usucansponsor

[James Werle <>]

All,

 

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition commissioned a white paper by CTC Technology & Energy estimating the cost of deploying high-speed, fiber optic broadband to community anchor institutions.  Below are links to the full report and a summary document.

 

Full report - http://shlb.org/uploads/Policy/Infrastructure/SHLB_ConnectingAnchors_CostEstimate.pdf

Summary - http://shlb.org/uploads/Policy/Infrastructure/SHLB_ToAndThrough_Overview.pdf

 

Key Findings:

 

• The cost of deploying fiber to all the remaining anchor institutions (except in Alaska) that do not have high speed connections can range from $13 billion to $19 billion if done in a coordinated manner over 5 to 7 years. This estimate is based on an extrapolation from the broadband data collected by states and uses a cost model analyzing six different geographic typologies.
• Costs can also be lowered if broadband infrastructure is open to interconnection, so that existing infrastructure could be used rather than building out additional, duplicative infrastructure.
• An open application process that does not pick winners and losers and allows commercial providers (such as incumbent telcos, cable companies, and competitive providers) and non-commercial providers (such as Research and Education Networks and municipal providers) to bid can help to lower the costs of deployment.
• Ninety-five percent of residential consumers are within the zip code of an anchor institution, an indication that building “to and through” anchor institutions could help bring high-speed broadband to millions of unserved residential and business customers as well.

 

If there’s interest, this report may be an interesting topic to bring to our community meeting at the Internet2 Global Summit coming up in San Diego on Monday May 7^th 2018.

 

Best Regards,

James

 

James Werle

Executive Director, U.S. UCAN

Internet2