber network using American Rescue Plan relief funds.
In April, Mayor Eddie Sundquist formed a task force to assess the potential for a municipal fiber network in Jamestown. The city is currently working with EntryPoint Networks on a feasibility study to estimate the overall cost of the project, as well as surveying residential interest in building a municipally owned open access broadband network in Jamestown.
If the city decides to go through with the project, Jamestown will be the first city in New York state to embark on a municipal fiber build. Although many cities across New York state own dark fiber assets, and cooperatives in the southeastern and northern regions of the state are serving some residents, no city in the Empire State has moved forward with building a citywide fiber-to-the-home network.
Idea dating back to Sundquist’s mayoral campaign
Connecting citizens to new technology was a component of Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s 2019 mayoral campaign, centered around efforts to enhance economic development and community revitalization projects.
“Who says that we can’t become a technology hub attracting businesses around the country with our low cost of living and rich resources? Who says we can’t wire broadband and fiber to every home and business in this city at a lower cost?,” WRFA reported Sundquist campaigning in 2019.
In an interview with the Institute for Local Self Reliance, Mayor Sundquist recalled that the message was well-received by Jamestown residents, and that even pre-pandemic, city residents were calling for more reliable Internet access offering higher speeds.
Jamestown residents are currently stuck with one or two Internet Service Providers to choose from: Charter Spectrum and Windstream. In the process of conducting the feasibility study, network planners learned that the cost for Internet access in the community is comparatively high for the lower-than-average Internet access speeds residents are receiving.
With a little more than a year in office under his belt, Mayor Sundquist sees the proposed network as more than infrastructure essential to growing the economy. He considers the fiber network the key to connecting citizens to 21st century opportunities and revolutionizing the way residents connect and interact.
Impacts of open access municipal fiber
Under the open access network model Jamestown is pursuing, the city would own and maintain all network infrastructure, which the city would then lease to third-party ISPs to compete in offering Internet services to residents. Since the city would own the infrastructure, it would be able to establish basic network policies to address community-specific needs, such as prohibiting bandwidth caps or providing a service option affordable for low-income residents.
To ensure that low-income households are able to access the network, Sundquist said the city would require ISPs offering service over the network to provide a low-speed, low-cost Lifeline service option.
Throughout the pandemic, private providers refused to connect local residents with outstanding balances to free services being offered under the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, Sundquist said, echoing what he recently told WNY News.
“Just from talking to families and school kids alone, the ability to have free or low-cost internet is incredible, it is such a huge need. We’ve had so many families that had to go without because a lot of these companies refused to connect them up because of past due balances and bills.”
Although Sundquist said the low-speed Lifeline option would provide enough bandwidth for Jamestown’s residents to access virtual education and telehealth resources, Jamestown could consider taking a page from the book of Hillsboro, Oregon, whose citywide FTTH network provides symmetrical gigabit connections for $10 a month to qualifying low-income families. The city of Jamestown could also choose to model Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga’s EPB Fiber network recently committed to supplying low-income households with students free 100 Mbps symmetrical connections.
Besides the benefits a municipal fiber network would have for Jamestown students, it would also be a game-changer for Jamestown’s intergovernmental operations.
The municipal network could alleviate recurring charges the city pays to lease Internet and telephone services from multiple providers. Though unsure of the exact figure, Mayor Sundquist said that nearly all municipal buildings are connected with fiber service which costs “around $500 a month per building.” As the city owns several buildings, “the costs are astronomical when you tie in phone services and Voice over IP (VoIP) services. We’re talking thousands and thousands per building,” Sundquist said.
The cost-saving benefits of a city-owned fiber network would also aid Jamestown’s municipal power plant. The city maintains a utility company which currently leases Internet service. “To be able to connect . . . our utility service or to allow our utility service to use their own connection between substations is really critical,” Sundquist said. “It [would provide] a really incredible savings to the city.”
Beyond that, the network would also assist in helping Jamestown move towards Smart City initiatives, such as digital monitoring of water and electric meters.
Prioritizing mental health with federal relief funds
Jamestown is considering using $3 million of the $28 million in American Rescue Plan relief funds the city is set to receive over the next three years to build out broadband infrastructure.
According to the city’s Recovery Funds Master Plan [pdf], the highest spending category the city of Jamestown is looking to invest in is economic development, aiming to increase tourism, retool businesses, and attract new tech companies to a “Rust Belt” city. Another priority is for the city to invest in general services to complete city construction projects that have been on hold.
Also high on the city’s spending priority list is to direct relief funds to address housing and neighborhood issues, as well as mental health issues, which have become increasingly prevalent as residents have struggled to cope with the ongoing pandemic.
Jamestown’s Master Plan reports that “in the city alone, 6.5% of all calls for service from the Jamestown Police Department are to check on the well-being of an individual. This, coupled with an increasing homeless population in the city, creates the need to radically change how we address housing and mental health disparities in our community.”
In addition to a Mental Health Rapid Response project the city will be dedicating relief funds to, investing in a municipal fiber network would also support city efforts to improve access to mental health resources.
According to Sundquist, the low-cost Lifeline service required of ISPs on the citywide network would support mental telehealth initiatives and prove valuable to residents most afflicted by the pandemic by giving them a way to access telehealth services.
The city would also be able to subdivide and segment the municipal network to support its mental health goals. “For example, if we really needed to connect with folks that needed mental health evaluations or are currently working with therapists, we could create a specialty private network off of our network,” Mayor Sundquist told ILSR.
Mayor Sundquist said he is excited about the potential of using American Rescue Plan funds to improve Internet access across Jamestown, and for the immeasurable benefits a municipal open access fiber network could bring to town.
Listen to Episode 460 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast to learn more about the connectivity issues afflicting the Western part of New York state.
Check out this video on Mayor Sundquist’s effort in Jamestown.
Editor’s Note: This piece was authored by Jericho Casper, a reporter for the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s Community Broadband Network Initiative. Originally appearing at MuniNetworks.org on August 13, 2021, the piece is republished with permission.
12 Days of Broadband
12 Days: In 2023, a Rising Tide of Open Access Networks
Open access networks can be better understand through the 7-layered Open Systems Interconnection model.
December 28, 2023 – Open access networks in 2023 saw signs of change as major telecom players, including AT&T and T-Mobile, dipped their toes in the market – and smaller competitive and municipal players also continued strong.
The collaboration known as the Gigapower joint venture, forged between AT&T and private equity investment giant BlackRock in May, lent new legitimacy to the open access approach, which separates the provision of broadband services from the network operator.
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Another major operator venturing into the space is T-Mobile, which is set to become the primary tenant in a recently established $500 million partnership between Tillman FiberCo and private equity firm Northleaf Capital Partners.
The joint venture will allow T-Mobile to offer fiber Internet services to customers in markets across Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas, all without investing a dime in the infrastructure.
In an industry long characterized by a preference for vertically-integrated ownership and control, incumbent providers are pivoting towards a model that emphasizes sharing networks.
What are open access network?
In an open access network, broadband infrastructure is owned by one entity, which can be either a public or a private entity and is often operated by a separate network operator. The network operator leases or shares the infrastructure with multiple retail internet service providers.
One can think of an open access network as a real-world implementation of the 7-layered Open Systems Interconnection model by the International Organization for Standardization. The OSI model is a broader construct for understanding the physical layer, data link layer, network layer, etc., in internet networking.
However, understanding the basics of the “layer cake” approach helps conceptualize the unique business and technical dimensions behind open access networks.
In an important contribution to this discussion, Broadband Breakfast’s Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit on December 5 demonstrated exactly how many forms open access networks can take. After a keynote presentation on the “Past and Future of Open Access Networks” by COS Systems Mikael Philipsson, a panel delved into diverse perspectives on such networks in the U.S.
The panel emphasized the differences and variations in several last-mile broadband deployments, including those of SiFi Networks, UTOPIA Fiber, Google Fiber, municipalities like the Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority and what panelists called the “utility lease model.”
In other sessions at the summit, panelists voice the belief that shared infrastructure is poised to become more common in broadband networks.
Regarding the AT&T-BlackRock joint venture of Gigapower, AT&T President of Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives Erin Scarborough highlighted scalability as a pivotal factor guiding AT&T’s choices, speaking at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event in September.
Although Scarborough emphasized AT&T’s preference for the ownership model, she noted the agreement will allow the company to expand outside its traditional footprint.
“The model used by the joint venture will make sense to other ISPs, gain a lot of traction, and help break down historical biases telecos have had about not controlling all the assets,” predicted Gigapower CEO Bill Hogg during the event.
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert has also publicly acknowledged potential network capacity limitations for the company’s fixed wireless access service. At a conference in San Francisco in September, he said the open access model offers a “capital-light way to enter [the fiber] business and take advantage of [T-Mobile’s] embedded customer base and fantastic brand.”
Traditionally pioneered by municipalities
The large telecos appear to be displaying a newfound openness in their approaches to achieving growth. However, the open access model has historically been pioneered by municipalities, city-owned utilities, and cooperatives in the U.S.
Founded by a consortium of 11 Utah cities in 2004, UTOPIA Fiber expanded its fiber footprint across five cities in Utah this year. UTOPIA now offers its 10 Gigabit services to residents in 19 cities spanning four states. The government organization completely funds the open access builds and network operations through subscriber revenue.
The acceptance of open access might gain new traction through the Washington state legislature. This year, a bill would require all state funding from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, nearly $1 billion, to be used to build open-access networks in the state. The bill did not pass in 2023, but 14 of Washington’s 28 Public Utility Districts are committed to deploying citywide open access networks to improve access to telecommunications services. Initiatives like the one to build countywide dark fiber led by the Lewis County PUD are happening across the state.
In Vermont, 22 communities partnered with Great Works Vermont Internet to build open access fiber that is expected to serve 30,000 locations.
A number of city’s collaborated with SiFi Networks this year to announce citywide open access fiber builds. The company set an ambitious goal to pass 40,000 homes per month in early 2023.
For example, the network in Placenta, California will see 20,000 homes, businesses and institutions served by open access, alongside 70,000 households in Oceanside, California. The company announced agreements to partner with Cleveland, Ohio, Saratoga Springs, New York, and Sugarland, Texas this year.
How will the momentum behind open access networks – from telco giants to scrappy innovators to persistent municipalities – play out in 2024?
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Open Access
Former Utah House Speaker Spearheads Campaign Against UTOPIA Fiber
The rapidly expanding open access network has historically faced consistent opposition from anti-muni groups.
December 20, 2023 – Utah locals may come across new television advertisements targeting UTOPIA Fiber, as part of a $1 million effort backed by the Domestic Policy Caucus.
Run under the name NoGovInternet.com, the thrust of this campaign hinges on the argument that the government should steer clear of having a role in providing internet access.
Its primary target is UTOPIA Fiber, a coalition of municipalities with a hand in serving 60,000 broadband customers across 20 cities in Utah.
Fronting the campaign is Utah’s former House Speaker Greg Hughes, a Republican from the fast-growing city of Draper along the Wasatch Front.
During a FOX 13 News interview in December, Hughes raised concerns about government bodies regulating internet speed and pricing.
On its end, UTOPIA denounces what it considers “misinformation” driving the campaign and dismisses Hughes’ assertion suggesting the entity’s ability to control internet speed or access.
According to UTOPIA’s chief marketing officer Kim McKinley, the coalition of localities comprising UTOPIA Fiber lack control over either aspect.
“We don’t make any of those choices. The privately owned service providers are the ones who make those choices,” McKinley told KSL in an interview.
Fifteen private internet service providers utilizing UTOPIA’s open access network are responsible for establishing price points and providing various speed packages. Proponents say this system allows for market-driven competition and consumer choice, ensuring a diverse range of options for users across the network.
Hughes also highlighted concerns about potential financial risks for cities partnering with UTOPIA. The campaign references hurdles encountered during UTOPIA’s launch 15 years ago.
“Some of UTOPIA’s early initiatives proved problematic, requiring some cities to step in to help cover bond payments,” said McKinley.
“Since 2009, though, after implementing new operating procedures, network demand has always been sufficient to cover bond costs.”
As the largest, and fastest-growing open access network in the United States, UTOPIA has long been the target of groups opposed to public broadband initiatives.
In May, Bountiful, Utah voted unanimously (5-0) to collaborate with UTOPIA to extend fiber broadband to all residents after a years-long process. This initiative was met by a cable-funded group launching a petition opposing the city’s efforts. The opposition campaign ultimately failed as hired signature collectors couldn’t gather sufficient support from registered voters.
“We are being used as this example across the country for how to successfully do municipal fiber,” UTOPIA’s CEO Roger Timmerman told Fox 13.
“The private company’s don’t like that much, so we are seeing these attacks trying to scare cities from doing that same thing, saying ‘There’s a lot of risk, there’s a lot of cost.’”
The American Association for Public Broadband, a proponent of public broadband, issued a statement in response to the ads, labeling them as “dark money attacks” and attributing them to “big cable.”
Hughes affirms that there are currently no ongoing legislative endeavors tied to the Domestic Policy Caucus campaign. Furthermore, there is no active attempt to dismantle the current agreements between UTOPIA and its partner cities, he said.
He asserts that the responsibility for broadband and fiber development should remain with private companies. He’s vigorously advocating to spread this message.
Republicans have historically held opposition to municipal broadband initiatives, like that of UTOPIA Fiber, and proposed laws at times that aim to restrict or impose limits on municipal broadband initiatives citing arguments emphasizing free market principles, suggesting that government involvement in broadband provision might hinder competition or private investment.
However, opponents argue that such laws limit consumer choice and prevent communities from obtaining high-speed internet access that might not be available or affordable from private providers.
At its peak, around 19 states in the U.S. had laws that effectively banned or restricted municipal broadband networks to varying degrees.
Though there are currently no attempts to dismantle UTOPIA, legislation has targeted the organization before.
Notably in 2014, a bill introduced by State Rep. Curt Webb, R-Utah, H.B. 60 was aimed at dismantling UTOPIA, reports Community Networks.
As the bill was then written, it wouldn’t have just prevented UTOPIA from building to people willing to pay for it. It also would have required the shut down of any existing services and prohibited UTOPIA from maintaining their backbone that links cities together.
Open Access
Panelists Debate Whether Lease-Utility Model Offers Open Access Benefits
At the Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit, five experts debate the essence of ‘open access networks’.
WASHINGTON, December 8, 2023 — The term “open access networks” encompasses a wide range of interactions between internet customers, providers and network operators – and no single definition may be sufficient.
The open access session at the Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit Tuesday delved into diverse perspectives on such networks in the U.S., and emphasized differences and variations in several last-mile broadband deployments.
For example, SiFi Networks President Scott Bradshaw emphasized the importance of citywide infrastructure deployment with more than one internet service provider. In the 40 U.S. cities in 11 states in which SiFi operates, SiFi is the network operator, with a least a few ISPs offering services to consumers.
SiFi uses private financing to build, own and operate the network infrastructure – unlike several other models discussed on the panel.
For example, one alternative approach discussed was the utility-lease model, pioneered in Huntsville, Alabama, in a collaboration facilitated by the Broadband Group and the city’s Huntsville Utilities and Google Fiber.
On the panel, Broadband Group President Jeff Reiman touted the benefits of this public-private partnership, while also acknowledging that it was not truly or fully open access.
Under the Huntsville arrangement, the city utility had deployed fiber for smart grid purposes and chose to lease excess capacity to Google Fiber to improve local connectivity. Huntsville Utilities built a dark fiber network to pass everyone. But the city did not put in the drops, or the home-by-home connections.
Huntsville Utilities owns the system’s fiber backbone, but Google Fiber owns the line-to-home connections, manages all hookups and delivers internet services.
Is that open access?
SiFi’s Bradshaw took issue with that Huntsville model. He highlighted the critical juncture in which an ISP installs its electronics to the home. He said that that was the exact moment that the network could no longer considered open access.
Allowing service providers – in this case, Google Fiber – to install electronics hands control back to the ISP, and jeopardizes customer choice if that ISP exited the market. A truly open access network would ensure that no one ISP can control the customer base, said Bradshaw.
But in defending the utility-lease model, Reiman argued that it has proven to bring some of the benefits of open access: Competition and improved service options.
In fact, all Huntsville residents saw that as a result of the utility-lease arrangement, “When Google Fiber entered Huntsville, Comcast and AT&T immediately upgraded all of their infrastructure.”
Springfield’s City Utilities, in Missouri, followed a similar framework. There, the city leased its unlit fiber network on a nonexclusive basis to internet service provider Lumen Technologies, previously CenturyLink.
Weighing in on the exchange, moderator Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said: “There’s a fair number of people who would say we still get some of the benefits of open access, and perhaps the ones that a community values the most, even if they give control of the electronics away.”
“I am a proponent of critical infrastructure being publicly accountable,” continued Mitchell. “But I can’t deny if I talk to Huntsville Utilities and they are happy with what they’ve done.”
Still other variations on open access
The panel agreed that open access, in its pure or three-tier form, describes a network in which a public or private entity builds and/or owns a broadband network complete with fiber drops; a network operator manages connectivity on a lit network; and multiple service providers sell services to individual customers or businesses.
The term ”wholesale broadband” is broader one. It refers to a high-capacity internet provider reselling services on its network through other, more limited retail customers.
Mikael Philipsson, CEO of COS Systems and the keynoter at the Summit, recounted his experience in Sweden in which gigabit symmetrical connectivity is now available to 98 percent of citizens, and about 60 percent of customers are purchasing their broadband on open access networks.
In his view, open access is centered on providing a range of services to customers, allowing them to switch providers and services as needed.
Robert Bridgham, executive director of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority, exemplified the hybrid nature of the authority’s approach. It offers backbone service while also serving as an ISP.
“We are allowing proprietors to use our backbone, but we also provide end-user services. So we are effectively an ISP and an open access provider. Is it wholesale, is it open access? We don’t limit ourselves,” he said.
“You can see with my fellow panelists, we all have a little bit of a different variance,” said Bridgham, who said he found it fascinating that four experts could offer such distinct interpretations.
But as a whole, all panelists agreed that utility-lease, wholesale, and open access networks (whether constrained or completely open) all inject much-needed competition into a traditionally vertically-integrated model.
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