Part two on Google Fiber

News Item: In February, at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called for broadband providers and state and city officials to build out at least one “gigabit community” in all 50 states by 2015.

The FCC plans to hold workshops in which broadband providers and state and municipal leaders can find and remove barriers, lower costs, and boost incentives for getting it done.

It’s a good start, but the United States has a long road ahead to achieve widespread one-gigabit service.

Not every town has a university. Not every mayor (or town manager) can get his or her hands on low-interest financing.

The FCC’s efforts may fall short, and it’s possible that Congress and the FCC won’t make it easier for upstarts to compete with major carriers, according to The Technology Review.

Today, in Berkshire County, we need that fiber link if we are going to draw any type of industry that provides jobs and the overall ripple effect to the county’s economy.

We need it in the vein of bringing more buyers for homes and home occupations with the goal of being able to offer fiber connection at a reasonable cost.

While some of us are focused on the potential new Time Warner (TW) contract to ensure we are getting a fair return on our entertainment dollar, it’s more important today that we are getting a fair dollar investment into TW subscribers’ residential plan.

It seems if we are offered a residential plan, but if there is a “hint” of a business operation from furnishings, email business addresses, cars parked outside of a building and any commercial issue – then the customer is forced to change over to commercial or Time Warner Business Class.

Another case in point: Mark Williams of Fernside Road in Lee, years back, sought to have TW install cable even though he was the last house in Lee and was an eight-10ths of a mile from the nearest subscriber.

Initially, he was told it would cost him $12,500 to have TW hook him up.

Subsequently he went to the Five-Town Cable Commission for relief and later to the Lee Select Board for a breach of contract.

Thus, when he threatened to go to court on a class action suit and subpoena information from TW on claims of denial of service… TW eventually relented noting that the franchise agreement said the whole town, not just what TW inferred was their territory, would be wired. Mr. Williams told The Berkshire Beacon rather than $12,500, he paid the installation fee of $35.

Just to be clear, TW has had a presence in Pittsfield for a number of years. They took over both north and south County when Adelphia hit the skids in bankruptcy.

Never have I seen TW set up a true customer relations office n Berkshire County – not to expend the company’s protocol, but to be a link to the company on customer issues. Basically, today, it is lip service.

Otherwise, there would be no talk of limited installations in a community, no limitation on discount for pre-paid service and there would be no duplication of Channel 10 on two channels, claiming we are part of the Albany market.

At the selectmen’s meeting two weeks ago, Linda Miller, former chair of the Five Town Cable Committee, outlined some of the points of the proposed new 10-year contract but couldn’t say whether TW would still be in business as we know them today and was unable to predict the future of its south county operation or goals.

The Berkshire Beacon took this as an interesting issue, noting cable costs about $700 a year for about 3,200 subscribers, which generates about $2,240,000. This does not include digital, internet or phone services.

Yes, maybe the future of cable transmitted information by coaxial cable will be ending with replacement by fiber and some type of wireless connection from the street.

And, just maybe, if the commonwealth spent $83 million to wire western Massachusetts, it can spend a like portion for each county to have each city or town connect with Google Fiber or another outfit.

Bottom line: Without rivers to power mills of yesterday, tomorrow seems bleak without fiber to the community.

The first community to offer “widespread one-gigabit service” will be the winner on all levels.

That might well leave Google or other aggressive companies to do the job.

There should be teamwork between TW and Verizon.

TW offers TV signal along with piggybacking phone and internet, while Verizon is pushing wireless, trying to back off on its landline phone service and allowing DSL to maintain the status quo.

Will fiber push either company to excel down the road? Or will it be a third party (Google Fiber) that will push for the connection to the curb?

Today tourism is our goal with the sale of home a secondary position. The need to create non-profit entities is growing, and perhaps the future of our educational plans is secondary schools without walls. Teachers, tomorrow, may be able to reach out through the internet over Skype and serve students throughout a county. The feedback will be by touch-screens coupled with testing.

Today, one can file in Lenox for a permit online. Tomorrow, paying taxes could be by ACH monthly from one’s account to the tax collector. The future will be limitless with fiber to our respective properties – commercial and residential. The key today is the cost to have the added speed.

Posted by George C. Jordan III on April 4, 2013. Filed under Opinion,View from the Tower. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry