[RTC List] Local Broadband Stimulus Money

Wed May 6 07:29:38 PDT 2009

Larry, et al ...

While I am not a proponent of the various mad dashes for stimulus  money, I 
see nothing sinister in this ambitious plan to shore up our regional  
"middle mile" telecommunications infrastructure. Moreover, given our topography  
and the future-proof nature of fiber versus wireless, the plan to do so with 
a  fiber optic makes perfect sense.

Let's not look for conspiracies under every rock and at least begin with  
the premise that this is a legitimate, forward looking proposal that attempts 
to  solve very real regional problems in a collaborative way involving 
several  stakeholder groups. For more information, visit _www.humboldt.edu/~rcc_ 
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rcc)  or 
_http://redwoodcoastconnect.humboldt.edu/_ (http://redwoodcoastconnect.humboldt.edu/)  or  Google Redwood Coast 
Connect.

If we do as you suggest and turn this into rounds of public hearings in  
three counties and several tribal governments in an effort to gain some sort 
of  consensus on a plan of action, we'll have to wait for Barack Obama's  
grandchildren to vote for a new stimulus bill to fund it.

I am a huge fan of Carlson Wireless and their terrific connectivity  
solutions worldwide. Your critical analysis of this development makes it  sound 
like some sort of special interest advocacy on behalf of your employer,  which 
I am certain is not the case. However, it looks just as bad no matter the  
intent. 

Why don't we give this prospect the benefit of the doubt and hope it  
produces its intended outcome? There are plenty of other fights in our  
community, let's not add this one to the already enormous pile of them.

Chris Crawford

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In a message dated 5/5/2009 8:39:19 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
larry at northcoast.com writes:

RTC members and interested  parties: 

This morning I attended a very  interesting meeting of the Business 
Partners Roundtable at HSU.  This is  a group of local businesses, non-profit 
community based organizations and HSU  personnel who meet quarterly to discuss 
topics related to local economic  development.  Today we heard a summary 
report from Connie Stewart who is  currently working with the Redwood Rural 
Action organization  (with  the blessing of HSU President, Rollin Richmond) on 
the development of a  comprehensive broadband plan for application for 
stimulus broadband money.  While I don't have all the details, the overall project 
came as a  complete surprise to me (and I think will be to many of you).  
Here's  what I heard: 

Redwood Rural Action is trying  to organize all the local governments 
(primarily four counties of the region,  the Yurok tribe and several school 
districts) into submitting a  "comprehensive" proposal for broadband.  What 
they've decided on is a  proposal for addressing the "most critical issue" which 
they've defined as the  middle mile/backhaul problem and they want a 
middle-mile only proposal to do  five (!!) separate fiber projects (yes, that's 
what they're planning!) which  include: 
- Hwy. 299 (Broadband  Associates) 
-  Hwy. 101 to Crescent  City (to satisfy the Yurok Tribe) 
- Hwy. 36 (I don't know  who that's for) 
- Mendocino Coast (which  may make sense given how little connectivity they 
currently  have) 
- Hwy 3 (Trinity  Co.) 

They will be issuing an RFP  (I'm not sure who's funding this, but I know 
they've asked for funding from  several counties to help with the effort) and 
they plan to hire a high-power  consultant (do you think they have anyone 
in particular in mind?) who has an  "inside track" to stimulus money, is 
technically savvy and will select the  final projects for submission.  By the 
way - this all has to be done  within the next 30 days because RUS and NTIA 
broadband proposals will be  announced in early June.  Also - a private 
meeting was held recently with  county, municipal and tribal representatives with 
no public input and no  private sector invited to discuss this issue. 

According to Connie, this project will  most likely be publicly owned (with 
80% public money being requested), they  are not open to any other 
broadband solutions (fiber is the chosen solution)  and she claims the findings are 
completely based on the RCC report (please  see 
_http://redwoodcoastconnect.humboldt.edu/?content=docs_ 
(http://redwoodcoastconnect.humboldt.edu/?content=docs)   for the final report and "peer review" which I recommend  
reading).  She further claims that this will stimulate competition  insofar as their 
goal is 3 providers per community, thus lowering prices (they  hope). 

She only entertained a few  questions before she had to leave for another 
meeting so we really couldn't  discuss it at length.  I have so many 
concerns, as you can imagine, so  I'm a little at a loss (imagine that!) but here 
are just a *few* of my  concerns: 
1)   What was the decision/selection process for determining  the scope & 
design of the RFP? 
2)   What are the roles of Redwood Rural Action and Redwood  Coast Connect 
in deciding broadband projects for stimulus  funding? 
3)   Why has the middle mile/backhaul issue become the  primary driver for 
stimulus money?  What happened to "last mile" delivery  services? 
4)   Why is fiber the only technology being considered  for middle-mile? 
(and why do we need fiber  EVERYWHERE?) 
5)   What is the role of local governments (counties,  municipalities, 
tribes and community service districts) in this process?  Why are they proposing 
a single application for stimulus  money? 
6)   Who are the evaluation committee members for the  RFP?   
7)   Who is the technical expert reviewing proposals?   Will there be a 
technical vetting process for proposals? 
8)   What are the criteria for reviewing  projects? 
9)   Why wasn’t ANY public input considered for this  process? 
10)   What is the vetting process for  projects?  How will they be 
prioritized?  Is there any cost-benefit  analysis? (This is public money, remember?) 
11)   When, if ever, will there be a  public airing of the projects?  Is 
there any opportunity for public  input? 
12)   If funding is limited, how will  a project be selected as the top 
priority for the region? 
13)   If a project has over 60%  public money invested, will it be 
considered a publicly owned  project? 
14)   What considerations are being  made for operations?  Who is going to 
operate and maintain these  projects? 

I would be interested in your  input.  Are any of you as concerned as I am 
about this whole process?  Please let me know how you feel and we can 
organize a  response. 

Thank  you.

**************Remember Mom this Mother's Day! Find a florist near you now. 
(http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=florist&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000006)
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