Connectivity in Manitoba
and
The Role of Municipalities
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Worldwide Municipal Fibre Movement
- Availability of Connectivity in Manitoba
- Common Manitoba Myths
- The Business Case for Municipal Fibre
- Municipal Fibre Models
- Economic Benefits for the Communities
- Social Benefits of Connectivity
- The Potential of Private Industry Investment
- Funding Options
- Ways to Promote Access - Municipal Fibre Networks and Content
- Basic Components of a Municipal Fibre Network:
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Appendix C
- Planning a Municipal
Network
- Awareness of the Community’s Need
- Champions
- Conducting Workshops and Holding Meetings
- Engaging the Business, Economic Development, Education and Cultural Leaders
- Building the Organization
- Conduct Research – Study Models
- Engagement of the Community
- Secure Resources and Funding
- Project Implementation
- Key Indicators
- Planning a Municipal
Network
- Appendix D
- Appendix E
- Appendix F
- Appendix G
- Appendix H
- Appendix I
- Glossary of Technical Terms Related to Fibre Optic Networks
- Appendix J
- Appendix K
- Grande Prairie – A Study in Content
- Appendix L
- Last Minute Additions
- Industry Minister Announces New Internet Initiative
- CANARIE 6th Annual Network Workshop
- CANARIE Statistics – October 2000
- CANARIE News – October, 2000
- CANAIRIE News – November 2, 2000
- CANAIRIE News – November 3, 2000
- CANAIRIE News – November 5, 2000
- South Dundas
- Appendix M
- MTS Announcement - $300 Million on ADSL Technology
- Appendix N
- Appendix O
Information has become the leading tool for industry and business. Information is knowledge and knowledge is the key to increased efficiencies for all sectors. Connectivity allows for the efficient exchange of information, and so, the rapid dissemination of knowledge. Connectivity, however, is not always equitably available and many municipalities around the world have solved their equitable connectivity problem by adopting a municipal connectivity strategy. This has allowed their municipality to participate and compete on a global level.
Connectivity takes many forms, combining old technologies with new technologies and even encompassing several different technologies. Connectivity brings people together quickly and effectively makes the world smaller by removing distance as a barrier. Answers to problems are more quickly achieved. Resolutions to concerns are more easily found.
One of the more commonly accepted connectivity strategies is the establishment of a municipality owned fibre optic network. There are many benefits to a community in ownership of a municipal fibre network. The two primary benefits can be summarized as being:
- Additional Economic Growth Opportunities: Municipally owned fibre networks offer local businesses opportunities to participate in a wider area of commerce. Carriers and content providers are more apt to bring services to a community if they do not have to supply the infrastructure within that community.
- Reduced Telecommunication Costs: A community can undertake to decrease its telecommunication costs by owning the local distribution infrastructure for telephone as well as data communications. With a municipal fibre network there can now be one point of connection to the service supplier instead of one for every resident, organization and business.
It is however important to note that municipally owned fibre networks are developed around the acceptance of a complete telecommunications strategy and not just a way of deploying an improved telephone service to residents. To gain the necessary public acceptance residents must understand the concept and they must also realize a fair value for the considerable investment they will be asked make.
Residents served under an advanced telecommunications strategy can expect to have their communities and their homes transformed in several important ways. It should be noted that not every member of the community welcomes the changes that may come. Other communities have indicated changes that include:
- Increased levels of communications between community members and other communities
- Lower telecommunications costs if the network is developed to support telephone services
- Increased social interaction between community members and other communities
- Higher levels of education are achieved as members of the community are exposed to knowledge and information previously hard to obtain
- Resident retention stabilizes in more remote communities as the residents no longer feel disadvantaged due to the resultant increase in services and entertainment being delivered by carriers and content suppliers
Telecommunications needs are increasing for all Manitobans no matter where they live or work. Both urban and rural residents are facing a growing dependence on telecommunications to keep family members in touch with each other, workers in touch with employers and citizens in touch with their leaders. Although beyond the scope of this work the development of municipal networks allows for the concept of a Provincial Network. A Provincial Network can only be achieved if the municipalities participate in the initial development of the network. A Provincial Network would allow for the equitable distribution of information (and knowledge) to residents in any area of Manitoba. Further, a Provincial Network increases the opportunities to link the many healthcare facilities in the Province to one another, providing an improved and more responsive healthcare system.
There is growing evidence that municipalities are beginning to accept more responsibility for their own economic health. Several excellent examples of communities combining their resources to the benefit of all residents are presented throughout this paper, most notably there is the Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP). CAEP is a partnership of 33 central Alberta communities. Many members of CAEP have developed municipal owned networks that are linked together ( http://www.centralalberta.ab.ca ). Through the network these communities can share many resources such as job banks, industry associations, public programs, promotional opportunities and much more. In most cases the individual communities could not effectively support the effort on their own. For these notable reasons the development of municipal networks is most often self-funded through sharing and resource combining. Municipally owned networks have proven an effective way for communities to work together (see Appendix H for a more complete discussion).
Many communities in Canada and the world have recognized the importance of establishing municipal networks as a way to increase operational efficiencies, regain control over their community’s future, encourage partnerships, develop new economic opportunities and retain their residents.
Worldwide Municipal Fibre Movement
Municipal governments worldwide are facing several important issues related to Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Many have chosen to address these issues by developing a Municipal Fibre Strategy, resulting in a Municipal Owned Fibre Network. The term Municipal Fibre as used throughout this paper is fibre optic glass strands in a protective sheathing, called fibre optic cable. This is the most advanced technology available today for use as a new or replacement communication and data delivery mechanism.
Driving Forces of the Municipal Fibre Movement
De-regulation of the telecommunications industry is leading to many new communications technology suppliers, called Carriers, entering the growing telecommunications market. It has become imperative that municipalities have a telecommunications strategy that puts policies in place that clearly address the issues of rights of way and ownership that these new Carriers will test. It has been stated that as many as 20 new telecommunications carriers will be approved for entry to the Province of Manitoba within the next 5 years. Many municipalities are choosing to address this situation by creating or expanding their municipalities to include a municipal telecommunications policy within a municipal fibre strategy.
In many cases the municipal organization or authority that is being directed to undertake the development and administration of a municipal fibre network is the local electric utility. Hydro organizations are especially well positioned to provide these services because in many cases they already have access to the necessary rights of way and possess many of the necessary operational skills and equipment.
The Province of Manitoba has a unique opportunity and advantage. The advantage is the ownership of the Manitoba Hydro electric utility and the most compelling opportunity is the ability of Manitoba Hydro to provide municipal fibre to municipalities as an extension of the services they already offer to the businesses and residents of the municipalities of the Province of Manitoba. (Appendix D discusses a Role for Manitoba Hydro in Connectivity for Manitobans)
Municipal authorities are being asked to respond to changing environments that will require them to decide on accepting or acquiring new technologies that will improve the core competencies of its administrators to achieve or maintain equitable civic operations. Additionally, municipal authorities are expected to encourage economic development within their jurisdictions and communities.
The Provincial Government requires increased communications capacity at an equitable cost. Municipal networks and an improved backbone can provide that capacity at the lowest possible cost
Availability of Connectivity in Manitoba
Capability of Service Providers in Manitoba
It is very difficult to determine the exact state of connectivity in Manitoba and the capability of the carriers and telecommunications companies because they consider this competitive information.
Most difficult to discover is how much fibre is on the known fibre routes and what capacity is available for use, sale or lease.
(refer to Appendix G for al full explanation of Data Transfer Speeds)
Major Carriers and Service Providers
The major carriers and telecommunication companies in Manitoba are:
- Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) – MTS provides telecommunication services to all Manitoba communities. The broadband services are located in the communities of Winnipeg, Brandon, The Pas, Thompson, Dauphin, Swan River, Portage la Prairie, Selkirk and Steinbach. The broadband capability ranges from 1 Mbps to 155 Mbps.
- AT&T Canada – Broadband service is only available in Winnipeg. Telecommunications services are generally province wide and operate on MTS infrastructure.
- Sprint – Sprint Broadband service is only available in Winnipeg. Telecommunications services are generally province wide and operate on MTS infrastructure. Sprint relies on the MTS infrastructure.
- Videon/Shaw (Group Telcom) – GT Broadband services are available in Winnipeg, Brandon, Selkirk, Steinbach and Portage la Prairie. GT does not offer telecommunications services. GT has a large fibre optic infrastructure network in Winnipeg that supports their cable installations.
- Westman Communications – Broadband capacity is offered in Brandon, Carberry, Minnedosa and Neepawa. Westman must use MTS telecommunications infrastructure for portions of their service provision. Westman are cable-based with some fibre optics in the Brandon area.
- Telus (emerging) – Telus is newly emerging in the Winnipeg market place and will likely be a serious player in the telecommunications market within 12 to 24 months. It is unknown exactly what broadband capacity they have in Winnipeg, although it is known they have some.
- WiBand Communications – Provides Wireless broadband capability in Steinbach, Winkler, Altona and Carmen that ranges from 1 to 3 Mbps.
- SkyCable – Wireless services in Winnipeg that are called high speed Internet connections. Expansion potential is unknown.
- DirectPC (Telesat) – Wireless services in many areas of Manitoba, in the range of 400 Kbps for download. Service area expansion is possible but the necessary dial-up portion for upload is reliant on MTS infrastructure and is limited to 56 kbps.
The challenge, and the opportunity, in Manitoba no longer is how to provide basic telephone service to our residents but how to provide basic or improved access to real-time broadband services in areas of moderate or low user density at an affordable cost.
It has been estimated that approximately 90% of communities in the southern half of the Province, as well as the communities of Swan River, The Pas, Flin Flon, Snow Lake and Thompson are near to some type of fibre-optic facilities. The remaining portions of the Province (central Manitoba, east side of Lake Winnipeg and northern Manitoba) is served primarily by microwave transmission facilities.
The access to telecommunications infrastructure varies widely according to geographic location. About 3% of the estimated 12.4 million residential telephone lines across Canada still require conversion to single-party lines that can support touch-tone. A submission to the Information Highway Access and Social Impacts Working Group stated: "Most northern and remote communities are less interested in obtaining state-of-the-art communication technology than in simply having an infrastructure that can support what most southern communities take for granted: telephone lines that can support fax and high speed modem as well as programming that reflects their culture and their language."
In Manitoba most lines from the MTS Central Office (CO) to rural homes are inadequate for data communications above 17 Kbps. Cable TV is not available in many areas; where it is available, it is often cost prohibitive. As a result, many people have installed satellite dishes but not all satellite service companies offer access to the Internet. Again, where it is available the service is often less than adequate or prohibitively expensive.
Churchill has recently received an up-graded telephone connection. The improved connection was undertaken by MTS after public pressure reached a peak following the complete failure of the service after a strong storm. This failure left the community unable to communicate with the outside world. The internal infrastructure of the community, however, is still sub standard, especially for a remote community that must rely so heavily on the telecommunications system for survival.
Many jurisdictions now view broad and affordable access to high quality telecommunications as fundamental to the economic wellbeing of a community. The availability of broadband telecommunications services is essential to the vitality and competitiveness of our province, impacting education, commerce, transportation, entertainment, and health care.
The Proven Path:
New technologies = new jobs and opportunities
New jobs = prosperity
Municipalities seeking prosperity cannot wait for someone else to do it for them.
The greatest challenge for Manitoba may be providing telecommunications service to the "last mile," where fulfilling a municipality’s needs cannot be decided solely on a profitable business case for the carrier.
There are many myths surrounding the availability, price, and access to connectivity in Manitoba. These myths must first be dispelled before a true picture can emerge.
1) The Provincial Data Network (PDN)
Myth: The Provincial Government owns a fibre network that services every government office (more than 70 exist) in Manitoba.
Reality: The Provincial Data Network is an MTS supplied service that runs on MTS infrastructure, so it is not private in a true sense. The Government data is aggregated with other non-government data and the traffic is sent along the available MTS infrastructure.
The PDN employs a wide variety of products and services that provides a network solution; they range from low speed analogue access (rural and remote) to high-bandwidth fibre optic digital access in Winnipeg and Brandon. The PDN is a bundle of services including network, access, terminal and management services that are offered as a business "solution" for the Government of Manitoba.
The Government of Manitoba currently spends approximately $5 to 7 Million annually for PDN services. The continuing growth of the data network and Government’s increasing reliance on Information Technology dictates that PDN traffic will double or triple every year for the next several years. In 1999 the average network volume by day was peaking at 200 Giga Bytes, this figure is now fast approaching 1.2 Terra Bytes. The current MTS infrastructure is already severely over taxed and will not be able to carry the future loads placed on the PDN.
2) Manitoba Health Networks
Myth: Regional Health Authorities and the Winnipeg Health Authority operate a privately owned health network infrastructure.
Reality: The Provincial Data Network carriers the traffic of all health authorities. The wide area network portion of the PDN connects information technology resources at healthcare facilities (e.g. Manitoba Health, Health Authority Offices, data centres, operations and maintenance monitoring centres, regulatory bodies, hospitals, rural diagnostic units, private labs, private lab specimen collection points, and physicians clinics throughout the province.) The wide area network of the PDN provides the data transfer capabilities for healthcare facilities to exchange appropriate clinical and administrative data. The PDN connects approximately 300 retail pharmacies, 85 hospitals, and a number of personal care homes using the MTS common network infrastructure. The speed of the connection is dependent on location and can range from a 28.8 Kbps to high speed cable and fibre optics.
3) The Manitoba Public Library Information Network (MAPLIN)
Myth: All libraries are connected in a private infrastructure by MAPLIN.
Reality: The Provincial Data Network in combination with other MTS infrastructure connects the libraries.
The Manitoba Public Library Information Network is a partnership of all 108 Public Libraries in Manitoba, as well as the Manitoba Legislative Library and some other small community organizations.
The MAPLIN network is based on local Internet solutions, and not a true network. The MAPLIN network does not incorporate broadband access capabilities.
4) Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Network
Myth: Every MPIC office is connected by a high speed networked infrastructure.
Reality: MPIC is an extension of the PDN. The MPIC Network is subject to the same infrastructure limitations as other networks connected to and part of the PDA.
5) Manitoba School Network
Myth: Manitoba Schools are fully networked.
Reality: There is no school network in Manitoba; but schools across Manitoba are able to connect to the Internet.
The speed of access varies significantly from 10/100 MB fibre in Winnipeg and Brandon to low speed modem access in rural and remote locations.
Most high-speed data circuits in schools are used solely for Internet access. Most rural school divisions are served by a 56 Kbps frame relay service, connecting the local high school, with dial-up 28.8 Kbps access provided to local elementary schools. Approximately 24 locations have access via the DirectPC one-way satellite service. DirectPc provides a shared 400 Kbps access across Canada. A phone line is used as a return link to the Internet. This system is currently over-subscribed and is providing a reduced quality service.
6) Manitoba Hydro
Myth: Manitoba Hydro has been laying fibre for years and has the province wired.
Reality: Manitoba Hydro has a very small fibre optic network that connects several of its generating facilities. This network does not extend fully from facility to facility without utilizing MTS infrastructure. Although capable of some broadband applications the network would require substantial upgrading and retrofitting with more appropriate electronic end of line devices to be of value as a part of a Provincial-wide Area Network (PAN).
7) CP & CN Rail
Canada’s rail services have deployed fibre runs along many of the main lines that cross Canada. The exact location of the installations or the capacity of the fibre is not known. Judging from the time period of the installation, which began in 1985 approximately, the fibre would likely be of a low strand count with little capacity for increased loading.
The largest portion of the bandwidth of "rail" fibre is utilized by AT&T and serves as a part of the AT&T national connectivity network. The potential for tapping into this network is limited by its location, most main lines run through the large urban centres, and by the available bandwidth.
Wireless has been used extensively in Manitoba to provide broadband services to rural and remote communities. Several urban centres have used wireless to achieve a cost-effective WAN or local LAN configuration when a line of site installation is possible or when a Rights of Way issue prohibits a cable solution.
Wireless at its best is a "last mile" distribution solution, when an area has terrain that is not suited to a terra-based installation.
Wireless is an emerging technology and so has many of the problems associated with early technologies such as:
- Expensive installation and operation
- Unreliable performance
- Dependence on cable infrastructure
The current and generally accepted definitions of transfer speeds are:
- 9.6 to 56Kbps - slow
- 56 to 128Kbps - fast
- 128 to 2Mbps - high speed
- 2Mbps and above - Broadband capable
(see Appendix G – Data Transfer Speed Table)
The Business Case for Municipal Fibre
In many ways it is natural for a municipal authority to become it’s own municipal fibre provider. Municipalities have found they may begin immediately, with little change in existing staff or equipment as they already have access to support systems, like Manitoba Hydro.
Further considerations include:
- There is pent-up demand for fibre optic from Municipal Government Offices, Hospital and Medical Centres, Schools and School Boards, and Libraries
- The Province and Municipalities are already spending large amounts of money on leasing and rentals of telecommunication services without investing in their own cost effect telecommunications backbone infrastructure
- Municipalities have established Rights of Way
- Municipalities have established billing processes
- As a rule Communities that have done fibre to home installations have not made money but they are breaking even. However, surplus revenues are realized from the leasing of fibre to Carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and institutions
- A Municipal owned fibre network has the effect of increasing service provider competition and lowering service prices for all residents
- Municipalities and Manitoba Hydro have established Cost/Price Formulas
- A needed service would be brought into the community
The reduction in communication costs between municipal and provincially owned facilities and buildings would be substantial. The reduction in communications cost for libraries, school and hospitals would be even more substantial and could, in the long-term, finance the municipalities’ fibre network expansion. Other Municipalities have found that pay back time is now less than three years on the capital investment. Points to consider include:
- Excellent return on investment
- Short pay back period, in less than 3 years
- A source of continuing revenue
- The benefits of owning an established fibre infrastructure
- Communities utilizing a municipal network have shown a marked economic improvement within a short time
Organizations and Departments that are set for near immediate use of a municipal fibre network include:
- Municipal owned facilities, such as arenas, training centres, community centres, libraries, service buildings, police and fire departments
- Hospitals, Regional Health Authorities and medical centres
- Manitoba Government
- MERLIN
- School Boards and Schools in all Divisions
- Post Secondary Schools
- Universities and Colleges
- Natural Resources
- Mines
- Forestry
- Tourism
- Emergency Measures
- Manitoba Hydro
Optical Fibre is a clear glass fibre which is used in much the same way a copper cabling with the exception that fibre optic uses light impulses to transmit data as opposed to electrical charges in copper based cabling.
The advantage fibre optic has over other forms of cabling are:
- Fibre optic cannot be tapped into, very high security
- No interference from outside sources, immune to electrical disruption
- Fibre optic can be extended 20 times further than copper. Less technology is needed to cover greater distances
- Speeds of data transmissions are ever increasing using new advanced Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) while fibre optic cables will continue to carry the improved transmissions
- Fibre optic is estimated to have a life span in excess of 20 years
- Fibre represents both the capacity to carry new, higher-bandwidth applications (such as digitized video) and the ability to carry basic telephone service with lower costs and higher quality and reliability
- A single fibre pair can carry over 600,000 voice circuits compared to a telephone line which can carry 2 voice circuits
Many Municipalities around the world have designed Municipal Fibre Strategies to meet the needs of their citizens.
Fibre Optic Networks are the option of choice partly because the capacity of these networks is virtually unlimited. In a single ribbon of fibre optics, which is not much bigger than the size of your thumb, you could have almost 1,000 individual fibres. Each
individual fibre can be lit with up to 1,000 separate wavelengths of laser light. Each of those wavelengths of laser light has the capacity to handle billions of bits per second in transmission capacity. Thus, in a cable not bigger than a human thumb, you have virtually unlimited transmission capacity.
Municipalities and senior governments in other countries are investing in projects to provide a single public infrastructure to be used by businesses and by individual consumers. This is a new form of public infrastructure. It is a breakthrough for many of the countries, municipalities and other governments that are looking at projects of this sort.
The basic drivers lying behind these various projects are:
- first, the declining cost of optical fibre and the associated electronics that run it;
- second, the growing demand for high-bandwidth network services;
- and third, the desire for increasing customer control over network technology as opposed to carrier control.
In summation, dark fibre networks, the development of new networking technologies and the increasing significance of the Internet are undermining the traditional carriers' approach of bundling infrastructure and services and are leading to a new era of customer controlled communications infrastructure.
A staged or phased approach is common among worldwide models studied. (It should be noted that Manitoba Hydro and the Province of Manitoba have already achieved some of Type 1 and Type 2.) The common types identified are:
Type 1
Construction of a fibre optic network that aids in control and monitoring the electrical service facilities within the service area. (This provides an internal cost saving to the Hydro utility and in this case the municipality and the Province.) *
Type 2
Expansion of the fibre network to improve internal communications and accommodate the future needs for communications of the utility and the municipality. This is the introduction phase for other municipal facilities such as libraries, signals, fire and police as well as other government related organizations such schools and hospitals. This provides a reduction in costs to the entire municipality in communication spending. *
Type 3
Provision of (leasing) dark or dim fibre to organizations. This provides a revenue stream to the municipality. Revenues can be used to further expand and maintain the fibre network. *
Type 4
Provision of some shared services with other municipal and provincial government departments for their internal systems efficiency improvement. This provides a cost saving to the provincial government in communications and services costs. *
Type 5
Provision of some Applications Service Provider services to Carriers. Provides revenues to the municipality.
Type 6
Fibre To The Home (FTTH) is an option some municipalities are considering. There are many reasons this option may be important to a municipality in its future. They include:
- Delivery of carrier services to the home (TV, Radio, Video, Telephone, Internet, Distant Education, Interactive E-government)
- Health care service delivery and home healthcare monitoring using Home Medical Devices (HMD), Telemedicine and Telehealth
- E-government services to the home
* Recommended placement of a Hydroelectric Utility
Economic Benefits for the Communities
There is a substantial body of economic research evidence demonstrating significant improvements in the economies of cities, towns and municipalities resulting from investment in telecommunications infrastructure in their area. Furthermore, the payoffs appear to be greater the more rural the location. This is not surprising because the two major barriers to rural economic growth are distance and lack of economies of scale (because of smaller market sizes). Telecommunications infrastructure, particularly broadband data communications in the Knowledge Age, can assist to neutralize both of these problems and level the competitive playing field between urban and rural businesses.
A key component in this transition is deregulation, which reduces and eliminates the cross subsidization in the telecommunications industry that is inherent in the system historically. Local telecommunication rates will no longer be subsidized by long distance rates; and the costs of providing telecommunications services to geographically isolated, high-cost areas, such as rural and northern regions of the country, may no longer be subsidized by urban customers.
Recognition of the links between telecommunications services and economic and social development has had an important influence on public policy decisions within Canada. Concerns about the ability of telecommunications services to advance as well as hinder economic development in rural communities has led Canadian policy makers over time to adopt three very different approaches:
- Regulation of private companies providing telecommunications services;
- to public ownership of telecommunications infrastructure;
- and, most recently, the slow deregulation of the telecommunications industry.
Manitoba is an exception to point 2. In 1995 the Manitoba Telephone System, a publicly owned telecommunications company was privatized. Many Manitoba residents as well as local telecommunications experts believe that this has led to higher prices and a stagnated service level.
A community’s vision of the future must include sustained economic growth and a high quality of life for citizens. Although governments may recognize that the ability to develop and sustain wealth-creating rural communities is dependent upon conveying the communities into the new information based economy. Often the community members themselves do not understand this need or the methods used. In light of this municipal government must actively promote the establishment and advancement of innovative technologies and industries within communities. Further they will need to foster creative partnerships that enhance the opportunities for communities to advance into an era of economic stability.
- A municipal network virtually connects the residents, business and economic partners of a community.
- A municipal network can provide an environment where educational institutions can work together to achieve market driven training and distant education. These can create new opportunities for learning and the ability to export training beyond traditional boundaries.
- Municipal networks can facilitate economic development departments in combining resources that may mean close ties with educational institutes and so becoming more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs.
- Municipal networks can give new technology businesses a place to start and grow.
- Municipal networks facilitate the healthcare systems’ interconnection with rural and remote communities.
Areas of the community that may experience an increased economic growth would include:
- Internet Service Providers
- Web Page Designers
- Web Hosting Services
- On-line Entertainment
Technology Development Organizations
- Applications and Software Developers
- Telehealth Application Providers
Retail outlets specializing in technology components and services
- Computer Hardware and Software Sales
- Removal Media Sales
- Technical Support Services
- Computer Repair and Maintenance
Business to Business (B2B) Commerce
- Feed Sales
- Machinery Exchange and Sales
- Seed Sales
- On-line Community Auctions
Inter-community Commerce
- Loan of Equipment and Supplies
- Emergency Communications
- On-line Community Auctions and Exchanges
- Regionalization of Community Repair & Maintenance Services
- Regionalization of Telecommunications supply
- Regional Portal
Business to Client (B2C) commerce
- E-Commerce
- E-Banking
- E-Government
Tourism Related Enterprises
- Lodges
- Tours
- Community Events
Specialized Community Industries
- Manufacturing, Boats, Trailers, etc.
- Woodworking
- Refining
Local Industries
- Logging
- Fishing
- Manufacturing
- Mining
A Global Economy
More than half of the population of Manitoba lives in Winnipeg. Due to Manitoba’s geographic make-up and diverse population distribution, Winnipeg has evolved to be a resource centre for the entire province. The city’s telecommunications infrastructure serves Winnipeg favourably but it does little for the rural and remote communities. Today’s new economies demand that the way we interact with each other and the world be changed to allow unfettered access for the rural and remote communities to urban centres like Winnipeg. Municipal networks are a first, but very important step to achieving the total connectivity that is needed for wealth and knowledge distribution between the urban centre of Winnipeg and the rural and remote locations of Manitoba.
Electronic Commerce – E-Commerce
The context for electronic commerce is really just one part of a much broader range of technological and market forces that are shaping the world economy. Some of these forces are apparent to us every day as we read the newspaper or watch the news on television. These forces include the globalization of trade markets and the rapid convergence of technologies, industries, and markets taking place around the world. Growth is being driven by the Internet and is being fuelled by the deployment of information and communications technologies across entire economies and whole societies.
E-Commerce embodies the forces of globalization and the shift to a knowledge-based economy. Electronic Commerce is the economic manifestation of the information highway and businesses must have access to high speed municipal fibre in order to participate.
The role that government should play in electronic commerce is to create a favourable environment and to make the local municipality the preferred location to conduct electronic commerce. This must be done in order to promote the transformation of appropriate Manitoba businesses to global businesses as well as to attract investment to the community. Governments can achieve this most easily making the first investment by putting their own services on-line. This will first strengthen the trust in the Government and then in the technology, so that the E-commerce opportunities in the communities can be exploited fully.
Social Benefits of Connectivity
Access to information and improved communications is a crucial requirement for sustainable rural industrial and agricultural development. Fibre optic and wireless communication technologies when applied to conditions in rural areas can help improve overall communications, increase citizen participation, disseminate critical information and share the knowledge and skills of others from outside the direct community. This effect is called "Cyber Extension" and it will be the major form of technology dissemination in the near future.
The rising demand for bandwidth is not being driven by more voice calls, but by the increased use of computer applications which need to exchange an ever increasing amount of data. It is the exponential growth of the Internet, the rapid progression of electronic commerce and the digital media industry, along with the development of new applications that require the ability to move large amounts of data electronically, quickly. From engineers sharing blueprints online to streaming video presentations in rural classrooms, the appetite for data, has lead to the ever-increasing demand for high bandwidth telecommunications ability.
Presently in Manitoba’s large urban centres, the mix of voice to data over telephone lines is about 50 - 50, it is projected to reach 20 - 80 by the end of 2001. It is generally agreed that within a very short period of time the predominant use of many telephone lines will not be voice, but a data/voice combination, and that these new applications will demand increasing shares of bandwidth. It should be noted that this demand for bandwidth will not be confined to a single demographic or market, but range through all geographic boundaries and rise from all of our communities. Many industry observers believe the bandwidth revolution has barely begun.
A survey of Internet use in rural areas was conducted by Dr. Don Richardson and others in Washington State, in 1996. Rural Internet users indicated that the Internet provides them with a very convenient method for quickly accessing large volumes of information without being impeded by geographic barriers. They also reported finding information of value from the Internet in the form of new ideas, discussion groups, expert’s advice, continuing education resources, increased global understanding and cultural awareness.
There were also several Social benefits identified from connectivity:
- Provided opportunities to overcome geographic isolation
- Increased social interaction
- Provided opportunities to organize and advocate for social change
- Provided for the equalization of urban/rural disparities
- Created new links between urban and rural communities
In short, closing the divide between the haves and have nots in the new economy will ensure that the rural communities are able to participate fully.
The federal government is bringing their services and program information on-line by the year 2004. Provincial governments and municipal governments are starting to do the same. Manitobans are heavily engaged with their governments and if they can use powerful government information, such as that received from Statistics Canada and the Canada/Manitoba Business Service Centre, to further their business and individual interests, their ability to compete internationally will dramatically improve.
CA*net 3 is Canada’s high-speed backbone network for research and development. CA*net 3 and Manitoba’s MRNet support Canadian industry and its development of new products.
E-Post, the next generation postal service is now being tested in over 14 sites across Canada. E-Post will not be a viable option if the infrastructure is not in place for its operation.
Circumstances Faced by Rural Municipalities
1. Geographic Isolation
Physical distance, social isolation, and small community population pose obstacles to rural economic development. Telecommunications link rural communities with urban communities and resources. However, long distances and a low population base can make advanced telecommunication infrastructure costly and an investment risk for telecommunications companies on a per capita basis.
Rural communities often lack a sufficient business case to justify upgrading working, but outdated telecommunications technology. Telecommunications Providers and Carriers find less risk in upgrading a high volume, high-profit urban area. The increased use of new technologies and the development of municipal owned infrastructures help to offset the effects of geographic isolation.
2. Declining Job Opportunities
The traditional industries (agriculture, mining, forestry) of many rural and northern economies have experienced significant decline. Improvements in productivity and the relocation of low-skill plant operations to lower wage developing countries have eliminated numerous jobs in these industries. Many rural areas have not been able to benefit from rapidly growing service industries and high-tech manufacturing sectors to the same extent as urban centres.
New technologies often mean new opportunities and new jobs. Many Municipal networks studied provided increased opportunities to the community.
3. Lack of Human Resources
Improving human resources through education and training can allow rural communities to take advantage of new employment opportunities. Distance learning programs can link individuals with colleges and universities, providing ongoing training for rural workers.
The high cost of telecommunications related to distance learning and the complexity of using new technologies may be a limiting factor to their implementation. This poses a risk of increasing the digital divide between the telecommunications "haves" and "have nots."
Municipal networks have aided in the distribution of education and training programs to the residents who need them most.
4. Lack of Services
Rural communities often lack the ability to support important institutional services due to a diminishing tax base.
Telecommunications can provide access to better medical services, particularly access to specialists required for medical diagnosis. Telecommunications can also improve the efficiency of government services such as emergency medical services.
5. The Last Mile
When fibre optic goes past a community and there is no switching equipment installed to capture the community’s broadband traffic, that community is literally "out of the loop." The reality is that many smaller communities reside alongside communication corridors but are currently not receiving adequate service because the switching equipment is expensive and is only installed when and where potential revenue increases are viewed to justify a Carrier’s investment.
It is also important to realize that, except in cases where bandwidth is delivered through wireless services, bringing bandwidth into a specific area is only the first step. Bandwidth must then be distributed through wires (or preferably fibre), which is a local infrastructure, connecting residents in a community.
If a municipality is located along side one of the major telecommunication routes and it has developed it’s own local infrastructure, it will have a greater chance of attracting commercial providers and obtaining a wider range of services. Since the cost of the local infrastructure is born by the community, the commercial carriers would not have to invest in additional infrastructure or equipment beyond the needed switching device. If not, then there may be a significant delay in obtaining adequate broadband services, if they are to become available at all.
The theory of demand aggregation may be one of the best solutions that municipalities have for getting adequate bandwidth to their communities. Municipalities should explore the opportunities for the strategic alliance of several communities in a region, creating a critical mass of users that provides a business case for a commercial carrier, or a payback on investments by a public utility.
Although there is some fibre throughout the Province, most rural areas still have very limited capability. The typical access to a rural ISP at 28.8 Kbps is too slow for most applications and often unreliable between 8 and 11 p.m.
There is no capability for advanced e-commerce, which requires both high bandwidth and reliability because at a minimum, the last mile and beyond, is still outdated copper wire infrastructure. In some cases party lines still exist that have limited voice support and no data transfer capability.
The Potential of Private Industry Investment
Municipal networks provide opportunities to the private sector, especially for the following companies:
- Internet Service Providers
- Content Providers (Information resources, news and public announcements)
- Programming Providers (Television, Radio, Gaming, Entertainment, Movies)
- Government (program information and resources)
- Telecommunications Companies
Carriers, both large and small, are very interested in participating in these service areas and they offer these services to businesses and to homeowners wherever the infrastructure is available.
In Manitoba only the very largest customers in urban centres have adequate bandwidth. Nearly all bandwidth in Manitoba is provided by Manitoba Telecom Services, over its network infrastructure or by cable companies such as Group Telcom, who in turn must also rely, in part, on the MTS infrastructure.
In Manitoba high speed broadband is only possible if:
- Customers are located close to a local switching central office (CO)
- Facilities and infrastructure (wires or cable) are available of adequate quality
- ISP and Carrier services are available
- Customers can afford the high cost of service
If any of these conditions are not present, it is unlikely that the customer will gain a ready access to adequate broadband services.
Communities from around the world have developed innovative approaches to connectivity including the following:
1) Telecentres
A unique approach to provide rural communities with information and communication technologies is telecentres or telecottages. This concept was first implemented in Sweden in 1989. Telecentres are centers located in isolated rural communities that have personal computers, printers, a modem, a fax machine, and a usage consultant. According to the Telecottage Association of UK, there are 120 telecottages in the United Kingdom, 49 in Finland, 40 in Australia, and 23 in Sweden as well as Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and Brazil. Some of the services these facilities offer include telephone and fax, e-mail, Internet and electronic networks, access to databases and libraries. They can also link the Internet to local media such as radio and television and thus make information accessible to a wider audience.
Telecentres facilitate single-point access to external services (e.g. government, marketing and supplier price information) or to global information through the Internet. They also help in organization of virtual community to community meetings and facilitate local community sharing of local information. However, they do little to provide connectivity for the community as a whole and are often wholly subsidized by government, with little chance of sustainability. Nor do they necessarily attract commercial Carriers to provide additional broadband or services to the community as a whole.
2) Co-operatives
As nonprofit organization, telephone co-operatives seek to provide their patrons the highest quality service at the most affordable rates. It is not always possible, however, to establish rates that ensure that money collected exactly equals money spent. Revenues earned above operating expenses are called margins or in a commercial business, these funds are called net income, or profits. At the end of each fiscal year, the co-op allocates a percentage of the margins to each patron on a pro-rated basis, according to the total amount paid for services. Co-operatives demand a high user investment level and only serve paying members, thus potentially leaving many municipality residents without the service.
3) Independent Telecommunications Companies
Rural independent telecommunications companies or utilities often introduce new technology far more aggressively than the large regional telecommunications companies even though they may run lines to only a few thousand homes. Besides regular phone service, they provide their customers with such enhanced services as caller ID, call forwarding, conference calling, voice-mail messaging, electronic bulletin boards and Internet access. Two important factors contributing to an independent ability to be on the cutting edge of technology are:
- That they have funding sources available to finance their growth;
- and, they have consolidated and then formed strategic alliances with other companies and co-operatives to achieve economy of scale.
4) Regionalization of Municipalities
The most successful Canadian model is the regionalization model. This model was used in the Central Alberta. In this model several municipalities group together to pool their information technology resources and infrastructure budgets to the mutual benefit of all the participants. The municipalities are bound together to share their resources and by the standardization of applications, telecommunications systems and data collection and storage. A stressed attribute of this model is trust; the communities must have complete faith in each other’s abilities and the shared vision of community economic development.
Appendix H contains details of the regionalization in Central Alberta and the Red Deer network known as RedNet.
A list of Federal Programs that may provide potential funding can be found at the following Internet addresses:
Other possible funding, financing, support and information opportunities may be found at:
- Western Economic Diversification – Loans for Information Technology Firms (This program is designed for smaller private commercial business ventures)
- Western Economic Diversification – Canada/Manitoba Infrastructure Program (This program is designed for smaller private commercial business ventures)
- Connecting Canadians - Sustainable Communities
- CANARIE
- CITI - Canadian Information Technology Institute
- BDC – Knowledge and Growth Program (This program is designed for smaller private commercial business ventures)
Municipal Dark Fibre Lease Revenue
Rural municipalities, or regionalized community projects, that are considering a municipal network would be wise to consider over-building above their current demand. This will allow for increased future community participation in the network as well as leaving ample dark fibre available to lease to commercial carriers, businesses and organizations that will enter the community in future. Lease revenue becomes a funding mechanism for capital investment and future equipment upgrades.
Convergence, although not a means of direct funding, can have the effect of releasing funds now dedicated to services that may have been duplicated in the past. The Red Deer example cited above (Appendix H) is a good example of convergence and regional co-operation.
Convergence may be achieved in several ways:
- Convergence of human resource applications and infrastructure where more than one application is currently used, i.e. administration of payroll under the same collective agreement.
- Convergence of GIS applications and infrastructure where numerous broad public sector organizations can share the same GIS database.
- A more competitive use of electric utility infrastructure. This is consistent with many market trends outside of Canada.
- Convergence of hospital applications and infrastructure with that of private doctors, Health Authority services, and pharmacies.
- Converge and increase the capabilities of communications systems for police, ambulance, fire fighting and emergency measures.
Convergence requires municipal action. Municipalities need to start by looking at their own internal needs, linking their offices and facilities. Other organizations and institutions within the region may do the same thing for their own purposes. It makes sense for Municipalities to combine efforts and telecommunications budgets with libraries, school, hospitals and industry.
When a commercial carrier is contemplating installing fibre an approved Right of Way is necessary. Wisely, some municipalities have begun to see their authority over the Right of Way as something that can be a significant source of long term revenue. Guides to Rights of Way revenues have been established by the CRTC.
If a Municipality chooses to work with a commercial carrier to obtain infrastructure the opening up of the public Rights of Way to the commercial carrier may create some real costs. The general consensus among the service providers is that continued regulation over the ‘time, place, and manner’ of access to Rights of Way is appropriate and fair and to off-set the costs municipalities must collect revenues on the use of Rights of Way. Guides to Rights of Way revenues have been established by the CRTC.
Issues and, Benefits and Problems Solved
There are many benefits, issues and problems solved in the development and adoption of a municipal fibre strategy and plan. Several of these are discussed briefly in the following subsections.
A common concern of both municipalities and service providers is the issue of repair and maintenance. Often telecommunications companies and commercial carriers have complained that municipal authorities required them to pay for whole street repair projects when they may have only excavated a portion of a roadway to install or service fibre optic or wire cable infrastructure. The municipalities argued that these tear-ups shorten the life of the roads and streets, which were paid for by taxpayers, and that there is a need for the telecommunications companies to pay for the real impacts of their activity.
There are benefits and advantages when a municipality owns the infrastructure and they alone are responsible for the on-going repair and maintenance of that infrastructure. These advantages can be easily realized and are achieved in several ways:
- Combine the repair and maintenance costs associated with the telecommunications infrastructure into the existing repair and maintenance budgets of the municipality and utilize the municipality’s maintenance work force. It should be noted that the repair and maintenance costs associated with a fibre optic network have proven to be minimal. Estimates extrapolated from the models studied range from 3% to 6% of the capital cost per annum. The most frequent cause of cable failure is damage by animals such as squirrels. An even more effective approach is when several municipalities pool their budgets to achieve the infrastructure installation as well as share the repair and maintenance costs associated with the network (regionalization approach).
- Placing the infrastructure (cables) on overhead utility poles that are owned by the serving hydro utility. The repair and maintenance is more easily accomplished when the cabling is visible and above ground. The serving hydro utility (Manitoba Hydro) will have the necessary manpower and equipment needed to undertake the service work and can be retained under a service contract. In models studied several municipalities have worked with the hydro utility to provide this support at a minimal cost to the municipality.
- Work in cooperation, or partnership, with the local (Manitoba Hydro) electric utility to achieve a municipal network. The infrastructure would then be placed on, or in, the utility’s poles and conduit while the repair and maintenance of the infrastructure would be the responsibility of the electric utility.
- The potential savings achieved by reducing the telecommunications costs of the municipality would more than offset the repair and maintenance budget requirements of the network.
Challenges for the Municipality
- Building infrastructure or sustaining what already exists, is becoming more difficult due to the increased pressures being placed on a community’s resources.
- In many instances organizations that are attempting to build partnerships locally lack the expertise. Communities would benefit from the acquisition of skills, or the leadership of a "champion" (organization or individual) who would help to lead the efforts.
- Municipal authorities can sometimes manage infrastructure issues more effectively by taking a long term view when making infrastructure related decisions. Some municipalities have not yet developed a long term strategy for infrastructure deployment.
- The de-skilling of the local workforces in rural communities is due to the downsizing of the local industries. This creates a downward spiral that is particularly hard to break without the introduction of new industry or new markets for the existing industry.
Benefits of a Municipal Network
After the installation of a municipal network, the reduction in communication costs between municipal owned buildings, libraries, school and hospitals is substantial. In the long-term the savings could finance a Municipal Fibre project. In a relatively short time the revenues realized could be reinvested into the municipality’s infrastructure allowing expansion. Other jurisdictions have found that the pay back on investment is less than three years.
Points to consider include:
- Excellent return on investment
- Short pay back period, in less than 3 years
- A potential source of continuing revenue for the municipality
- Relatively small amount of resources needed if the services of a Electric Utility are involved
- The availability of fibre for business expansion and community utilization
- Municipalities have established Rights of Way in their communities
- Increased carrier competition because availability of dark fibre results in lower prices to end users due to increased competition from more service providers
- Increased applications development, local applications development industry provides economic development (E-Commerce, E-Banking, E-Business)
- Ability to capitalize telecom costs, rather than paying on-going operational costs that will, over a relatively short time, exceed the capital cost
- Ability to create fully redundant, secure, internal and external telecommunications systems
- Develops relationships with Carriers often leading to alliances and partnerships that have long term beneficial effects for the municipality and the resident users
- Condominium arrangements can substantially reduce the initial costs (partnerships between municipalities, utilities and industry)
Organizations that are set for near immediate use of a municipal fibre network include:
- Most businesses operating within the community
- Hospitals, Health Authorities and Medical Centres
- School Boards and Schools in the Division
- Provincial Government Administration Offices
- Quasi-government organizations or NGOs that are supported by government funding but are not an extension of government (Community Clubs, Recreation Centres, Economic Development Offices, etc.)
- Natural Resources
- MPIC outlets
- Airports
- Emergency Measures
Most benefactors will realize lower communications (data transfers) costs, that may exceed 1000% (depending on their bandwidth requirement). The most significant of these benefactors are:
- Hospitals
- Libraries
- Schools
- Universities
- Colleges
- Utility Companies
- Police Departments
- Fire Departments
- Traffic Control
- Ambulance Service
- Public Clinics
- Government Offices and Agencies
- Employment Centres
- Public Sector Organizations
A Municipally owned fibre optic network can facilitate in solving many IT issues by standardizing the data collection and processing procedures, ensuring that the resultant databases are accessible by all departments and organizations. Other issues that may be solved are:
- Overlapping and redundant databases can be eliminated
- Communications between government and community can be vastly improved
- Municipal Payroll, central point handling
- Centralized operations point for more efficient repair and maintenance
- Provision of limitless bandwidth, systems are easily upgraded
For many municipal government administrations, conservative estimates are that 10% of their expenditures are IT related (figure is rising). Direct telecommunication costs are over and above this 10%. IT related expenditures might include automated or semi-automated processes (collection, movement, compilation and processing of data) such as:
- Billing systems
- Tax collection
- Interdepartmental communications throughout the municipality
Estimates indicate that ten percent (10%) or more of government expenditures are related to information technology and network infrastructure. Although more studies need to be undertaken to understand the actual costs it is certainly not beyond question that duplication of ICT resources exists across the broader public sector. This is true not only between provincial ministries, municipalities, regions, hospitals, school boards, colleges and agencies, but also between these organization and the Federal Government departments and their agencies. In Central Alberta, Red Deer and the neighboring communities combined existing budgets, eliminating duplication and financing a municipal network with the savings (Regionalization and Convergence).
Often not immediately recognized is the procurement power of the broad public sector. If governments, school boards, colleges and hospitals got together to support a unified ICT development strategy, their current budgets would go much further and they would also become a part of a more value added information network infrastructure that connects with the world.
A broad public sector procurement strategy for rural municipalities is largely undiscovered. There appears to be no reason why we have an active strategy for the broad public sector on asphalt highway building but not for electronic highway building.
There are many other reasons why municipal fibre is desirable. These include:
- Ownership, Fibre optic is an asset as a public utility
- Rights of Way, Municipalities have the rights of way to just about every possible location
- Reduced costs for communication and data transfer
- Most cost effective method of installation is overhead on poles; most communities are serviced with hydroelectricity in this way
- Federal Government is supportive of the concept, there is potential for funding
- Municipal networks are not infrastructure disruptive in maintenance and installation, roads are not torn up repeatedly
- Economic development opportunities include more competitive carriers and lower cost to business users, encouraging new industry entrants
- Municipalities already have administration that is in place for monitoring and billing of municipal services
- Social and economic issues, more bandwidth normally equals less latency, more applications, development, and greater use
- Creates a bandwidth insensitive pricing structure due to the availability of ample bandwidth, lowering cost to users
- Fibre optics are not affected by electric voltage or currents, decreasing the down time of systems due to electrical failure and lightening strikes
- Maturing technologies can be used early in their development on fibre networks due to the available bandwidth and ease of setting up a test network
- Technology is not limited or dependant on the medium of fibre optics and fibre is used merely to transmit the data in the most efficient manner
Municipal Fibre Networks as an Enabler
A municipal fibre network is the infrastructure and gateway to broadband that allows for high speed Internet access. Internet access on high bandwidth or broadband networks are the fundamental economic and social enablers for the 21st century, not just in this country, but in all countries around the world. The information highways are the 21st century equivalent of roads and railway lines that were built in the 19th and 20th centuries.
People living in rural areas are generally less likely than those living in urban areas to have computer use skills. Statistics indicate that among those aged 25 to 44, 66% of those living in urban areas reported in 1994 that they have computer skills, compared with 54% of those living in rural areas. However, young people living in rural areas are about as likely as young people in urban areas to report this skill.
Of the various occupational groups, people with occupations common in rural areas, such as farming, forestry and mining, are the least likely to have computer skills.
One way to overcome the disparity in computer skills between urban and rural residents is to implement an empowering of the people with quality tools. The quality of the tools people use can often be the first measure of the work they will produce. Rural residents need the same quality of tools as their urban counterparts to achieve similar results. Governments can provide some assistance encouraging the distribution of quality tools to its rural municipal counter parts. A good tool set should:
- Be designed for knowledge generation not just knowledge consumption
- Have the capacity for creation or creative input
- Respond readily and easily to the learner's needs
- Be in a direct proximity to the physical location of the resident
- Be readily availability to the user, (24 x 7 service)
- Use advanced technologies with adequate technical support
- Have associated costs that are affordable, otherwise it is not truly equitable
Access should also be affordable, otherwise it is not truly equitable. The postage stamp pricing model has been used extensively. In this model the cost of access is the same no matter where the user is located geographically.
Many of the models studied have identified that one of the first tasks in each community is to raise an awareness of the potential of municipal fibre and to solicit cooperation in bringing together the needs and demands of all sectors of the municipality, both public and private. Concurrently with such a community "needs assessment" and "demand aggregation" activity, community leaders should take an inventory of the possible technologies and institutions that could be part of the solution.
It has become evident that there is no single solution to rural connectivity needs. No single top down solution is going to work in all rural locations. The solutions need to emerge from local communities themselves with support from Provincial and Federal Governments. This is why it is deemed important to ask first what local communities can do for themselves to meet their needs.
Whether service is provided by an incumbent or a competitor, the fundamental economic problem in rural telecommunications is to aggregate together sufficient demand to make it economically viable for any provider to make the needed initial investments to connect the dots.
Cooperation may be more important than competition to achieve the needed investment. Provincial, Federal and Municipal government needs (including education and health care services) usually constitute a larger percentage of telecommunications demand in rural communities than they do in urban communities. If dedicated government networks only serve the needs of government users and are not permitted to carry private sector traffic, the remaining private sector traffic may be insufficient to justify the investment in broadband infrastructure needed to serve rural businesses and residents. The biggest barrier many rural communities face in their attempts to get the advanced telecommunications services essential to their economic development is the difficulty of getting Provincial and Federal government agencies to cooperate. This is not a problem in urban locations where there is more than enough business and residential demand to justify network investment. Rural areas need the cooperation and participation of all government agencies to develop shared general purpose broadband networks that will stimulate the local economy as well as serve government needs.
A common frustration in many rural communities is that fiber optic networks of telecommunications carriers pass through or near their communities, but without any means of access. It is like living under a freeway, but having the nearest on ramp 100 miles away. Some communities have attempted to get the long distance carriers to install a Point of Presence, (an on-ramp) in their community as a condition of granting access to their rights of way. This has been largely unsuccessful because the carriers want to avoid the expense and are more likely to route their network outside such communities without incurring connectivity expenses.
An opportunity of note occurred in southern Oregon in the summer of 1999 when a fibre contractor wanted to bury fibre optic cable along public rights of way through a number of rural municipalities and cities. Installing rural Points of Presence (POP) was not an option, but they still wanted expedited permits for the summer construction season. A consortium of all the Oregon counties and municipalities along the route agreed to a fast track, expedited the permitting process and a waiving all fees in exchange for getting rights to six pairs of dark fibre plus rights of access to all splice points along the route. When last contacted the consortium still needed to find financing for the electronics required to turn the dark fiber into a viable rural network and to contract with a commercial provider to bring service to end users. Nevertheless, getting rights to the fiber did provide an excellent opportunity to create local broadband services and long distance interconnections at a fraction of what it would otherwise cost. Without the creative intervention by local governments, the Carrier would never have provided the access for rural communities along the route.
Forward thinking municipalities are currently as concerned with utilizing the inadequate existing telecom infrastructure to market and promote their community as they are with the ways to improve and possibly own the infrastructure and the use of it to generate rights of way revenues.
Rural Manitoba municipalities face unique challenges unlike urban communities. Rural communities will need to use specialized attraction and incentive programs (likely along with direct Federal and Provincial Government support) to ensure appropriate telecom or municipal infrastructure investment.
Access to Government Information
Several areas of concern have been identified by several of Manitoba’s rural communities:
- Rural residents generally found information on government programs and services difficult to obtain and interpret. Access to information over the telephone was particularly frustrating for participants who found that it was difficult to get quick and consistent answers.
- There is a desire by rural residents to ensure that their communities are learning about and accessing government programs and services at the same level as their urban counterparts.
- Government information that is distributed in any medium needs to be understandable, concise, and delivered in a timely fashion.
Rural residents have suggested that government play a leadership role in establishing a single point of contact (SPOC) where communities could access all current government services and programs. This contact point should remain flexible and be based upon the needs and characteristics of each individual community. Existing tools and locations for providing access to information on government programs and services should be used. It is not hard to imagine how a municipal owned communication network would benefit communities and government in addressing concerns on access to Government information.
Municipal Fibre as a Public Utility
A particularly promising source for potential rural broadband solutions is the electric utility. Because the electric utility controls the physical plant of wire, cable, poles and conduit it will continue to have substantial influence on the provision of telecommunications services. In this context, electric utilities around the world are aggressively reviewing the value of their franchises from a telecommunications perspective. Many technologies may be mounted on electric utility infrastructure to deliver telecommunications services. Wire, cable and fibre are already being used. Wireless technologies can be mounted on poles and "beamed" into homes. Power line carrier technology sends telecommunications signals along existing electricity distribution lines.
Electric utility companies have internal needs for data transfer and communications within their power network. They already have rights of way and access to all business and residences. Fibre optic communication works better along power lines than traditional copper telephone lines. Power lines interfere with the electrons in the copper wire but leave the photons in the fibre optic cable unaffected. Once fiber is installed in the power grid, the excess capacity that fiber brings could easily accommodate most other telecommunication needs.
Much of the costs of the fibre optic installation are justified when weighed against the savings achieved from a more efficient electricity distribution system. The incremental costs of meeting broadband communications needs of the rest of the rural service area may be small compared to the costs of upgrading or converting the expanding telephone network.
Furthermore, rural governments, sometimes need data networks to meet their own internal needs. Constructing a government network with excess capacity that is then shared among both public and private sector users will be a viable solution in most rural communities.
Ways to Promote Access - Municipal Fibre Networks and Content
The most obvious way to promote access and the concept of a municipal network is to create awareness. Many communities have not yet come to understand the potential and the power of today’s telecommunications technologies. In addition to creating awareness it is important that local content (community information) be promoted.
1. Strengthening the Role of Public Institutions
Strengthen the potential role for public institutions, such as schools and libraries, in promoting public access to content.
2. Role of Facilitators
Emphasize and support local facilitators who work with the community to develop content that is relevant and adapted to the needs of the entire community.
3. Role of the Champion
There is great importance in identifying a local champion. This person or organization should act as an agent both in assisting users and service providers to incorporate content and in moving users from traditional to new learning paradigms.
4. Peer Helpers
Peers and Mentors can be useful in assisting learners with new technologies. In some cases senior residents and policy makers may benefit from working with others of their own age and experience. In other cases, school age children have been used to facilitate the support of the older generation.
5. Emphasize Technology as a Means To An End
To help people overcome any resistance learning new skills some communities have used entertainment and interesting content as a motivator.
6. Role for Government
The role of government in increasing access to content and global knowledge should include:
- Encourage the creation of new and exciting learning content by citizens
- Encourage groups, non-profit organizations, and other social organizations to create their presence with content
- Actively promote the concept of life long learning as a way to improve quality of life
- Encourage the sharing of knowledge between government, communities, municipalities and community organizations
Basic Components of a Municipal Fibre Network:
The Infrastructure Backbone
The basic network is called the backbone. It serves as the main framework, similar to the hydro substations that interconnect the power grid of the city and distribute the power into districts or areas. In the case of municipal fibre, this would be the interconnection of the main points of distribution.
The Distribution Network
The distribution network of a municipal fibre network would be similar to the hydro poles that are located throughout the city that distribute the power from the substations to customer connection points.
The Customer Interface
The Customer Interface is the equipment and/or software that allow the service supplier and the end user to communicate with each other or with other end users.
How Much will Municipal Fibre Cost
The largest portion of cost for fibre installations is not the cost of the physical fibre but of the labour to install the fibre. There is little difference between installing a cable of 24 strands and installing a cable of 864 strands.
There are three ways in which fibre can be installed:
- Aerial, on existing Hydro or Telephone poles, $3 - $6 per meter (Pulling Fibre)
- Buried cable in existing conduit, $7 - $10 per meter (Laying Fibre)
- New trenching and laying of conduit, $35 per meter (10% of this is fibre)
Other Budget estimates include:
- $1,000 per home is the accepted average figure for Fibre To The Home FTTH installations;
- $7,000 per kilometer, new installation, in ground;
- $5 per meter, for a 4 to 6 strands sheath (cost of fibre optic glass strand);
- Annual maintenance budget of $150 - $250 per kilometer, per year;
- $85,000 – $125,000 for a Province wide engineering study (for physical access issues- Internal by Manitoba Hydro), if needed;
- Capital equipment costs can be determined by further study;
- Manitoba Hydro has established costs for fibre installs; Manitoba Hydro can develop costs for fibre management.
Canada is fast becoming a world leader in telecommunication connectivity initiatives. The Federal Government has over the past several years provided funding and political initiative to increased connectivity for all Canadians. This has resulted in many stellar projects being undertaken.
The geographic and demographic make-up of Canada has ensured that we will face many challenges in connecting our communities with adequate broadband capability.
Examples of successful connectivity projects that focus on municipal ownership and/or participation include:
Toronto, Ontario
North York Hydro in Toronto has realized an opportunity to increase revenues by contracting for fibre installations and leasing dark fibre to numerous Carriers that include Sprint and the local board of education. The North York Hydro municipal fibre plan began with a small pilot project that connected two McDonald’s Restaurants with 2 km of fibre optic. The fibre cable is leased to McDonalds by a long-term lease agreement that provides continuous revenue for the utility. North York operates as a dark fibre supplier and does not provide contractor services.
Ottawa, Ontario (Ottawa Hydro)
Ottawa has established a metropolitan dark fibre consortium that has released an RFI and a subsequent RFP. One of the main purposes of establishing this consortium is to reduce telecommunication costs throughout the municipality. Other benefits that will be realized include enabling customer fibre rings and extending educational and research facilities into the wide area, which allows for the consolidation of network servers and the elimination of border routers.
Kanata, Ontario (Consortium)
Kanata has joined with fibre contractors and several Carriers in a consortium to build a municipal fibre network. Kanata has built this network to give customers empowered networking. The move has resulted in direct cost savings in telecommunications and it is expected to result in many other direct benefits to the participating organizations. Benefits include enabling fibre rings as a customer option rather than joining an existing distribution network where customers had to build their own rings for restoration or protection at either the physical or virtual layer. Additional benefits have included extending the campus LAN into the wide-area, which has allowed for the consolidation of network servers and the elimination of border routers.
Edmonton, Alberta,
EPCOR, formerly Edmonton Power is leasing its municipal owned dark fibre to link campuses, business and other Carriers. EPCOR discovered there was a increasingly competitive and deregulated environment and that outsourcing utility, municipal, and industry support services was the right approach to superior customer service and customer retention. EPCOR offers a one-stop-shop source based on extensive knowledge, a long and stable history, and a competitive approach that saves time and money.
Sudbury, Ontario
The Sudbury Regional Network, SureNet is owned and operated by Sudbury Hydro. Sudbury Hydro first supplied dark fibre to the consortium of SureNet in 1997. Sudbury has seen an increase in economic activity in their community from the introduction of a call centre (750 new jobs) and higher growth in the telecommunication industry.
Hamilton, Ontario (consortium)
Hamilton Hydro has joined with UTILiNK, a fibre contractor, in supplying dark fibre for the municipality and others. The excess strands installed by the consortium are leased to other Carriers as dark fibre, offsetting the cost of the installation and paying for itself very quickly.
Montreal, Quebec (consortium)
Montreal municipal authorities have joined in a consortium with some school boards, RISQ and IMS to build a municipal owned dark fibre network. By building their own fibre network the school boards have realized they can connect schools for an average of $80 per month, per school based on a 20 year amortization of the fibre. In Montreal, the estimated payback for dark fibre is between 6 months and 2 years. Not only do the school boards anticipate saving money by eliminating the monthly charge for managed bandwidth, they will also achieve substantial savings by eliminating the network servers at each individual school. With dark fibre and essentially unlimited bandwidth (currently 100 Mbps) each individual school's LAN can be extended back to the central administrative site. In addition, maintenance, backups and software updates can all be done much more cost effectively from the central administrative building. With the possibility of unlimited bandwidth the schools are able to explore new high end applications such as video conferencing and Voice over IP.
Vancouver, British Columbia (consortium)
The Vancouver fibre optic system will allow members of the police, fire, RCMP, ambulance services, 9-1-1 call centre and municipal public work agencies to be able to communicate effectively in daily operations and especially in the event of an emergency.
Barrie, Ontario
BarrieNet was formed as a platform for municipal agencies to share mission critical information instantly-for instance, providing fire fighters on call with instant access to building drawing and schematics held elsewhere in the city. The long-term vision includes the access of citizens to on-line government services, or e-government.
Although many of these examples are from larger urban centres they serve to provide lessons learned and answers earned for smaller and remote communities in Manitoba. In many cases the challenges these larger centres faced and obstacles they over came are even more formidable than those faced by the rural communities in Canada.
Refer to Smart Central Alberta example (Appendix H)
The challenge of telecommunications connectivity and efficiency for Municipalities is not a Canadian phenomenon as it is clearly felt around the world. There are many global models that are worthy of study and they include:
Spokane, Washington
In Spokane a unique partnership was formed between the local power utility and the Spokane school district to deliver dark fibre to the 160 schools and colleges in the Spokane area. Each school was connected with dark fibre at a 10/100 Mbps connection to a neighbourhood Gigabit Ethernet switch. The dark fibre makes this possible.
Palo Alto, California, FTTH
Palo Alto has created a municipal owned fibre utility and is considering, through a trial, whether to offer Fibre To The Home (FTTH). Expected cost to the customer for the FTTH is $40 per month for 10mbps.
Ashland, Oregon
The City of Ashland developed a telecommunications infrastructure plan known as the Ashland Fibre Network. The Ashland Fibre Network was conceived as a method for the City's electric utility to begin planning for and dealing with upcoming electric deregulation. By constructing the municipal fibre network, the electric utility will be able to offer Ashland residents and businesses a variety of electrical and telecommunications services, greatly enhancing its overall service portfolio. The fibre project was modeled after other projects undertaken by other municipally owned electric operations in the United States.
Glasgow, KY, Consortium
GTE, a consortium of the Glasgow municipality and other Carriers, can and will provide state-of-the-art telecommunications to all locations within their service area from its present digital network. The facilities provide advanced transmission characteristics for any specified high speed data requirement. The most noticeable results of the Glasgow model is that prices for carrier services have substantially decreased. A full 53 channel CATV service is only $15 per month with cable modem services at $22 per month including the modem.
Chicago, Illinois
The Chicago municipal fibre authority operates from a unique 161,000-square-foot, five-level facility that was designed from the inside out and supports a number of specialized systems to ensure continued fail-safe, fully redundant, operation of its municipal fibre-optic cable feeds.
Stockholm, Sweden,
Sweden has, through an ICT Commission, adopted innovative new policies that will see the entire State interwoven with a fine-meshed fibre optic network. This network enhances the "Digital Elevation" that will tie together several "Broadband Islands" in the State, one of which is Stockholm. The Stockholm Network is a municipal fibre network known as Stokab, it is fully owned by the City of Stockholm and the Stockholm Community Council. Stokab is providing the dark fibre infrastructure over which many Carriers are providing different services to cater to many categories of customers. There are currently (May 2000) more than 30 Carriers utilizing the Stokab network. The Stokab network has also attracted an abundance of high-tech investments, which contribute directly to the Stokab infrastructure through leasing fees, local taxes and user fees for traffic on the network. One of the main advantages Stockholm had was its access to city owned tunnels, subways, sewer lines and electrical conduits.
Anaheim, California
The Anaheim public utilities department has a consortium agreement with SpectraNet International (SNI), a San Diego–based telecommunications network provider, to develop a public-private telecommunications system.
Batavia, Illinois
The Batavia Hydro utility does not have a communications system; it is now studying the cost and feasibility of installing a comprehensive broadband communications network. The city’s objective is to improve its public utility services, upgrade internal communications, and eventually provide its citizens with advanced communication capabilities.
Braintree, Massachusetts
To improve internal communications, the city, through the Braintree Electric Light Department, installed a fibre-optic cable network between the main generation facility and the administrative offices. The system has evolved into a comprehensive fibre-optic network.
Cedar Falls, Iowa
In response to a 1994 election in which voters approved, by a 71 percent margin, the creation of a municipal communications utility, the city of Cedar Falls has built a system that will allow it to reach every residential and business in the city with voice and data services. The city built a hybrid fibre-coax system and offers cable television, business fibre-optic links, and cable modem services.
Harlan, Iowa
To provide enhanced electric and other utility services to city residents and provide communications services at an affordable cost, Harlan, through its municipal utility system, is developing a hybrid fibre-coax broadband communications network. Through this network, the city will be able to offer enhanced services, including satellite and local television programming, Internet access, demand-side management, telephone, and telemedicine.
Holland, Michigan
The city of Holland, which provides electric, water, and wastewater services to 20,000 residents and businesses, has installed the first phase of its fibre-optic communication network. The purpose is to improve the city’s electric system, implement automated remote meter reading, and provide linkages to the city’s mainframe. The city also plans to incorporate schools, hospitals, and businesses into the system.
Wadsworth, Ohio
The city of Wadsworth, located in northeastern Ohio, distributes electric, water, and wastewater services to 17,000 customers through its public utilities department. In 1993, the city made a commitment to install a communications infrastructure that would serve its telecommunications needs and provide future capabilities through new technologies. As a result, Wadsworth implemented one of the country’s most innovative and flourishing telecommunication networks.
In studying the many models that are now actively involved in the development of municipal networks a clear path has emerged. The path although not difficult to understand can be somewhat more difficult to implement.
Awareness of the Community’s Need
Community leaders (municipal government) must first acknowledge the need to participate in the proposed municipal network. The numerous economic and social benefits to participation must be understood and disseminated to the community’s residents.
Recruitment of the right individuals, who are willing to work for change is an essential ingredient of a successful municipal network plan. These individuals know their community’s residents and leaders. Specifically they can:
- Engage and educate the community on the benefits of municipal networks
- Secure political and financial support
- Form a coalition that embraces the whole community
- Develop a strategic plan
- Establish partnerships with business and community organizations
Conducting Workshops and Holding Meetings
Meetings and workshops are necessary to build the awareness as well as getting the community at large involved in the process of discovery and solution. Newsletters and newspaper articles explain the benefits of the municipal network and the steps necessary to achieve it.
Engaging the Business, Economic Development, Education and Cultural Leaders
Grass roots support is a vital part of the municipal network and this support often comes first from the business, economic development, education and cultural leaders of the community.
Often from business, economic development, education and cultural leaders will emerge the organizers and leaders that build the organizational centre of the municipal network.
Conduct Research – Study Models
The organization conducts the research and studies the models that will be the beginning of the municipal network plan. The basic plan can then be presented to interested residents, investors, participants and neighbouring municipalities.
A municipal network will only be viable if it is utilized by the community it serves. It is necessary to engage the community in the planning and development of the network so that they feel a degree of personal ownership.
To secure the necessary resources and funding the municipality will require a feasible business plan and including the steps for implementation.
The actual implementation of a municipal network is often the easiest portion to achieve as the real work lies on the first steps outlined above. However, the work does not stop with implementation. The education of community members, network administration and physical repairs and maintenance are issues that will have been identified in the planning process.
In point form some of the basic steps that the municipal fibre network organizers will need to address include:
- Business Strategies, Feasibility Study, Business Case Analysis
- Financial Modeling and Options Analysis ~
- Marker Planning and Mapping. Identifying the Distribution Plan ~ *
- Infrastructure Development, Operations and Maintenance Resource Allocations ~ *
- Attain Engineering Services
- Resolution of Rights of Way ~ *
- Request for Information and Request for Proposal from Contractors if needed
- Laying or pulling of Fibre to create the Backbone
- End User building criteria, method of entry, termination and identification
- Municipal Assets and Leasing Policies
- Regulatory Services, monitoring and calculation of usage ~ *
- Marketing ~ *
- Retail front end, administrative office and payment centres ~ *
Note:
* Manitoba Hydro has developed at least a portion of this requirement
~ Manitoba Hydro is a developed and mature resource in the points listed
The key indicators or criteria for the creation of a municipal network would include:
General Situation Overview
- State of the existing telecommunications service
- Population of the municipality
- Economic health of the communities within the municipality
- Geographic area and size of municipality
- Major industries present in the community
- Potential labour force
- Available investment capital
- GDP of the municipality
- Proximity to neighbouring municipalities
Government Involvement in Area
- Provincial Government office location
- Natural Resources
- Federal Government office location
Supply of Existing Services
- Manitoba Hydro
- Manitoba Telecom
- Other major Carriers
- West-Man Cable
- GT Cable Services
Demand
- Penetration of services
- Penetration of service providers
- Price sensitivity
- Technology knowledge level
- Potential business use
- Residential use
- Agricultural use
A discussion of what role Manitoba Hydro could play province wide municipal owned fibre initiative is very appropriate. As is evidenced by the many examples and models visited, it is also natural for a Municipality Authority to become it’s own municipal fibre provider. Most Municipalities that have made the decision to develop a municipal fibre plan have found they may begin immediately, with little change in existing staff or equipment. They have achieved this easily because they have access to the necessary support system a hydroelectric utility, such as Manitoba Hydro, which can supply:
- Staff experienced in installing fibre optic networks
- Appropriate equipment
- Technology experience
Manitoba has a publicly run electrical utility, Manitoba Hydro, and it is natural, especially in under-served areas, that this organization provide high bandwidth services. Generally, policy for public entities is to avoid competing directly against private companies in a competitive market. However, the public utilities could be the provider where private entities can not provide affordable services. The recommendation may be made that this issue be explored further by Provincial policymakers and regulators in an effort to find a balanced solution which maximizes benefits for rural areas.
There are precedents where Manitoba Hydro has undertaken the installation of fibre optic cable for other than internal use. The most notable of these installations is a connection from Winnipeg to Brandon that was installed for Westman Communications several years ago. Shorter runs have also been completed in partnership with Westman and Manitoba Telecom Services. Manitoba Hydro has stated it would be willing to consider engaging in municipal fibre installations on a case by case basis. Of prime importance in a Manitoba Hydro decision to participate in servicing a municipal fibre project is the community’s need outside of government. Manitoba Hydro would seek to ensure the whole community would benefit from the fibre (telecommunications) infrastructure; particularly regarding the issues of economic growth and equitable access. It is notable that Manitoba Hydro has a dark fibre capability in its runs west to Brandon and east to Pine Falls. Additionally, Manitoba Hydro is planning, in the near future, to substantially upgrade much of its own infrastructure. The upgrading will accommodate the replacement of older, out dated equipment and allow for an increased internal usage by Manitoba Hydro. The upgrade would also provide for additional dark fibre capability in some regions of service.
There are three basic steps to achieving the creation of a municipal fibre utility.
- Have the Provincial Government approve and authorize Manitoba Hydro to expand its service mandate to include the provision of fibre connectivity to government and quasi government organizations. This connectivity would only be supplied after receiving the approval of the Manitoba Hydro and would be based on the business case of the individual municipality.
- The Province would undertake the commissioning of 3 separate studies that would determine:
- Legal Position (Internal Study)
- Risk Assessment (Consultant)
- Business Case - Financial and Organizational Structure (Internal Study)
- The Province of Manitoba would request a report the on the current state and future plans regarding the Provincial and municipal policies on:
- Right of Way
- Taxation / Tariff on the Right of Way
The Business Case
It is natural for Manitoba Hydro to become the prime contractor for municipal fibre networks. Manitoba Hydro has the existing staff and equipment and would incur little additional expenses. They already have:
- Staff experienced in fibre optic networks
- Appropriate equipment
- Technology Experience
- Pent-up demand for fibre optics network from hospitals, schools, universities and libraries within the Municipalities
- Established Rights of Way
- Established Billing processes
- Established Marketing processes
- Surplus revenues are realized from the leasing of fibre to Carriers, service providers (ISPs), and institutions.
- A Municipal owned fibre utility has the effect of increasing service provider competition and lowering service prices for all residents
- Manitoba Hydro has established Cost/Price Formulas
+ Fibre Contractor
A Fibre Contractor installs fibre optic between physical points at the request of a user/purchaser. The contractor does not "light" (transmit signals with a laser) the fibre and does not as a rule, retain ownership. There is no CRTC involvement in fibre Contracting.
*
Dark Fibre SupplierDark fibre is not "lit" (transmitting or receiving data). The Dark Fibre Supplier normally leases fibre to users. A dark fibre supplier may also be a Fibre Contractor. Dark Fibre Suppliers maintain the infrastructure and hold the Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU) on the fibre. As a rule, dark fibre suppliers do not fall under CRTC regulation. Consortiums are common in this category.
*
Dim Fibre Supplier – Layer OneDim Fibre has electronics (switching) at either end and can, but is not transmitting or receiving data. Dim Fibre, in most cases does not fall under CRTC regulation. The fibre is called Dim because the electronics can be self-diagnostic, polling (sending a test signal) to the other end and back over the network. Consortiums are also common in this category.
*
Dim Fibre Supplier – Layer TwoLayer Two Dim Fibre has electronics (switching) at either end and allows controlled traffic (aggregated bulk data) to specific switching locations. This is sometimes called an "Ethernet Pipe" or conduit as it connects two or more locations together without having an interest in the data content. Content is routed by switching upon reaching a "de-mark" point. Layer Two Dim Fibre, in most cases does not fall under CRTC regulation. Consortiums are also very common in this category.
ASP Application Service Provider
An Application Service Provider on a fibre network will have electronics at both ends, as well as machines (computers), that allow the transfer of data and the operation of enterprise (system) wide applications such as:
- public or private e-commerce
- e-business to e-business transactions
- e-mail sorting and clearing
- data storage and processing
- billing services
- hosting for Internet Service Providers
- provision, for a fee, of access to applications; out source applications as part of a revenue stream
Some ASP applications fall under CRTC regulation. An assessment of each individual proposed application undertaken may require a legal opinion.
ISP Internet Service Provider
Internet Service Providers provide the end users with access to the Internet. Internet Service Providers may also offer e-mail and web space.
* Recommended Placement of Municipal Networks
+ Recommended Placement of Manitoba Hydro
(For complete demographic details see the attached PCensus Report)
The Province of Manitoba covers a large geographic area, often with great distances separating the communities. In addition many of communities are small, having a resident population of 5,000 or less. A list of communities and the resident Populations, Total Census Families and the Three Main Industries is presented here. These communities due to their size and location may benefit from a municipal network service in their community.
|
Municipality / Town / City |
Total Population |
Total Census Families |
Three Main Industries |
|
Altona |
3,250 |
915 |
Manufacturing, Retail, Health |
|
Beausejour |
2,710 |
750 |
Health, Retail, Government |
|
Brandon |
39,175 |
10,435 |
Retail, Health, Food & Beverage |
|
Carman |
2,705 |
720 |
Health, Retail, Education |
|
Dauphin |
8,265 |
2,155 |
Retail, Health, Agriculture |
|
East St. Paul |
6,440 |
1,845 |
Retail, Manufacturing, Health |
|
Flin Flon |
6,570 |
1,730 |
Manufacturing, Retail, Accommodation |
|
Killarney |
2,205 |
615 |
Retail, Health, Construction |
|
Minnedosa |
2,445 |
705 |
Health, Accommodation, Transportation |
|
Morden |
5,690 |
1,550 |
Manufacturing, Health, Retail |
|
Morris |
1,645 |
435 |
Retail, Health, Wholesale, Manufacturing |
|
Neepawa |
3,300 |
885 |
Health, Manufacturing, Retail |
|
Niverville |
1,615 |
415 |
Manufacturing, Retail, Wholesale |
|
Portage la Prarie |
13,075 |
3,335 |
Health, Retail, Manufacturing |
|
Roblin |
1,885 |
490 |
Retail, Health, Construction |
|
Rockwood |
7,505 |
1,920 |
Agriculture, Retail, Communication |
|
Selkirk |
9,880 |
2,670 |
Health, Manufacturing, Retail |
|
Souris |
1,610 |
430 |
Health, Retail, Other Service |
|
Springfeild |
12,160 |
3,395 |
Manufacturing, Government, Transportation |
|
St. Andrews |
10,145 |
2,960 |
Health, Manufacturing, Government |
|
St. Clement |
8,515 |
2,550 |
Retail, Health, Manufacturing |
|
St. Anne |
4,215 |
1,150 |
Agriculture, Health, Manufacturing |
|
Steinbach |
8,475 |
2,345 |
Manufacturing, Retail, Health |
|
Stonewall |
3,695 |
1,000 |
Health, Retail, Government |
|
Swan River |
2,905 |
850 |
Agriculture, Health, Retail |
|
Tache |
8,270 |
2,220 |
Manufacturing, Education, Transportation |
|
The Pas |
5,945 |
1,590 |
Retail, Health, Government |
|
Thompson |
14,395 |
3,825 |
Mining, Health, Accommodation |
|
Virden |
2,955 |
810 |
Retail, Health, Education |
|
West St. Paul |
3,720 |
1,010 |
Retail, Health, Education |
|
Winkler |
7,240 |
1,860 |
Manufacturing, Health, Retail |
Traditional "non-revenue" support industries such as Health, Government and Education are included in the table because they do play an important role in the economic health of a community, providing jobs and stimulating the economy. The efficiency and telecommunication cost reductions to these industries is greatly enhanced with the introduction of a municipal network. Telecommunications costs are reportedly reduced substantially with over 1,000% savings presented by many early adopters. In a high number of instances the main industries in the above table are Health, Education and Government.
Other noted main industries such as Agriculture, Manufacturing and Accommodation that rank highly in the table above would also benefit from an improved and more efficient telecommunications system or municipal network. In agriculture the advancements of the industry are most noted in the improved technologies surrounding the methods of operation and in advancements with weather forecasting and early crop health and disease warnings. An improved telecommunication system can increase the efficiency of farming operations and the speed of delivery of important information to farmers.
The attached PCensus Report also yields other valuable information about the listed communities such as:
- Labour Force activity
- Labour Force by Industry
- Labour Force by Age
- Labour force by Occupation
- Age of All Residents
This information could be used to draw informal parallels between the various communities, indicating similarities, possible partnerships and cooperative efforts.
Municipal Networks as Infrastructure
What Types of Projects Are Viewed As Infrastructure
The Infrastructure Program has created jobs and economic growth throughout Manitoba by supporting projects ranging from sewer and water systems to natural gas expansion initiatives and community club enhancements. There have been more than 398 Manitoba projects announced to date and they include projects like the following:
Sewer and Water:
More than $56 million has been invested in basic infrastructure improvements in Manitoba communities, attracting new industry and economic growth. For example, the RM of Macdonald's water treatment plant has been expanded, doubling its storage capacity to accommodate increased demand. In total, projects providing clean water and reliable sewer systems hare creating 1,000 jobs.
Roads and Bridges:
From small sidewalk repairs and streetscaping, to major highway renewals, over $53 million in roadwork improvements are strengthening Manitoba's position as a transportation hub at the nation's centre, and creating almost 1,000 jobs in the process. For example, an $8.2 million widening of Brookside Boulevard to Winnipeg's north Perimeter Highway will allow for an increased volume of goods moving to local, national and international markets.
Information Highway:
Infrastructure Works is looking towards the future with over $11 million of investments in Manitoba's information highway infrastructure. Several projects are being funded, including over $10 million in distance education initiatives. An interactive television network is connecting rural and remote schools to colleges, universities and each other, providing students of all ages with a greater range of course options and access to leading edge educational resources. *
Arts and Culture:
Support to arts and cultural institutions is forming a stronger tourism base and a richer cultural fabric, while generating long-term jobs. The Manitoba Museum, for example, is building a $5 million facility to showcase over 6,000 priceless artifacts from the Hudson Bay Company Collection, a window to Manitoba's colourful beginnings.
Community Facilities:
Some $20 million in enhancements to more than 65 recreation and community centres are providing Manitoba families with better sports and social facilities and an enhanced quality of life.
Education:
Investments in Manitoba's educational institutions are creating more than 160 jobs, while promoting the development of life-long learning skills that will make Manitoba more competitive in a changing global economy. For example, an $1.1 million expansion to the South Winnipeg Technical Centre will help Manitoba students meet the growing demand for training related to trades and the new information technologies. *
Economic Development Opportunities:
Infrastructure Works is providing communities with new tools for economic development through funding initiatives like the rural natural gas expansion. The $22 million expansion is offering 16 rural Manitoba communities an alternative energy source, translating into long-term cost savings and enhanced competitiveness in attracting new industry, jobs and investment. *
Sustainable Communities:
Projects involving conservation districts, recycling and waste disposal are helping to preserve the environment at the local level. *
Related to improved telecommunications infrastructure
| Carrier Technology |
Speed |
Physical Medium |
Application |
|
GSM mobile telephone service |
9.6 to 14.4 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
|
High-speed circuit-switched data service ( HSCSD) |
Up to 56 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for business and personal use |
|
Regular telephone service (POTS) |
Up to 56 Kbps |
Twisted-pair |
Home and small business access |
|
Dedicated 56Kbps on Frame Relay |
56 Kbps |
Various |
Business e-mail with fairly large file attachments |
|
DS0 |
64 Kbps |
All |
The base signal on a channel in the set of Digital Signal levels |
|
General Packet Radio System ( GPRS) |
56 to 114 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for business and personal use (available in 2000) |
|
ISDN |
BRI: 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps |
BRI: Twisted-pair |
BRI: Faster home and small business access |
|
IDSL |
128 Kbps |
Twisted-pair |
Faster home and small business access |
|
AppleTalk |
230.4 Kbps |
Twisted pair |
Local area network for Apple devices; several networks can be bridged; non-Apple devices can also be connected |
|
Enhanced Data GSM Environment ( EDGE) |
384 Kbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for business and personal use (available in 2001) |
|
Satellite |
400 Kbps (DirecPC) |
RF in space (wireless) |
Faster home and small enterprise access |
|
Frame relay |
56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or coaxial cable |
Large company backbone for LANs to ISP |
|
DS1/T-1 |
1.544 Mbps |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP |
|
Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service ( UMTS) |
Up to 2 Mbps |
RF in space (wireless) |
Mobile telephone for business and personal use (available in 2002) |
|
E-1 |
2.048 Mbps |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
32-channel European equivalent of T-1 |
|
T-1C (DS1C) |
3.152 Mbps |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP |
|
IBM Token Ring/802.5 |
4 Mbps (also 16 Mbps) |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Second most commonly-used local area network after Ethernet |
|
DS2/T-2 |
6.312 Mbps |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Large company to ISP |
|
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) |
512 Kbps to 8 Mbps |
Twisted-pair (used as a digital, broadband medium) |
Home, small business, and enterprise access using existing copper lines |
|
E-2 |
8.448 Mbps |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Carries four multiplexed E-1 signals |
|
Cable modem |
512 Kbps to 52 Mbps |
Coaxial cable (usually uses Ethernet); in some systems, telephone used for upstream requests |
Home, business, school access |
|
Ethernet |
10 Mbps |
10BASE-T (twisted-pair); 10BASE-2 or -5 (coaxial cable); 10BASE-F (optical fiber) |
Most popular business local area network (LAN) |
|
IBM Token Ring/802.5 |
16 Mbps (also 4 Mbps) |
Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber |
Second most commonly-used local area network after Ethernet |
|
E-3 |
34.368 Mbps |
Twisted-pair or optical fiber |
Carries 16 E-l signals |
|
DS3/T-3 |
44.736 Mbps |
Coaxial cable |
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
|
OC-1 |
51.84 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
|
HSSI |
Up to 53 Mbps |
HSSI cable |
Between router hardware and WAN lines |
|
Fast Ethernet |
100 Mbps |
100BASE-T4 (twisted pair); 100BASE-TX (twisted pair); 100BASE-FX (optical fiber) |
Workstations with 10 Mbps Ethernet cards can plug into a Fast Ethernet LAN |
|
FDDI |
100 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Large, wide-range LAN usually in a large company or a larger ISP |
|
T-3D (DS3D) |
135 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
ISP to Internet infrastructure |
|
E4 |
139.264 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Carries 4 E3 channels |
|
OC-3/STM-1 |
155.52 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Large company backbone |
|
E5 |
565.148 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Carries 4 E4 channels |
|
OC-12/STM-4 |
622.08 Mbps |
Optical fiber |
Internet backbone |
|
Gigabit Ethernet |
1 Gbps |
Optical fiber (and "copper" up to 25 meters) |
Workstations/networks with 10/100 Mbps Ethernet will plug into Gigabit Ethernet switches |
|
OC-24 |
1.244 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Internet backbone |
|
SciNet |
2.325 Gbps (15 OC-3 lines) |
Optical fiber |
Part of the vBNS backbone |
|
OC-48/STM-16 |
2.488 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Internet backbone |
|
OC-192/STM-64 |
10 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Backbone |
|
OC-256 |
13.271 Gbps |
Optical fiber |
Backbone |
Extracted from the SMART 2000 Conference Report prepared by Cathedral Group in October 2000.
- Gail Surkan, Mayor of the City of Red Deer
- Dale Smith, City of Red Deer
- Gerry Gibbons, City of Red Deer
- Milton Elliot, City of Red Deer
The Central Alberta network is known as Rednet. Rednet was started in an effort to connect schools with a fibre loop network. Since it’s inception the network has grown and now provides libraries with the capability to provide a community out reach effort.
The municipalities of Central Alberta developed a special agency they called Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP). The task of this group was to place Central Alberta in the Global Marketplace. Challenges they faced included:
- Recognizing Community Interdependence
- Overcome the barriers of Urban to Rural economies
- Acknowledge a common interest
- Gain the involvement of all the possible players within the region
- Be prepared to share the work and the benefits
- Create teams based on tasks
- Accept the outcomes, whatever the were, without blame to others
Smart Behavior:
The "real networks" are people and organizations which must come together in trust
- Networks build trust, it is a trust building exercise
The key is to organize our work differently
- Networks and teams
- Work around tasks, individually they are more easily overcome
Work in the "white spaces"
- White space is the space between the box as an organization chart (working outside the box)
The Central Alberta Smart Community is unique in that they have come to together as individual small municipalities and have created a greater community. They have done this without creating a new formal organization. Gail Surkan, Mayor of Red Deer, called this approach "distributed leadership." Distributed leadership only works when you have achieved a level of trust and can work within the "white spaces."
Notable quotes:
- "If on-line information is only online it is even more inaccessible to those not on line."
- "The new economy needs new thinking not new money"
- "Remember to look around as you walk forward."
- "You are on target if you get flack everyday."
SRI Software (a division of Telus) has made a major contribution to the communities with the offer of free software to smart initiatives. SRI Software is designed for management of libraries and municipal government management. The software is called "Virtual City Hall."
Visit SRI at: URL: http://www.sri.bc.ca
The Rednet network utilizes a GIS component for the emergency communications network.
Rednet has a unified database utilized by all the participating communities. This could only be established because the communities have come to trust one another.
Rednet uses NT. NT is:
- New Trust
- New Teams
- New Thinking
Visit Red Deer and Central Alberta at:
- URL: www.centralalberta.ab.ca
- URL: www.rdpl.org
Smart Government (E-Government) has been defined as:
- A 24-7 government (via computer or phone)
- De-departmentalize Government, transparent to residents
- Single window (Single Point Of Contact)
- Seamless & interactive
Points of note:
- Access to Government should be, at minimum, in the public libraries
- Government should look at themselves from a citizens point of view when designing an on-line presence
- Government sites need to use more entry "Pull Technology" as opposed to "Push Technology." When users enter government space, have the users define an event, "pulling" it to them by request and then "push" the requested information to them. A good example would be an electronic welcome wagon. You can enter and then request information about the community sent to you.
Glossary of Technical Terms Related to Fibre Optic Networks
A
Application
- A system, the transmission method of which is supported by a
telecommunications cabling system.
Architecture
- 1. Overall building wiring 2. Local Area Network topology (bus, ring, star,
etc)
Asynchronous Communication
- The term asynchronous is usually used to describe communications in which data
can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream. For example, a
telephone conversation is asynchronous because both parties can talk whenever
they like. If the communication were synchronous, each party would be required
to wait a specified interval before speaking.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) - ATM is a high speed, (155 Mbps
and over) cell relay, switching and transport technology for either local or
wide area environments.
B
Backbone Cabling - A cable that connects the building distributor or MDF to a floor distributor or IDF. Backbone Cables may also interconnect Floor Distributors or IDF in the same building.
Bandwidth - The frequency range of signals transmitted or received. It is measured in Megahertz.
Bits per second (bps) - Often preceded by K (kilo/thousands) or M (mega/million).
Baud - The number of signalling elements that occur each second. At slow speeds, only one bit of information (signalling element) is encoded in each electrical change. The baud, therefore, indicates the number of bits per second that are transmitted. For example, 300 baud means that 300 bits are transmitted each second (abbreviated 300 bps ). Assuming asynchronous communication, which requires 10 bits per character, this translates to 30 characters per second (cps). For slow rates (below 1,200 baud), you can divide the baud by 10 to see how many characters per second are sent.
Broadband - A transmission facility that has a bandwidth (capacity) capable of carrying numerous voice, video, and data channels simultaneously. Each channel operates on a different frequency. Cable TV is a broadband transmission.
Building Backbone Cable - A Cable that connects the building distributor or MDF to a floor distributor or IDF. Building backbone cables may also interconnect floor distributors or IDF in the same building.
Bus - A local Area Network topology in which all workstations are connected to a single cable. On a bus network all workstations hear all transmissions on the cable. Each workstation hears all transmissions on the cable. Each workstation then selects those transmissions addressed to it based on the address information contained in the transmission.
C
Channel - The Logical / Physical path for the transmission of Data.
Chromatic Dispersion - Distortion or dispersion of a pulse in an optical fibre due to differences in wave velocity caused by variations in the indices of refraction for different portions of the optical fibre.
Cladding - The name given to the low refractive index material surrounding the fibre core which provides optical insulation and physically protects the core.
Cross Connect - When Patch Cords or jumpers are used to connect elements of a Structured Cabling system.
Crosstalk - The unwanted introduction of signals from one channel to another via electromagnetic interference.
D
Data Circuit Terminating Equipment (DCE) - EIA Terminology for equipment such as modems & multiplexers.
Dispersion - The spreading, or broadening, of light pulses as they travel through the fibre.
Distributor - Term used for the Patch Panel & Patch Cords used to interconnect cables.
Duplex - Name given to 2 fibre cables of figure 8 type construction.
Duplex (Half) - Data can only be transmitted or received at one time.
Duplex (Full) - Data can be transmitted & received at the same time effectively doubling throughput.
E
Effective Cut-off wavelength - The wavelength above which only one mode of light propagates.
Equipment Room - the room dedicated for housing distributors and associated equipment.
F
Fibre Optic - A Technology which uses glass or plastic fibre to transmit information.
Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) - A Standard for 100Mbps Local Area Network.
G
Graded Index Fibre - Refers to the refractive index of a fibre core which is decreased (Graded) from the centre of the core outwards.
H
Horizontal - Also referred to as "Home Run" this is the term given to the system cabling that connects the Floor Distributor or Patch Panel to the telecommunications outlet which is usually an RJ45 type connector.
I
ISO IEC 11801 - International Standards for commercial building wiring for voice and data communication.
J
Jacket - The outside covering of a cable.
Jumper - This is length of wire without connectors which is used to make a semi-permanent connection to a cross connect.
K
Kevlar - An aramid fibre used to provide crush resistance and pulling strength in a fibre cable. Kevlar is a Trademark of the Du Pont company.
L
Local Area Network (LAN) - The name given to a data communications network which spans a limited area. It provides communication between 3 or more computers.
Light Emitting Diode (LED) - A semi-conductor device that emits light when a potential is applied to it.
Loose Tube - A protective tube surrounding one or more fibres - usually in cables designed for use in outside plant applications.
M
Megabits Per Second (Mbps or Mb/s) - Rate of Data Transmission.
Mechanical Splice - The term given to a type of Fibre splicing method.
Microbending - Bends in the fibre usually of a radius less than 1mm which cause a loss in the fibre due to leaking of light through the core cladding interface.
Mode - Specifically, an electromagnetic field distribution that satisfies theoretical requirements for propagation in a waveguide or oscillation in a cavity. Mode exists in fibres and lasers . Very simply, they may be thought of as paths in which the light rays travel.
Multimode Fibre - A fibre that carries multiple modes of light.
N
Narrow-band - Transmission at less than 2 Mbit/s
Network interface card/controller - The circuitry that connects a node to the network, usually in the form of a card fitted into one of the expansion slots in the back of the machine. It works with the network software and operating system to transmit and receive messages on the network.
Network operating system - The software that connects all the devices on a network so that resources can be shared efficiently and files can be transferred. It handles administration of all network functions. Network operating systems are usually in two parts; server and client/requester. The requester puts the workstation onto the network and re-routes data over the network when necessary. The server software runs on the server machine and makes disks, software, ports and other facilities available to a node on request. Each device's services requested by a PC are accessed by the requester software.
NFS - Network File System. Set of Unix protocols (originally developed by Sun Microsystems) for file sharing across a LAN.
Nodes - Devices on a network that demand or supply services or where transmission paths are connected. Node is often used instead of workstation.
O
Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) - An instrument for measuring Fibre Optic Cable backscattering characteristics.
P
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.
Physical Layer - The lowest layer in the OSI architecture.
Power Sum Crosstalk - Cumulative signal distortion as a result of signal coupling into one pair by other pairs energized in a cable sheath.
Pulse Spreading - Limits the "Bandwidth" of a Fibre Optic cable
S
Singlemode Fibre - A fibre that carries a Single mode wave.
T
Token Ring - A type of computer network in which all the computers are arranged (schematically) in a circle. A token, which is a special bit pattern, travels around the circle. To send a message, a computer catches the token, attaches a message to it, and then lets it continue to travel around the network.
U
UTP - Short for Unshielded Twisted Pair, a popular type of cable that consists of two unshielded wires twisted around each other. Due to its low cost, UTP cabling is used extensively for local-area networks (LANs) and telephone connections.
W
Wide Area Network (WAN) - A computer network that spans a relatively large geographical area. Typically, a WAN consists of two or more local-area networks (LANs).
Wireless LAN - Used in cases where a physical link is not possible utilizes microwave technology to transmit data.
- http://www.seaside.ns.ca/news.html
- http://www.globeconsult.ca/applications.html
- http://www.thelcn.on.ca/
- http://www.smartcitycornwall.com/overview.htm
- http://www.canarie.ca/advnet/canet3/fibre.html
- http://www.rural.org/workshops/rural_telecom/egan/
- Lanark Communications Network
- Valley Heartland Community Development Corporation
- Lanark Community Links
Project contact
Bob Leitch, Executive Director
Lanark Communications Network
15 Victoria Street
Perth, Ontario
tel: 613-267-5593
fax: 613-267-3860
leitch@theLCN.on.ca- http://www.onet.on.ca/
- http://www.networks-ontario.com/tap/e-telecom_access.html
Ontario Provincial Government TAP program- http://corvette.sasktel.com/tours/fibre.html
- http://www.city.grande-prairie.ab.ca/ccy_faq.htm
Good Web Site- http://www.rural.org/publications/Rowley99-1.pdf
- http://ruraltelecon.org/aolawards/aolcommon/aolawardviewpub.asp?awardid=2799
- http://www.ruralfiber.net/
- http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/pics/fn/noprfots.gif
map- http://www.orilliaedc.on.ca/fibre.htm
Orilla, Ontario- http://www.city.sudbury.on.ca/html/wired_press.htm
- http://www.srdc.on.ca/innovation/surenet.html#top
- http://www.alts.net/ns1625/nshist32.html
- http://www.items.fr/GlobalForum98/s3-a.htm
Madison, Newcastle, New Mexico etc.- http://www.canarie.ca/MLISTS/testnet/1375.html
Ottawa dark fibre consortium- http://www.evert.com/SampleIssues/netlet/
- http://www.canarie.ca/funding/anast.html#funding
- http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_innov/tech/engdoc/1b1.html
- http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/online/sasumme.html
- http://www.coop_studies.usask.ca/murray/Telecom.html#Contents
- http://noc.dal.ca/CommServ/GigaPOP/report-Apr-2000.html
- http://town.smiths-falls.on.ca/business/index.html
- http://www.l2l.org/testbeds/96037.html
- http://www.mtsadvanced.com/news/nr_2000_0202.html
Churchill fibre optic installation- http://142.36.87.105/_disc5/00000003.htm
connecting rural/remote BC- http://www.crc.ca/index.cfm?d=generalinfo/two_way_multimedia_request_e
- http://net97.dal.ca/970402-01/
fibre optics in Thompson, Manitoba- http://noc.dal.ca/CommServ/GigaPOP/report-2Q2000.html
- http://www.angelfire.com/nt/access1/ntech.html
benefits- http://www.regionalcable.com/pressreleases/200004241.html
- http://www.ci.longmont.co.us/LPC/gen/CityFiber.htm
benefits
Grande Prairie – A Study in Content
The following is taken from the Grande Prairie Web Site ( http://www.city.grande-prairie.ab.ca/ccy_faq.htm ). It offers a keen insight to why a municipality would want to develop an on-line presence, contributing to content.
Why should a municipal government develop an on-line presence? What are the purposes of a municipal website and other on-line systems and activities?
- [The responses below are mostly taken from the
background paper "Strategic Planning for Information Technology and
Telecommunications: Exploiting Global Information Exchange in the 1990s and
Beyond." It contains extensive footnotes identifying (and in many cases
providing links to) the sources of the excerpts quoted there. The latter are
mainly national information technology policy papers.]
- As the Canadian Minister of Industry pointed out in The Canadian
Information Highway, "the information highway initiative is essential
for Canada's success in a new global economy in which value, jobs and wealth
are based on the creation, movement and application of information."
Municipal governments must learn about and exploit these Information Age
technologies in order to gain the efficiencies and capabilities necessary for
improving service delivery for their constituents. Municipal governments can
also encourage and assist their constituents to learn about and prepare to
participate and compete in the Information Age.
- On-line delivery of information about civic government will be an essential
part of information distribution within a few short years; and the ability to
collect feedback and direction from the electorate on governance has the
potential to revolutionize the way local government is conducted in the 21st
century. An understanding of the principles, precepts and limitations of
on-line information exchange is essential to these activities: for municipal
government management and staff, for elected municipal officials and for
members of their constituencies.
- As an Australian national government paper points out, government has an
obligation to exercise its influence to deliver universal access and ability
to contribute to on-line information. This notion is consistent with the
historic provision of libraries and telephone services.
- The ability to participate in "communities of interest" and
"intellectual interaction," (both significant attributes of the
information age) will become essential for governments if it is not essential
presently. Government elected officials and workers at all levels need to be
gaining experience in these on-line methods and activities, and expanding the
peer relationships necessary for sharing of best practices and general
information.
- The relatively small costs of improving information infrastructure (less
costly than roads or utility infrastructure) make it attractive financially,
especially when considered in terms of its considerable benefits. The rapidly
falling costs and rapidly evolving changes of the Information Age also add
urgency to the need for action. Not many of the elements of cost in government
services are declining. Government needs to take advantage of these areas
where unit costs are declining in order to contain overall costs of service
delivery.
- Government workers at all levels also needs to take full advantage of
world-wide inter-networking to seek out and obtain the best ideas and the most
imaginative innovations of their counterparts from all over the world.
Government will only be able to cope with and take advantage of the increasing
pace of change if they use the very best available ideas from a wide variety
of the most forward-thinking visionaries in every aspect of their work.
- Government will need to adopt a deliberate, well-informed strategic
integration of telecommunications policy with other policies and strategies in
order to be sure that government activities gain an equitable balance of the
considerable benefits of on-line communications (both for the planning and
delivery of government services, and for the work, education and recreation of
everyone in the community).
- The Information Age is sweeping upon us like a tidal wave (whether we are
prepared or not). Its potential to revolutionize ways of working,
thinking, learning, relaxing and living can hardly be over-stated. Its essence
is not merely the connection (the ability to access and contribute to
information flows); it is not even the new associations, contacts and interest
groups that are formed. It is the broadened understanding of a more global
point of view, the products of the analysis, assimilation and integration of
more information, and the addition of this increased understanding to the
information which is passed on that is the strategically important outcome of
government's being connected to the Information Superhighway. It is this
adding of value to the information flows which will position government to
exploit global information exchange and collaboration in the 1990s and into
the 21st century.
- Miles, R. Fidelman, in his paper: "Life in the Fastlane: a Municipal
Roadmap for the Information Superhighway," points out that "a
hundred years ago, lack of a railroad stop condemned many towns to a lingering
death. Thirty years ago, Interstate interchanges helped many communities to
prosper, while those on back roads stagnated. Now the information superhighway
is coming." He then asks: "Will your town be ready?" Our
challenge now is to build electronic city streets to link homes, libraries,
schools, hospitals and businesses, and to provide and exploit these
information services everywhere.
- Properly connected, these networks portend great promise for municipal
governments, including at least the following.
- Streamlining of internal operations by reducing dependence on paper and
increasing the utilization of electronic speeds to expedite information
flows.
- Reducing redundancies and overlaps by sharing equipment and by jointly
accessing common sources of relevant, timely information.
- Increasing effectiveness of agencies through better coordination and
quicker, more reliable access to shared information.
- Stimulating the sharing of access arrangements in which the large
economies of scale can be brought to all members of the community.
- Providing more timely and accurate information through use of
electronic distribution systems, and through other public access to
government documents and advisories.
- Providing ways for smaller businesses to participate in projects at the
end of a telephone line where their presence was not practical before. The
effect stimulates local levels of economic activity, even though sources
of revenue may be miles away. The small rural community of Linton, North
Dakota, for example, provides employment for 200 in a branch data
processing office for a large travel agency in Philadelphia (1,400 air
miles away).
- Promoting effective distance learning miles from centers of specialized
education through the association of students and professors using
interactive video, audio and data links.
- Encouraging telecommuting in order to exploit the opportunities in which individuals whose intellectual and information-based contributions to an enterprise can easily be conducted from the end of a telephone line anywhere in the world.
- Streamlining of internal operations by reducing dependence on paper and
increasing the utilization of electronic speeds to expedite information
flows.
- The City of San Diego adopted in late 1994 a Telecommunications Policy that
used the model from the League of California Cities. That policy recognized:
- new emerging telecommunications capabilities,
- a big increase in telecommunications responsibility for cities, and
- the need to coordinate telecomm policy with other city policy.
- Its objectives included improved administrative efficiency in service
delivery, reduced budget deficits, improved democratic governance, improved
equity in delivery of government services to citizens with low and moderate
incomes, and those with limited mobility, reducing air pollution, traffic
congestion and energy consumption through telecommuting, distance learning,
etc., encouraging economic development, and ensuring affordable universal
access and ability to contribute for all citizens. The Policy included
provisions:
- to gain the best use of this emerging technology for city services and
administrative activities,
- to assure fair information principles which would balance the
objectives of open government with protection of the privacy rights of
citizens,
- to consider privacy rights in planning and introduction of all new
information systems, including limitations on data collected, limitations
on secondary uses and sales of the data, rights of citizens to know what
information had been collected about them, how it would be used, that the
data was accurate, and that there were adequate means to correct errors,
- to assure security of data against unauthorized collection, access, use
or dissemination, and
- to educate the citizens about the uses of this data, and their rights with respect to data about them.
- to gain the best use of this emerging technology for city services and
administrative activities,
- Government can assure universal access to the information (at an affordable
price). As the Internet is developed and expanded, care must be exercised at
every turn to assure that economically disadvantaged and rural citizens are
not excluded from access to these information flows purely because costs
exceed their means, or distances are inconvenient.
- Government can assure universal ability to contribute new information,
ideas and debate. As discussion extends to world-wide constituencies, every
individual has a potential contribution to make to the welfare of the whole.
Individuals suffer from a lack of information; and society as a whole is
impoverished through the imbalance in participation if some groups are
preferred over others. Governments have an obligation to adopt policies and
practices which mitigate effectively against these exclusions.
- Government has other important roles to play:
- Balancing the aims of open government and individual rights to privacy
and intellectual property ownership;
- Maintaining public ownership of publicly-generated information stocks,
archives and data bases;
- Promoting and encouraging the required changes in education and
learning for young and old (including education of citizens concerning
their information technology rights);
- Promoting and encouraging (and in certain cases providing) information
about the Information Age and how to prepare to participate and compete in
it.
- Facilitating exploitation by industry, business and commerce;
- Becoming partners with business and the community to assist and
encourage both, and to harness significant economies of scale for the
benefit of all;
- Encouraging standards of interconnection and interoperability of
networks and systems;
- Streamlining and improving information and other service delivery to
the electorate;
- Doing its share to set an example in adding value to global flows of
information; and
- Gaining essential experience in critical evaluation of information and analysis of the credibility of information sources.
- Balancing the aims of open government and individual rights to privacy
and intellectual property ownership;
- In every case above, an understanding of the principles, precepts, traditions, practices, trends and limitations of on-line information exchange is essential to discharging these obligations and responsibilities. Governments which do not actively pursue this understanding at virtually every level and fail to gain the commensurate experience will find themselves in jeopardy of significantly failing their constituents.
Industry Minister Announces New Internet Initiative
On October 16, 2000 Minister John Manley announced the Federal Government was formulating a plan that would inject more than $1-billion to allow every community in Canada to have extra-fast access to the Internet by 2004.
Although this was Mr. Manley’s last announcement on his way to his new portfolio, the program that would likely receive the additional funding would be Connecting Canadians, which has a long track record of successfully receiving funds from the government.
Mr. Manley stated "We think that our rural areas ought to have a level of access to high-speed Internet services that’s comparable to the cities, or which will become available in the cities because that’s the economic reality. That’s the real challenge."
The figure of $1-billion comes from a comparison to what other countries such as Sweden and the United States are investing in their communications infrastructure.
CANARIE 6th Annual Network Workshop
November 28 – 29, 2000
The theme for this year’s workshop is "The Networked Nation." The workshop will focus on the next generation CA*net 3 and the ever increasing dark fibre networks emerging across Canada. The workshop features representatives from municipalities, schools, hospital and businesses who are engaged in the development and deployment of dark fibre municipal networks.
A main goal of the workshops is to try and achieve an "application grid" linking all of the dark fibre networks into one seamless grid system. This would allow the sharing of resources and information across the entire dark fibre system in Canada.
CANARIE Statistics – October 2000
According to a recent report from CRU Monitor, (www.cru.co.uk) Canada is the number one country in terms of percentage growth of fibre networks deployment and production.
Top Four in Deployment of Fibre Networks
|
Canada |
USA |
Germany |
France |
|
63.1% |
38.8% |
33.1% |
29.4% |
Top Four in Production and Manufacturing of Fibre Optic Cable
|
Canada |
France |
Germany |
USA |
|
74.6% |
68.9% |
50.5% |
37.5% |
1) Municipal Fibre Networks have encouraged many new business ventures. One of the more successful is the development of long distance LANs. These LANs are being developed as a means to service industries by matching workers with industry where the need may temporary or where distance between the industry and the workers are prohibitive for daily travel. This of course has many more applications such as workers that unable to attend due to adverse weather or road conditions and workers who may be away from the location on other business matters.
The fibre optic LAN network allows for high bandwidth activities like voice over IP and two way video. Applications can also be run over the network at usable speed.
2) Computers have now become so fast that the infrastructure may impede system performance in a major way. There is little reason to purchase an extremely fast computer if the communications infrastructure upon which it depends is too slow.
Small business is finding that they are forced to consider relocating to larger urban centres if they are to be competitive in the global market. These small businesses are now so heavily dependent on the Internet that the price and speed of the local loop services are becoming critical. In larger urban centres the cost of service is decreasing and the bandwidth is, in most cases, at least maintaining pace with other communication technologies, giving the urban locations a definite advantage.
CANAIRIE News – November 2, 2000
Recently in Colorado "Hatchet Ranch Rye Telephone Co. is taking fibre optic cable all the way to the ranchers. According to the telco the fibre costs came in just slightly over what it would cost for copper. The ranches are spread out over many miles."
"Tearing out legacy copper in favor of new fibre optic technology is a looming decision many local carriers and service providers will face in the not to distant future. As for new builds, fibre benefits are gaining the edge for both business and residential customers who want bandwidth to burn."
CANAIRIE News – November 3, 2000
In part…
The Alberta government announced it awarded a contract to Bell Intrigna, Cisco, Nortel and other companies to build a fibre network that will provide fibre infrastructure to more than 420 communities in Alberta. "This will open up telecom competition to all the communities and provide 10 and 100 Mbps Internet service to all schools, hospitals and other public sector institutions."
CANAIRIE News – November 5, 2000
In part…
"As we have seen in Alberta, the government and the university research community can play a pivotal role in accelerating facilities based, open competition in all telecommunication markets including rural and remote communities. Governments throughout the world are facing the same challenges that the Alberta government has now successfully addressed – how to promote the rapid development of the Internet to all citizens but particularly to schools, libraries and other public sector institutions in rural and remote communities."
"In the past to achieve this goal governments awarded large contracts to a single carrier or implemented programs like e-rate, both of which tended to reinforce the incumbent carrier. But the Alberta government announcement points to a third way – where government investment for Internet broadband service to schools and other public sector institutions can be used as lever to build open access condominium fiber networks that are available to all competitors. This levels the playing field and lowers the barrei4rs of entry for new competitors, even in rural and remote communities."
Newspaper Article
Small township, big-city infrastructure
A Seaway community has put public money into its own high-speed fibre-optic network, Vito Pilieci reports.
Vito Pilieci
The Ottawa Citizen
A small township south of Ottawa has taken a bold move that is attracting world attention and promises to revitalize local business.
South Dundas, which surrounds Morrisburg along the St. Lawrence River, has used a municipal surplus to string its own fibre-optic cable throughout the township, bringing its residents high-speed Internet access and offering high-tech companies the massive of bandwidth they need.
"We are the first community in Canada to be fully connected by fibre optics for industrial commercial and retail," says Tom Morrow, president of South Dundas Chamber of Commerce who grew tired of sitting back and watching a convoy of high-tech businesses flock to Ottawa.
"The cable is done and we are ready for the hook up."
He says that being the first in Canada, his township has received attention from communities all over the world interested in finding out more about South Dundas's initiative.
"Anybody in the high-tech connectivity market is aware of what's happening here," Mr. Morrow said. "We are getting e-mail from Africa, Australia and the U.S. ... all interested in what we are doing and asking questions about locating here."
Tapping into municipal surpluses from the South Dundas Hydro Commission, the township believes it paid a bargain price of $500,000 to have the fibre-optic cable installed.
"We have done this at prices that are unheard of ... and the system is owned by the taxpayers," Mr. Morrow said.
The biggest attraction of South Dundas's latest addition is that the community owns the cable.
This means no service fees have to be paid to telephone or cable companies for the use of the wires. To those taking advantage of the high-speed service, that translates into extremely low user fees.
"They haven't released the pricing to me, other than to tell me it will blow people away," Mr. Morrow said.
The whole idea for the township to string its own fibre-optic cable followed a discussion with Prophet Technologies Inc. of Kanata
"We serviced a client with five different offices and we suggested in the local towns we could solve problems by running a piece of fibre-optic cable," said Max Toms, Prophet's president and chief executive. "They petitioned the townships of South Dundas, North Dundas and Prescott's municipal offices and they said, 'You can run fibre. Will you run more for us?' "
After finding out the exact requirements to completely re-wire the townships, Prophet Technologies began to prepare the townships for their digital future. Mr. Toms said that in its previous state their was no way for a township such as South Dundas to attract new businesses involved in high technology.
"The Internet service here is pretty well limited to local phone lines. With that the economic development here has been dismal in the last 1o years. Now it's an energy. It's quite different."
Looking over the number of jobs that have been lost in South Dundas alone throughout the past 10 years had locals puzzled, given the massive growth in the Ottawa area.
"Crime is lower, land costs less, taxes are lower, quality of life couldn't be higher, its close to all the major transportation media. Why would we not be growing?" Mr. Toms said.
To answer that question, South Dundas analysed Ottawa's booming technology sector and decided that to attract new business, it had to have something those businesses look for.
"That's exactly why this is being done," Mr. Morrow said. "We feel, as a chamber of commerce, the day has come where bandwidth and connectivity is as basic as a telephone line was a few years ago."
Mr. Morrow believes that now that the cable is installed, high tech will flock to take advantage of South Dundas's high-speed access at rock-bottom fees.
"JDS Uniphase could build an office here and have people working on the banks of the beautiful St. Lawrence River and have instant access to everything all over the world," Mr. Morrow said.
The official launch of South Dundas's fibre-optic network will be held on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. at the town's McIntosh Country Inn, an announcement Mr. Morrow said the community's entire business community will be on hand for.
MTS Announcement - $300 Million on ADSL Technology
The following is a clarification of the Manitoba Telecom Services announcement made on September 22, 2000 as written by the Smart Winnipeg Technical Committee on October 19, 2000 and submitted to the Smart Winnipeg Board of Directors.
The Manitoba Telecom Services News Release of September 22 requires further clarification. The following is information about the announcement and what it really means to the City and the Province.
In reviewing the press releases, speaking notes, news articles and television news coverage and in conversation with MTS and Provincial officials, we have a better understanding of the $300 Million high-speed Internet project.
NextGen is a higher-speed (Next Generation) ADSL service, which represents a technology improvement to the existing infrastructure and little new infrastructure. About 40% of the $300 Million will be spent on electronics that uses the existing system more efficiently, justifying the announcement of higher-speed. 30% will be spent on fibre related expenses (engineers, labour…) mainly in Winnipeg and Brandon. MTS has included in their plan 40,000 strand kilometres of new fibre. Assuming strands are bundled as 48 in a cable, that would be 833 kilometres and if the strands are bundled as 192 in a cable, that would be 208 kilometres of fibre - shared between the cities of Winnipeg and Brandon.
At the moment MTS fibre is primarily deployed between their own Central Offices (COs). The new fibre would go from COs to selected major users – or in the words of an MTS official, the new fibre will get "closer to the customer." The new equipment handles data transmissions much more efficiently than existing equipment. We can expect 10 of these new units, called "DSLAMs" to be installed in Winnipeg. MTS was forced to make this upgrade in order to remain competitive with cable services and wireless offerings.
MTS has not finalized the pricing structure, however they say it will be substantially more than their current high-speed internet offering priced at $39.95 per month.
Broadband access will not be significantly expanded geographically, but improved to needs the current high demand customers in Winnipeg and Brandon. MTS can state that "no other competitor will have anywhere near this level of provincial coverage" because the improved Internet access service is being delivered on existing infrastructure, already owned by MTS. A statement from the press release that is often cited is "Internet technology will be available to 85 % of Manitoba." This statement should be interpreted as meaning Internet technology will be available to 85% of the population of Manitoba; signifying most service improvements will occur in major urban, high population centres.
Although the speed of the rural Internet service may be improved in areas where it is already available, this announcement does little to ensure those communities outside the existing prime service areas will see any marked improvement in the levels of their telephone or Internet service. The MTS claim of "200 times faster than any dial-up option available today" in rural areas is based on being 200 times faster than a 14.4 modem.
What is not stated in the News Release or Speakers Notes, but was captured by the subsequent Television and Newspaper articles is the fact that this new and improved service also comes with a new and higher price tag. As much as double the existing monthly costs. (MTS has quoted figures starting at $699 for modems, plus $175 for installation and the fee of $55 per month and the addition of a surcharge of $0.50 per hour on time used). An issue of great importance is not only the availability of Internet services to Manitobans but the availability of affordable Internet services.
The statement that there will be "up to 5 times increase in speed than any high-speed service available in Winnipeg and Brandon" is misleading as cable modem services are in many cases already faster than the MTS ADSL service. This statement was questioned by the Free Press in the front page article printed on Saturday, September 23 as being something less than totally correct. MTS has used 1.5 mbps as their base to claim a 5 times increase to the expected delivery of 8 mbps. MTS claims 1.5 mbps is an average cable download speed, but in reality it is the worst case scenario for cable delivery.
The Press Release states that MTS will be "deploying fibre to select industrial parks, hotels and major office buildings." Although this is wonderful news for those that can afford the service, it does little to ensure that small to medium size businesses in Winnipeg’s IT cluster are given the improved gigabit service.
Statements on security or reliability improvements are exaggerated, even MTS must aggregate its traffic once it leaves the Central Office (CO). There are no security improvements due to ADSL technology.
The Community Rollout Plan indicates which communities have a demonstrated business case for MTS and is not based on their need or desire to participate. Although every community listed would benefit from the improved technology not all residents and businesses will be able to afford the increased costs associated with this improvement, nor do they necessarily have the local infrastructure to carry the technology without further expenditures.
There is much to celebrate in the MTS announcement but we need to keep it in perspective. MTS is facing an onslaught of new competition and some key contract renewals over the next several years. In order for them to maintain the upper hand and stay in the favor of Manitobans and Manitoba’s leaders they need to be perceived as leaders in the communications industry in Manitoba. This announcement has much to offer to a select few urban Manitobans and Manitoba businesses but does little to address the real need in Winnipeg and Manitoba for an improved communications infrastructure.
Many communities will still not have adequate telecommunications services and even more will not be able to afford the new and improved technology, pushing them even further away from the digital economy. MTS is still not offering dark fibre as a product. It has become even more urgent to address a municipal fibre build. As MTS improves the service to businesses and residents, more demand will be placed on the City of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Government to provide services electronically. The Municipal Fibre Build will serve the greater mandates of economic development and municipal revitalization, connecting municipal buildings, universities, schools, hospitals.
Virtual Community Municipal Fibre Map and Costing Study
Legend:
|
TL - Town Limit (Service Entry Point) W - Water Treatment M - Manufacturing Plant S - School #1 C - City Hall H - Hospital PG - Provincial Government Office I P - Industrial Park |
A P - Airport R - Rail Station L - Public Library F - Fire Hall P - Police S - School #2 CC - Community Centre ----------- - New Municipal Fibre Run |
|
From |
To |
Facility |
Distance |
Accumulated Distance |
|
Distribution Run 1 |
||||
|
TL |
W |
Water Treatment Plant |
500 |
500 |
|
W |
M |
Manufacturing Plant |
500 |
1000 |
|
M |
S |
School #1 High School |
500 |
1500 |
|
S |
C |
City Hall |
800 |
2300 |
|
C |
H |
Hospital |
400 |
2700 |
|
H |
I P |
Industrial Park |
1000 |
3700 |
|
I P |
A P |
Airport |
600 |
4300 |
|
Distribution Run 2 |
||||
|
H |
L |
Library |
500 |
4800 |
|
C |
PG |
Provincial Offices |
600 |
5400 |
|
PG |
F |
Fire Hall |
600 |
6200 |
|
Distribution Run 3 |
||||
|
C |
R |
Rail Station |
650 |
6650 |
|
C |
P |
Police |
1200 |
7850 |
|
P |
S |
School #2 Elementary |
750 |
8600 |
|
S |
CC |
Community Centre |
1000 |
9600 |
|
Main Run Only (Infrastructure Backbone) |
||||
|
TL |
TL |
Town Limit to Town Limit |
5900 |
|
|
Total kilometres of fibre required for Run 1, 2, 3 |
9.6 |
|||
The largest portion of cost for fibre installations is not the cost of the physical fibre but of the labour to install the fibre. For the purposes of this costing example a sheath of 12 strands is used.
There are three ways in which fibre can be installed:
- Aerial, on existing Hydro or Telephone poles, $3 - $6 per meter for pulling fibre, with an additional $5 - $6 for the sheath of 36 strands of fibre (table uses combined $12 per metre)
- Buried cable in existing conduit, $7 - $10 per meter (Laying Fibre)
- New trenching and laying of conduit, $35 per meter (10% of this is fibre and table uses $35 per metre)
An Annual maintenance budget of $150 - $250 per kilometer, per year is considered sufficient for most municipalities. (table uses $200)
In the virtual community there are 9.6 kilometres of sheathed fibre required to connect the communities public, government and operational facilities. Eight kilometres will be installed on overhead rights of way owned by the Hydro utility. The remaining 1.6 kilometres will be installed in new underground conduit due to the rail line and the river which pass through the community. The following chart illustrates the projected installation and maintenance costs
|
Location |
Distance |
Overhead |
Underground |
Total Install Cost |
Maintenance |
|
Run 1 |
4300 |
3000 metres x = $36,000 |
1300 metres x = $45,500 |
$36, 000 + $81,500 |
4.3 km x $200 = $860 |
|
Run 2 |
1700 |
1700 metres x = $20,400 |
N/A |
$20,400 |
1.7 km x $200 = $340 |
|
Run 3 |
3600 |
3600 metres x = $43,200 |
N/A |
$43,200 |
3.6 km x $200 = $720 |
|
Backbone |
5900 |
5000 metres x $12 per metre = $60,000 |
900 metres x = $31,500 |
$60,000 + $91,500 |
5.9 km x $200 = $1,180 |
|
Total for Backbone |
$91,500 |
$1,180 |
|||
|
Total for Run 1, 2, 3 |
$145,100 |
$1,920 |
|||
- URL: http://www.bev.net/
- Blacksburg, An Electronic Village
- Telecommunications for Neighborhoods and Community
- Sustaining Civic Networks
- Community Investment in Telecommunications Infrastructure
