Thanks for reading! The high speed internet service my parents were able to receive was from a local company called Nodin Wifi. It’s headquartered in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Their service reach currently extends to most areas of the Chippewa and Mackinac Counties of Michigan, and they have been expanding their services to include some of the more desolate and underserved areas of the Eastern Upper Peninsula. Their hub is located on top of the Tower of History in downtown Sault Ste. Marie.

http://nodincomm.com

Thanks!

It’s very insightful researching some of the history on the ILECs and the impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. I found this interesting graph and report by the consulting and research company, Technology Futures Inc.. This graph really helped me to visualize the present state and the forcasted decline of the ILEC lines.

The article reads: “As shown in the above forecast figure (Figure 6.1 in report), the growth of broadband lines on digital subscriber line (DSL) has helped stabilize the total number of incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) lines (narrowband and broadband) to about 180 million lines. However, as is clear from the forecast, even with the continued growth of broadband, soon the total number of ILEC lines will likely decline dramatically, because further additions in broadband connections cannot make up for the precipitous decline in narrowband access lines. Also illustrated is the forecast transition from standard broadband to very high speed (VHS) broadband.”

I would like to read more about this in the “Forecasts of Access Line Competition in the Local Exchange: Forth Edition”, but the $1,495.00 price tag for the full report has stopped me short.

I just read an interesting article on MinnPost.com about some areas in the rural and remote areas of northern Minnesota (Cook’s County), and how some of their local citizens voicing their opinions.

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2009/10/05/12114/broadband_connectivity_is_a_big_issue_in_rural_and_remote_parts_of_minnesota

The writer quoted some convincing information from a local professor who is on the MN Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force (Jack Geller from the University of Minnesota Crookston) who spoke on some interesting parallels of the available broadband internet service to that of the private railroad, vs. the tax paid highway system.

“”Information Superhighway” is the metaphor we typically ascribe to the medium enabling this revolution. Your typical highway, though, is built with tax dollars. Everyone can drive on it. And we expect the government to maintain it — again, with tax dollars.

In contrast, connectivity has emerged more like a railroad than a highway, said Geller at the University of Minnesota Crookston. “I build tracks, and I run my cars on my tracks,” he said. “If you want to run your cars on these tracks, you have to pay me for it. And if you try to compete with me, I will fight that.” Connectivity is a private service for the most part, he said: “If you can afford it, you get it. If you can’t, you don’t.”"

It appears that there are many of our fellow citizens throughout our our Great Lakes Region and neighboring states that are still on the fringes of technology because they live or work in these rural dead zones. It’s comforting to know that there are programs in place to bring them up to speed internet wise, and that the government believes in nobody left behind in this Information Age.

Tune in and I’ll try and keep us posted on the latest…Hang on – it’s gonna be a wild ride!”

“Broadband connectivity is defined as access to Internet service that supports data transmission at a minimum download speed of 1.5 Mbps to the household. The program has a minimum target upload speed of 384 kbps. For both upload and download, the program expects a maximum oversubscription ratio of 10:1 on access bandwidth to backhaul bandwidth when the total number of users per node is 100 or less. The acceptable oversubscription ratio would scale linearly up to 50:1 as the number of users on a node approaches 10,000″

This means that in order to serve 100 subscribers, for example, an internet provider must dedicate 15mbps of backhaul in order to be eligible for funding. That will be challenging for small providers to finance, and seems unreasonable. In fact the program seems slanted toward funding national satellite internet provision. Anyway, you can view the above at Broadban Canada’s website directly:

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/719.nsf/eng/h_00004.html#Q5

Cheers, Bob

I just read another interesting article centered around our local Northern Michigan paradise. The Petoskey, MI area’s Northern Michigan Broadband Cooperative applied for funding made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. They had a really well written white paper on the subject and their trials and tribulations of bringing their rural population up to speed broadband wise.

A co-worker of mine has been talking lately about his cell service and access to the recently available 3G network – which is still a little hit or miss depending on location around Traverse City – either way, it sounds like progress. My parents living near Sault Ste. Marie still can’t get reliable cell service at their home, so the 3G/4G network still sounds like a Star Trek technology to them up there.

Here are the links to the article in the Petoskey News and the Northern Michigan Broadband Cooperative white paper. Good reading!

Article:
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2009/09/30/news/doc4ac3664f6d1c6225713112.txt

White Paper:
http://www.petoskeynews.net/images/editorial/NorthernMichiganBroadbandCooperativeWhitePaper.pdf

Canada is currently under a mapping process and a multimillion dollar programme to provide service. (I wish it were the $40 billion like Australia but I’ll take what I can get.)

Like the US and unlike some other countries broadband (high-speed Internet) service in Canada is a profit driven private sector enterprise. The majority of rural Canada will end up with a wireless solution which will be barely adequate in few years. In fact, wireless is the solution being installed in the Stokely area.

In my view, the best solution is 3G/4G for both telephone and broadband (high-speed Internet) service; do away with the landlines. At the moment 3G/4G broadband (high-speed Internet) is too expensive for the non-business user i.e. the average resident. Once 3G/4G becomes pervasive, it will drop in price and become more affordable.