Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Could Utility Cooperatives be the Answer to Rural Broadband?

I grew up on a small farm in rural Indiana. I can tell you, as soon as I was old enough to understand business and profit, I started wondering how much it cost for one telephone pole to be erected. A digging crew, some heavy machinery, and a chemically-treated piece of lumber cut from a single tree at least 60-feet tall. Add to that the fact that there were hundreds from the nearest sub-station to our farm, and few other homes in between. Then an ice storm came and crews worked round-the-clock to restore power. How can they make any money?

That's just it. "They" didn't make money. We owned the utility together. It was called an Electric Cooperative, and it's the means by which most of the rural U.S. has gotten their electricity in the past century. So, what's the next vital utility for the development of rural communities? Without a doubt: broadband. Broadband is as vital to rural America as the electricity that powers it.

So, can we re-invent a generation-old concept to meet today's infrastructure needs? The Pacific Northwest Internet Service Everywhere (PNWISE) broadband cooperative thinks so. PNWISE is a utility cooperative--much like the electric co-op my parents belonged to--that has endeavored to bring broadband to a 4-state region in the rural Northwest.

And how are they doing it? With Fixed Wireless Broadband, of course. No need to send crews out to erect poles every 200 feet. No need to bury thousands of miles of copper cable and fiber optics in a massive terrestrial network. Fixed Wireless Broadband is the method of choice for today's broadband cooperatives like the PNWISE. It's internet for everyone at a price the member/owners can afford.

Labels: Broadband, Fixed Wireless Broadband, Rural Broadband, Rural Broadband Access