If a meter of FTTP was installed every time a politician uttered the phrase "Access to broadband is essential," the entire nation would be fibered by now

Congressional Rural Broadband Caucus Launches | Multichannel: “Access to broadband is essential," said (Bob) Latta, vice chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee in a statement.

If a meter of fiber to the premise telecommunications infrastructure was deployed for each time a politician repeated that phrase over the past 10 years, every American address would have a fiber connection in 2016.

Slogans stating an obvious need do nothing to address it. What's needed is a national policy and fully funded initiative to construct fiber to the premise infrastructure every American premise needs in the 21st century. And stop allowing 20th century legacy telephone and cable company dinosaurs to postpone the future to serve their own interests.

Legacy incumbents circle the wagons against WV telecom infrastucture initiative

Charleston Gazette-Mail | Senate OKs creating state-owned broadband network: The West Virginia Senate approved legislation Thursday that would create a state-owned broadband Internet network, but Frontier Communications and cable companies already are lobbying members of the House of Delegates to kill the bill. State senators voted 29-5 to build a fiber-optic network “zone by zone” across West Virginia, using money borrowed through the Water Development Authority, one of the few state agencies authorized to issue bonds.

The legislation (SB 315) aims to expand high-speed Internet in rural areas, drive down prices and bolster Internet speeds.“This bill is one that can really promote West Virginia and move our state forward,” said Sen. Chris Walters, R-Putnam. “Without this type of infrastructure, we aren't giving the people the opportunity to succeed.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, a Frontier executive, sharply criticized the legislation on the Senate floor, saying the bill would discourage Internet providers from expanding existing broadband networks or building new ones. “The capital allocations are chilled when they know the government is going to be competing,” said Carmichael, R-Jackson. “The best way to deliver broadband is through the private sector. We don't have to always turn to government to solve technological issues.

If it were only a technological issue as Mr. Carmichael wrongly frames it, it would merely need a technological solution the private sector could provide. In fact, it's a market issue. The state is attempting to address private market failure to construct telecommunications infrastructure needed for the 21st century. In that regard, it's also not about market competition. By definition, competitive markets are not failed markets.

Curb your enthusiasm: Google Fiber won't likely serve "thousands" of municipalities

Google To Use City-Owned Network To Bring Fiber To Huntsville 02/22/2016: This private-public model for broadband could spread far beyond Huntsville, according to muni-broadband proponent Christopher Mitchell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks Initiative."In many ways, I think this is a tremendously hopeful development," Mitchell tells MediaPost. "It gives cities a great confidence that if they build passive infrastructure, they will be able to work with ISPs."

Mitchell adds that many of the municipal officials he has spoken with recently have said they're willing to build fiber networks, but not provide broadband or telephone services. He adds that he expects a few other cities cities to follow Huntsville's lead in the next one to two years, and that "thousands" of municipalities could ultimately do so.

Thousands? Unlikely. Few local governments have the existing utility infrastructure or financial resources to build fiber to the premise networks serving their residents as they continue to recover from the 2008 economic collapse and face competing demands for other infrastructure such as roads and sewer systems and public pension obligations.

Facebook's Telecom Infra Project appears focused on mobile wireless and not premise service

Telecom Infra Project – The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is an engineering-focused initiative driven by operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators, and other technology companies that aim to reimagine the traditional approach to building and deploying telecom network infrastructure.: The growth of the internet and the rise of data-intensive services like video and virtual reality require us all to collaborate on the development of new technologies, rethink how we deploy existing technologies, and focus on simplicity, flexibility, and efficiency in everything we do.

TIP will explore new approaches and technologies across three initial focus areas: access, backhaul, and core and management. The project groups within these areas will leverage the unique engineering and operational expertise of each member. They will focus on developing new technologies and exploring new approaches to deploying in both developed and emerging markets.

This Facebook-led R&D effort appears targeted at disrupting the mobile device market as the two illustrations on the left of the below schematic suggests. No mention is made of fiber optic to the premise telecom infrastructure needed to adequately serve homes, businesses and public institutions that can provide the robust bandwidth necessary for these settings. Premise service is dominated by stodgy, techno-averse telephone and cable dinosaurs with shitty service options and customer service and is also a fat target for massive disruption.

UTOPIA reconnoiters as resistance to local parcel fee halts PPP with Macquarie

Macquarie is probably dead, and that’s probably okay – Free UTOPIA!: While I wasn’t able to attend the latest UTOPIA board meeting (bit of a drive from Cedar City), I did get a summary of what was discussed during that meeting. One of the things that came up was the long-delayed Macquarie deal. For all intents and purposes, it’s most likely not going to happen. There appears to be slow action on a binding public vote and the utility fee was very unpopular (and wasn’t coming down). The board has voted to pay Macquarie what they are due and take those reports as valuable information to plan for the future with no further action.

As this blog reported last March, resistance to a utility parcel fee stalled progress on a public-private partnership between the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) and an Australian firm that invests in public infrastructure projects, Macquarie Capital Group. That resistance created a massive stumbling block to the expansion and financial future of the UTOPIA regional fiber to the premise (FTTP) that serves 11 Utah municipalities.

Now nearly a year later as the blog cited above reports, that resistance has proven fatal to the partnership. In order for it to work under the long term financial plan prepared by Macquarie, the parcel fee was a necessary component of the partnership given that a public-private partnership by definition requires the contribution of public financial resources. No public contribution means no partnership, leaving the private partner like a single hand clapping.

This development is yet another example of the lack of adequate funding mechanisms at the state and local government level to ensure the construction of FTTP telecom infrastructure serving all American homes, businesses, and public institutions. The situation calls for an aggressive federal public works program to construct this needed infrastructure for the 21st century as I propose in my recently issued eBook Service Unavailable: America’s Telecommunications Infrastructure Crisis.

Telco CEO offers succinct description of FTTP market failure at network edge

Cincinnati Bell to Slow Fiber Build by 2017 | DSLReports, ISP Information: "Our buildout of fiber is 100 percent success-based and as long as we see the returns that are appropriate we're going to continue to build," Cincinnati Bell CEO Ted Torbeck told attendees of the company's earnings call.

"We anticipate by the end of the year we'll be somewhere over 60 percent and we fully anticipate that we'll be getting close to the upper range where in 2017 our build will decline significantly. The cost of the build is increasing as we expected as we build out and we're getting to the edge of the buildout and it's getting more expensive," the CEO added. "Once we reach the threshold where the margin decreases to the level is acceptable we'll stop the build.

A very succinct description of market failure in the words of a telco CEO that explains why private market forces cannot ensure the ubiquitous fiber to the premise infrastructure needed in the 21st century.