Topic: Small-town utilities fill technology gap

[The Postman]

By ELLIOTT MINOR
The Associated Press
2/21/2004, 5:14 p.m. ET


ADEL, Ga. (AP) -- Paula Crosby's dial-up Internet connection was so slow she played computer solitaire while waiting for sluggish pages to appear. And when her teenage daughter surfed the Web, it tied up the family's phone line for hours.

Thanks to their small town's leap into the latest technology, the Crosby family now connects seven times faster with wireless broadband, and the cost is about what they paid for dial-up.

Adel, 250 miles south of Atlanta, has joined the growing ranks of rural communities offering some type of broadband Internet service ? wireless, cable, DSL or signals over electrical lines ? through municipal utility companies.

Some are comparing the community broadband movement to efforts that began in the late 1800s and continued through the 1930s to bring electricity to America's small towns and rural areas.

Of the nation's 2,000 public electric systems, 134 now provide Internet service, 128 provide broadband connections, 76 provide cable-modem DSL, and 39 offer wireless networking.

Georgia already has at least four wireless towns and there are plans to make Houston County, south of Macon, the state's first wireless county this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission have formed a partnership to bring wireless technology to rural areas, and the FCC announced in November that it would expand wireless-device frequencies to clear the way for more rural high-speed connections.

"Adel is a good example of a community that saw its needs and took matters in its own hand," said Jim Baller, a Washington attorney who represents public power utilities and the 2,000-member American Public Power Association.

Municipal utility companies began electrifying small towns in the 1890s.

"Thousands of communities were left in the dark until they formed their own electric utilities," Baller said. "Those that did were largely successful and many that didn't became ghost towns."

Proponents of municipal broadband say traditional providers, such as telephone and cable television companies, have been unwilling to upgrade their systems to serve rural customers. They compare it to the reluctance of power companies a century ago to expand beyond cities.

"The metropolitan areas were enjoying being at the forefront of technology. The rural areas were being left out," Adel City Manager Jerry Permenter said.

With municipal utilities stepping in to fill the technology gap, some say it's creating a reverse digital divide, where a growing number of country folks have better connections than their urban cousins.

Adel officials decided to go wireless after a communications company pulled out a few years ago, leaving the town with a fiber-optic system that was already connected to the state's Internet backbone. They opted for wireless to avoid the high cost of running cable to each home.

The town launched Southlink.us last October, offering residential and business service for $24.95 to $99.95, depending on connection speeds.

Mrs. Crosby said her family needed no coaxing after testing the system at City Hall.

"It blew me and my husband away," she said. "The instant I touched it, I was connected. It couldn't believe how fast it is."


And now, friends won't get as many busy signals when they phone the Crosby home.

"I like getting my phone back," she added.

 http://www.masslive.com/newsflash/technology/index.ssf?/base/national-0/107740194386841.xml
 

[Capt. Mike]

"Georgia already has at least four wireless towns and there are plans to make Houston County, south of Macon, the state's first wireless county this year."

That's actually humourous..Warner Robins AFB (a major depot and repair facility for F15's and C140's) is in the center of Houston (pronounced by the locals how-stun) county.  Spent three years there working the SATCOM at the PAVE PAWS site.  Just think, a major USAF facility and they're just now getting broadband in the area  
 

[NJAntman]

Good God, bring it on! I can only dare to dream what would happen if the local cable monopoly and phone monopolies had another competitor. Gee whiz, it would almost be like real capitalism and freedom of choice again!  

[The Postman]

By ELLIOTT MINOR
The Associated Press
2/21/2004, 5:14 p.m. ET


ADEL, Ga. (AP) -- Paula Crosby's dial-up Internet connection was so slow she played computer solitaire while waiting for sluggish pages to appear. And when her teenage daughter surfed the Web, it tied up the family's phone line for hours.

Thanks to their small town's leap into the latest technology, the Crosby family now connects seven times faster with wireless broadband, and the cost is about what they paid for dial-up.

Adel, 250 miles south of Atlanta, has joined the growing ranks of rural communities offering some type of broadband Internet service ? wireless, cable, DSL or signals over electrical lines ? through municipal utility companies.

Some are comparing the community broadband movement to efforts that began in the late 1800s and continued through the 1930s to bring electricity to America's small towns and rural areas.

Of the nation's 2,000 public electric systems, 134 now provide Internet service, 128 provide broadband connections, 76 provide cable-modem DSL, and 39 offer wireless networking.

Georgia already has at least four wireless towns and there are plans to make Houston County, south of Macon, the state's first wireless county this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission have formed a partnership to bring wireless technology to rural areas, and the FCC announced in November that it would expand wireless-device frequencies to clear the way for more rural high-speed connections.

"Adel is a good example of a community that saw its needs and took matters in its own hand," said Jim Baller, a Washington attorney who represents public power utilities and the 2,000-member American Public Power Association.

Municipal utility companies began electrifying small towns in the 1890s.

"Thousands of communities were left in the dark until they formed their own electric utilities," Baller said. "Those that did were largely successful and many that didn't became ghost towns."

Proponents of municipal broadband say traditional providers, such as telephone and cable television companies, have been unwilling to upgrade their systems to serve rural customers. They compare it to the reluctance of power companies a century ago to expand beyond cities.

"The metropolitan areas were enjoying being at the forefront of technology. The rural areas were being left out," Adel City Manager Jerry Permenter said.

With municipal utilities stepping in to fill the technology gap, some say it's creating a reverse digital divide, where a growing number of country folks have better connections than their urban cousins.

Adel officials decided to go wireless after a communications company pulled out a few years ago, leaving the town with a fiber-optic system that was already connected to the state's Internet backbone. They opted for wireless to avoid the high cost of running cable to each home.

The town launched Southlink.us last October, offering residential and business service for $24.95 to $99.95, depending on connection speeds.

Mrs. Crosby said her family needed no coaxing after testing the system at City Hall.

"It blew me and my husband away," she said. "The instant I touched it, I was connected. It couldn't believe how fast it is."


And now, friends won't get as many busy signals when they phone the Crosby home.

"I like getting my phone back," she added.

 http://www.masslive.com/newsflash/technology/index.ssf?/base/national-0/107740194386841.xml
 

[Capt. Mike]

"Georgia already has at least four wireless towns and there are plans to make Houston County, south of Macon, the state's first wireless county this year."

That's actually humourous..Warner Robins AFB (a major depot and repair facility for F15's and C140's) is in the center of Houston (pronounced by the locals how-stun) county.  Spent three years there working the SATCOM at the PAVE PAWS site.  Just think, a major USAF facility and they're just now getting broadband in the area  
 

[NJAntman]

Good God, bring it on! I can only dare to dream what would happen if the local cable monopoly and phone monopolies had another competitor. Gee whiz, it would almost be like real capitalism and freedom of choice again!  

[The Postman]

By ELLIOTT MINOR
The Associated Press
2/21/2004, 5:14 p.m. ET


ADEL, Ga. (AP) -- Paula Crosby's dial-up Internet connection was so slow she played computer solitaire while waiting for sluggish pages to appear. And when her teenage daughter surfed the Web, it tied up the family's phone line for hours.

Thanks to their small town's leap into the latest technology, the Crosby family now connects seven times faster with wireless broadband, and the cost is about what they paid for dial-up.

Adel, 250 miles south of Atlanta, has joined the growing ranks of rural communities offering some type of broadband Internet service ? wireless, cable, DSL or signals over electrical lines ? through municipal utility companies.

Some are comparing the community broadband movement to efforts that began in the late 1800s and continued through the 1930s to bring electricity to America's small towns and rural areas.

Of the nation's 2,000 public electric systems, 134 now provide Internet service, 128 provide broadband connections, 76 provide cable-modem DSL, and 39 offer wireless networking.

Georgia already has at least four wireless towns and there are plans to make Houston County, south of Macon, the state's first wireless county this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission have formed a partnership to bring wireless technology to rural areas, and the FCC announced in November that it would expand wireless-device frequencies to clear the way for more rural high-speed connections.

"Adel is a good example of a community that saw its needs and took matters in its own hand," said Jim Baller, a Washington attorney who represents public power utilities and the 2,000-member American Public Power Association.

Municipal utility companies began electrifying small towns in the 1890s.

"Thousands of communities were left in the dark until they formed their own electric utilities," Baller said. "Those that did were largely successful and many that didn't became ghost towns."

Proponents of municipal broadband say traditional providers, such as telephone and cable television companies, have been unwilling to upgrade their systems to serve rural customers. They compare it to the reluctance of power companies a century ago to expand beyond cities.

"The metropolitan areas were enjoying being at the forefront of technology. The rural areas were being left out," Adel City Manager Jerry Permenter said.

With municipal utilities stepping in to fill the technology gap, some say it's creating a reverse digital divide, where a growing number of country folks have better connections than their urban cousins.

Adel officials decided to go wireless after a communications company pulled out a few years ago, leaving the town with a fiber-optic system that was already connected to the state's Internet backbone. They opted for wireless to avoid the high cost of running cable to each home.

The town launched Southlink.us last October, offering residential and business service for $24.95 to $99.95, depending on connection speeds.

Mrs. Crosby said her family needed no coaxing after testing the system at City Hall.

"It blew me and my husband away," she said. "The instant I touched it, I was connected. It couldn't believe how fast it is."


And now, friends won't get as many busy signals when they phone the Crosby home.

"I like getting my phone back," she added.

 http://www.masslive.com/newsflash/technology/index.ssf?/base/national-0/107740194386841.xml
 

[Capt. Mike]

"Georgia already has at least four wireless towns and there are plans to make Houston County, south of Macon, the state's first wireless county this year."

That's actually humourous..Warner Robins AFB (a major depot and repair facility for F15's and C140's) is in the center of Houston (pronounced by the locals how-stun) county.  Spent three years there working the SATCOM at the PAVE PAWS site.  Just think, a major USAF facility and they're just now getting broadband in the area  
 

[NJAntman]

Good God, bring it on! I can only dare to dream what would happen if the local cable monopoly and phone monopolies had another competitor. Gee whiz, it would almost be like real capitalism and freedom of choice again!