Virginia`s Region 2000 Broadband Infrastructure Study

Transcription

Virginia’s Region 2000
Broadband Infrastructure Study
Supplement – 3G/EV-DO Technology
Summer 2008
Region 2000 – Broadband Infrastructure Study
Spring 2008
0
Virginia’s Region 2000 Partnership is a
regional collaborative effort comprising of six
essential components: Local Government
Council, Economic Development Council,
Technology Council, Workforce Investment
Board, Young Professionals of Central
Virginia, and The Center for Advanced
Engineering and Research. The overall goal
of this organization is to promote the region
to national and international companies to
create
job
growth
and
economic
advancement within the region.
The Local Government Council, responsible
for this report, works with the four counties,
two cities, and four towns within the region to
improve regional cooperation and reduce
government redundancy. We provide a forum
for innovative and creative dialog among these
localities to address quality of life issues on a
regional prospective.
For more information about Virginia’s
Region 2000 Partnership, The Local
Government Council, or to request
more information about this report,
please visit our website or contact:
Virginia’s Region 2000 Partnership
Local Government Council
th
828 Main Street, 12 Floor
Lynchburg, VA 24504
(434) 845-3491 – Phone
(434) 845-3493 – Fax
[email protected]
www.region2000.org
Region 2000 Broadband Infrastructure Study
Supplement – 3G/EV-DO Coverage
Summer 2008
1
Virginia’s Region 2000
Broadband Infrastructure Study
Summer 2008
Summer 2008
2
Table of Contents
Section I - Introduction
Cellular Wireless Internet ..................................................................... 1
Technology........................................................................................... 2
Providers .............................................................................................. 3
Wireless Broadband Service Plans...................................................... 3
Section II – Coverage
General Coverage Description............................................................. 8
Alltel Wireless Internet Coverage......................................................... 9
AT&T 3G Coverage ........................................................................... 10
nTelos – Portable Broadband Coverage ***ED-VO***....................... 11
Sprint/Nextel Broadband/3G Network Coverage ............................... 12
Verizon – Broadband and V CAST Coverage ................................... 13
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Section I - Introduction
Cellular Wireless Internet
Virginia’s Region 2000 Partnership compiled the Broadband Infrastructure Study in Spring 2008; this
report was an update to a previous study compiled in 2004. Traditional broadband service, such as DSL
and wireless, was the focus of the previous study. Recent information has come forward to show that 3G
and EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) service provided by cellular companies is being utilized by a
growing market within Virginia’s Region 2000. Coverage areas tend to be much wider for these
companies than the traditional broadband providers, and this coverage can help fill in broadband gaps
presently located within the region. The problem is that the public is generally not aware of these
services, so it is important that cell phone providers and local leaders inform residents who do not have
access to traditional broadband services.
This supplement to the Broadband Infrastructure Study will solely focus on cell phone providers and the
broadband services they provide within Virginia’s Region 2000. Only broadband plans/coverage
pertaining to laptop and desktop computers is analyzed; Blackberry, iPhone, and Smart Phones are not
listed in this report. As with more traditional broadband providers, each cell phone company offers
different plans and service areas for its subscribers. Most residents in the region have access to at least
one provider’s wireless technology; however, stipulations do exist. Some rural areas may be too far from
a tower, or residents may be located in “dead space” in a valley. Generally, if a resident can receive a
cell phone signal they are able to access wireless broadband. Included in this supplement are plans and
prices, necessary equipment, and coverage data. All information in this report was attained from
provider’s websites; being public knowledge it is acceptable to display this report to the public.
Summer 2008
1
Technology
Three technologies presently exist within Virginia’s Region 2000 to provide users with wireless Internet
from cellular companies. These technologies are:
•
Wireless – can be transmitted upwards of 10 miles from high-capacity equipment located on tall
towers/buildings, or can be transmitted less than 100 feet through small routers in designated
hotspots, such as restaurants and shops. Capable of up to 10Mbps (business) near an access
point. Security issues, weather, and terrain are concerns of this technology.
•
3G and EV-DO – powerful wireless systems that provide speeds between 144 Kbps and 2Mbps
and are great for full-motion video, streaming music, 3D gaming, and faster web browsing. Offer
a high degree of mobility with a range of 2-5 miles from a tower. Terrain and tower location can
influence signal reception.
Cell phones have been able to access these technologies for years; however, it has only been within the
last 2-3 years that wireless cards have been easily available for computers. It is now possible to connect
a wireless card to a laptop and drive around Region 2000 and access the Internet via 3G technology even
in areas where it has not been available through traditional means. What is also impressive is that many
users report faster speeds than DSL, even in rural areas not accustom to broadband coverage.
As with other broadband services within the region, technology will be changing cellular broadband in the
future. Companies such as T-Mobile, which does not presently have a nationwide network, will be rolling
out service in larger metropolitan areas in 2008. Verizon plans to launch 4G in the next few years, which
will increase broadband speeds exponentially for those in the present 3G service area. As more
residents in the region begin to use these services it is conceivable that the number of plans will increase
while prices decrease.
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Providers
Seven cell phone providers have been identified within Virginia’s Region 2000, and of those six offer at
least some form of wireless broadband Internet that is accessible from a computer. U.S. Cellular does
provide a wireless Internet network; however, according to their customer service department it is only at
dial-up speeds. While T-Mobile offers wireless Internet to customers it is only available at approximately
8,500 hotspots in the nation; there is no blanket coverage within the region. On the following page is the
list of each provider within the region, along with the address and phone numbers for all stores where
customer support is available.
Wireless Broadband Service Plans
A number of service plans are available for residents of Region 2000 that offer 3G/EV-DO technology.
Most 3G/EV-DO plans are around $60 per month, require a 2-year contract, and offer speeds equal to or
above DSL service. The following companies offer specialized services in addition to 3G/EV-DO:
•
Alltel – offers access to thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots across the nation; customers can pick plans
for 3G/EV-DO, Wi-Fi, or a combination of the technologies.
•
nTelos – offers Portable Broadband, which is a wireless system equal to DSL or cable service
and requires no outside antennas or dishes; less expensive than 3G/EV-DO.
In order to access the 3G/EV-DO and wireless services, customers must purchase a wireless card for
their laptop and/or desktop computer. This card receives the broadband signal from a tower, allowing
customers to access the Internet anywhere they are within range of a tower, including riding down the
road. These cards, which usually plug into a USB port, range in price from approximately $80 to $330.
Most providers run rebates and discounts on these cards, and in some cases these rebates will cover the
entire cost of the wireless card. Plans, pricing, and some wireless cards offered by cellular providers are
listed beginning on page six.
Summer 2008
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Region 2000 – Cellular Phone Providers
Provider
Alltel
AT&T
nTelos
Sprint/Nextel
Name
Address
Phone
Number
City/State/Zip
Alltel Retail Store - Mountview Commons II
3919 Wards Road
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 237-1729
Alltel Retail Store - Amelon Sq. Shopping Ctr.
2725 South Amherst Hwy.
Madison Heights, VA 24572
(434) 929-1248
Alltel Retail Store
21039 Timberlake Road
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 832-0371
Alltel Retail Store
18013 Forest Road
Forest, VA 24551
(434) 385-1912
Cellular Communications of Amherst
567 South Main St.
Amherst, VA 24521
(434) 841-6783
AT&T
210 A Simons Run
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 258-8300
AT&T Authorized Retailer
4327 Boonsboro Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24503
(434) 386-6600
AT&T Authorized Retailer
14243 Forest Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24551
(434) 385-1995
Wal-Mart Connection Center
125 Clarion Rd.
Altavista, VA 24517
(434) 309-2245
nTelos - Wards Road
4018 Wards Rd. Suite E
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 401-0004
nTelos - Fort Avenue
5508 Fort Ave. Suite D.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 401-0004
nTelos - Graves Mill Shopping Center
18013 Forest Rd. Suite C
Forest, VA 24551
(434) 401-0004
nTelos - River Ridge Mall
3405 Candler's Mountain Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
---
Sprint Mall Kiosk - River Ridge Mall
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 239-6376
Sprint Store
3920 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 239-8200
Cellcom
20911-C Timberlake Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 832-800
Website
www.alltell.com
www.att.com
www.ntelos.com
Summer 2008
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4
Region 2000 – Cellular Phone Providers - Continued
Provider
T-Mobile
U.S. Cellular
Verizon
Name
Address
City/State/Zip
Phone
Number
T-Mobile - Wal-Mart #1350
3900 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 832-0304
T-Mobile - RS Sam’s #6458
3912 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 237-2680
T-Mobile - Best Buy #444
4024 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 239-9885
T-Mobile - Target #1275
4028 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 239-6163
197 Madison Heights Sq.
(434) 846-9650
1126 E. Lynchburg/Salem Tpk.
Bedford, VA 24523
(540) 586-6176
Total Communications (Cellular Express)
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 455-0270
U.S. Cellular
3911 Wards Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 832-0808
Total Communications (Cellular Express)
17898 Forest Rd.
Forest, VA 24551
(434) 455-0346
B&H Computers
163 Madison Heights Square
(434) 847-4712
D.J. Wireless, LLC
21664A Timberlake Rd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
(434) 237-5985
D.J. Electronics Plus, LLC
1128 E. Lynchburg Salem Tpk.
Bedford, VA 24523
(540) 586-9704
Cellular Now
Hwy 460 W, P.O. Box 447
Appomattox, VA 24522
(434) 352-7526
B&H Computers
105 Clarion Rd.
Altavista, VA 24517
(434) 369-9154
Glenwood Esso & Oil Co., Inc.
2074 Smith Mountain Lake Pkwy.
Huddleston, VA 24014
(540) 297-5297
Guthrie's True Value Hardware
102 Main St.
Brookneal, VA 24528
(434) 376-3126
D.J. Wireless, LLC
14600 Moneta Rd.
Moneta, VA 24121
(540) 296-0586
Valley View
4801 Valley View Blvd. NW, St. A
Roanoke, VA 24012
(540) 562-4836
Website
www.t-mobile.com
Circuit City - Roanoke
1898 Valley View Blvd. NW
Roanoke, VA 24010
(540) 563-5198
Smith Mountain Lake Communications
13699 Booker T. Washington Hwy
Moneta, VA 24121
(540) 721-5298
Summer 2008
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www.uscellular.com
www.verizon.com
5
Service Plans, Equipment, and Pricing
Provider
Alltel
Price1
Plans
Contract
Term
$59.99
Huawei EC228
$219.99
3.1 Mbps
2-year
$99.99
Huawei EC360
$269.99
2.4 Mbps
2-year
Wireless Internet/Wi-Fi Bundle
$69.98
UTStarcom UM150
$219.99
3.1 Mbps
2-year
$9.99
KPC680 ExpressCard
$239.99
2.4 Mbps
2-year
AT&T USBConnect 881
$249.99
1.4 Mbps
2-year
Sierra Wireless AirCard 881
$299.99
1.4 Mbps
2-year
Option GT Max 3.6 Express
$199.99
3G
2-year
5
Pay-As-You-Go Monthly
Sprint/Nextel
Speed4
Extended Wireless Internet
5
nTelos
Price3
National Wireless Internet
Unlimited Wi-Fi
AT&T
Equipment2
Some of these computer cards
are free due to rebates, sales,
etc.
$19.99
DataConnect
$60.00
Sierra Wireless Aircard 875
$149.99
3G
2-year
Portable Broadband
$34.95
Portable Broadband Modem
---
1.5 Mbps
2-year
EVDO (REV-A)
$49.99
Aircard
$99.99
1.3 Mbps
2-Year
Compass 597 by Sierra
$249.99
1.4 Mbps
2-year
Ovation U727 by Novatel
$299.99
1.4 Mbps
2-year
Aircard 595 by Sierra
$269.99
1.4 Mbps
2-year
AirCard 597E ExpressCard
$329.99
1.4 Mbps
2-year
Mobile Broadband Connection Plan
$59.99
1
Per month.
2
Only some equipment is listed; more options may be available upon request.
3
One-time fees, which may be offset by savings and rebates.
4
Up to this speed; depending on terrain and distance speed may be impacted.
5
Alltel is partnered with thousands of wireless hotspots in airports, restaurants, etc. across the nation.
6
A monthly contract is available for $44.95 per month (setup fee of $49.95 still applies).
Summer 2008
Comments
6
6
AT&T has a number of laptop
cards that are compatible with
the 3G network. Most are free
due to promotional events.
$49.95 Set-up fee for portable
broadband. Other aircards
available upon request
All cards are EV-DO compatible.
There are rebates associated
with these cards.
6
Service Plans, Equipment, and Pricing - Continued
Provider
T-Mobile
Plans
Price1
Hotspot
U.S. Cellular
$19.99
---
Equipment2
Wireless card (sold
separately)
---
---
Price3
Speed4
Contract
Term
Comments
---
---
---
Service available at over 8,500
hotspots in the nation, mostly in
airports, Starbucks, etc.
---
---
---
Does not offer wireless Internet
at broadband speeds, only at
dialup speeds (40-50 Kbps)
5 GB per month
$59.99
Wireless UM 150 USB
$79.99
4G
2-year
50 MB per month
$39.99
Wireless KPC680
$99.99
EV-DO
2-year
Wireless Aircard 595
$149.99
REV-A
2-year
Wireless USB727 Modem
$199.99
REV-A
2-year
Verizon
1
Per month.
2
Only some equipment is listed; more options may be available upon request.
3
One-time fees, which may be offset by savings and rebates.
4
Up to this speed; depending on terrain and distance speed may be impacted.
5
Alltel is partnered with thousands of wireless hotspots in airports, restaurants, etc. across the nation.
6
A monthly contract is available for $44.95 per month (setup fee of $49.95 still applies).
Summer 2008
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Prices on equipment are
reduced because of rebates.
Plans are up to 1.4 Mbps.
Stores located in Moneta; the
closest outside of there are in
Roanoke.
7
Section II – Coverage Data
General Coverage Description
3G/EV-DO technology has a much broader coverage area in Region 2000 than any other technology
except satellite service. The cities of Lynchburg and Bedford are completely covered by most cellular
providers, as are the major highway corridors throughout the region (U.S. 460, 29, 501, and 221). As with
other types of broadband technology, some of the “fringe” areas of the region may lack coverage.
According to the maps provided, coverage may be most sporadic in the following areas:
•
Mountainous areas of far northwestern Amherst County
•
Northeastern and southern Appomattox County
•
Southeastern and western Campbell County.
Generally speaking, wherever you can receive a cell phone signal you will be able to access 3G/EV-DO.
Due to the region’s rolling to mountainous topography, “dead spots” may occur in some areas; therefore,
it is possible to live within an identified coverage zone and still lack coverage. Cellular coverage has
increased dramatically in the past five years, and this expansion will continue into the future. One major
change that is likely to occur within the next few years is the merger of Alltel and Verizon; this may
increase coverage and options throughout the region. Additionally, cell phone providers are constantly
adding towers and expanding services and upgrading to newer technology.
The following pages contain coverage maps for each of the region’s five major cellular broadband
providers. Maps were copied from the provider’s websites and are as close and descriptive as possible.
Region 2000 will place these data into more detailed, thorough maps in the future. Unlike maps in the
Broadband Infrastructure Study, these maps are available online; therefore, it is acceptable to display
these maps where the general public may view.
Summer 2008
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Alltel Wireless Internet Coverage
Summer 2008
9
AT&T 3G Coverage
Coverage
No Coverage
Summer 2008
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nTelos – Portable Broadband Coverage and EV-DO
EV-DO COVERAGE
Summer 2008
11
Sprint/Nextel Broadband/3G Network Coverage
Sprint Mobile Broadband
Network
Mobile Broadband roaming – limited
access to some services.
Nationwide Sprint Network
Data roaming – limited access to
some services.
No Coverage
Sprint Mobile
Broadband Network
No Coverage
Summer 2008
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Verizon – Broadband and V CAST Coverage
Broadband and V CAST
Enhanced Services
Extended Enhanced Services
No Coverage
Summer 2008
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Available Broadband Technologies
Carrier
Technology
Broadband over
Powerline
Cable
DSL
Description
Physical
Medium
Uses existing
electrical
infrastructure to
deliver broadband
speeds using special
modems.
Ordinary power
lines.
Special cable and
cable line required.
Special modem and
adapter card may be
required.
Estimated
Bandwidth
(Residential)
Comments
100 Kbps – Upstream
Still emerging
technology, limited
availability.
1 Mbps – Downstream
Significantly lower
deployment costs than
some other technologies.
Coaxial cable,
telephone lines
for some
upstream
requests.
Must have existing cable
access.
1 Gig – Downstream
Cost of bringing
coverage to an area can
be prohibitive.
Twisted pair
(used as a digital,
broadband
medium).
Does not interfere with
normal telephone use.
768 Kbps – Downstream
Bandwidth is dedicated,
not shared, but is
affected by distance.
Limited availability.
Fiber
Satellite
Wi-MAXX
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
2 Mbps – Upstream
Super high speed.
High costs in establishing
network and
connections.
Information travels at
extremely long
distances, uses a
transmitter,
regenerator, and
receiver.
Fiber-optic lines
(strands of fine
glass).
Computer sends
request for
information to an ISP;
data returned to high
speed satellite to
dish, which is sent
into a decoder box.
Airwaves,
requires outside
antenna/satellite
dish.
Bandwidth not shared.
Slower speeds than
other technologies, with
a higher price.
Access gained by
connection to highspeed network via
wireless
transmitter/receiver
Airwaves, outside
antenna
2 Mbps – Upstream
Licensed-spectrum
service, faster than
traditional wireless.
Limited availability.
Access gained by
connection to highspeed network via
wireless
transmitter/receiver.
Airwaves, outside
antenna.
Can be used for high
speed data.
2.5 Mbps – Downstream
Distance, terrain,
weather can hamper the
signal.
Growing technology
that uses cell phone
towers to transmit
mobile and fixed
wireless WAN.
Airwaves,
requires a
wireless card for
a computer.
1 Mbps – Upstream
Evolving technology;
does not require line of
sight.
4 Mbps - Downstream
Limited range from
towers.
*Speeds vary depending on
business needs.
Broadband Providers by Community*
County
Community
Elon
Forks of Buffalo
Madison Heights
Amherst
Monroe
Pleasantview
Riverville
Town of Amherst
Bent Creek
Red House
Spout Spring
Provider
Verizon
DSL
nTelos
Wireless
Alltel, AT&T, nTelos, Sprint/Nextel
3G/EV-DO
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative
Broadband over Powerline2
Alltel
3G/EV-DO
Comcast
Cable
Verizon
DSL
Jet Broadband, nTelos
Fiber1
B2X Online, Kinex, nTelos, Pure
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Comcast
Cable
Verizon
DSL
Fiber1
Kinex, nTelos
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
nTelos
Wireless
Alltel, nTelos, Sprint/Nextel
3G/EV-DO
GNS Networks3
Wireless
Alltel
3G/EV-DO
Comcast
Cable
Fiber1
Kinex
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
GNS Networks3
Wireless
Alltel
3G/EV-DO
No Coverage Identified
N/A
Jet Broadband
Cable
Verizon
DSL
3
Appomattox
Town of Appomattox
Town of Pamplin
Vera
Technology
Fiber1
GNS Networks
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Fiber1
BridgeMAXX, GNS Networks
Wi-MAXX, Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Fiber1
AT&T, nTelos, Sprint/Nextel
3G/EV-DO
County
Community
Big Island
City of Bedford
Forest
Goode
Bedford
Huddleston
Moneta
Montvale
Stewartsville
Thaxton
Provider
Technology
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Verizon
DSL
Fiber1
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
nTelos, Verizon
DSL
Fiber1
B2X Online, Kinex, nTelos, PureA
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Verizon
DSL
B2X Online, Kinex
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
B2X Online
Wireless
Alltel, Sprint/Nextel, Verizon
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Jet Broadband
Fiber1
B2X Online
Alltel, AT&T, nTelos, Sprint/Nextel,
Verizon
Wireless
Comcast
Cable
nTelos
Verizon
Fiber1
Verizon
DSL
B2X Online
Verizon
Wireless
Comcast
Cable
Verizon
Verizon
DSL
3G/EV-DO
3G/EV-DO
3G/EV-DO
3G/EV-DO
County
Community
Concord
Evington
Gladys
Leesville
Lynch Station
Campbell
Rustburg
Timberlake
Town of Altavista
Town of Brookneal
Lynchburg
City of Lynchburg
Provider
Technology
Jet Broadband
Cable
Verizon
DSL
Fiber1
GNS Networks3
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Verizon
DSL
B2X Online, Pure
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Embarq
DSL
3G/EV-DO
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Embarq
DSL
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
Embarq
DSL
Jet Broadband
Fiber1
B2X Online, Pure
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Jet Broadband
Cable
nTelos, Verizon
DSL
Fiber1
B2X Online, Pure, nTelos
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
Comcast
Cable
Embarq
DSL
Comcast, nTelos, Jet Broadband
Fiber1
3G/EV-DO
Embarq
DSL
Applewood, Pure
Wireless
Alltel
3G/EV-DO
Comcast
Cable
nTelos, Verizon
DSL
Comcast, nTelos, Jet Broadband
Fiber1
B2X Online, nTelos, Pure
Wireless
3G/EV-DO
*As made available by broadband providers - service may not be available throughout these communities.
Satellite service is available for all localities within Region 2000 with a clear view of the Southern sky.
1
2
Fiber service is generally for business purposes only and not for private residences.
Broadband over Powerline may not presently be available in these communities, but the goal is to introduce the
technology throughout CVEC's network in the coming years.
3
Planned expansion of GNS Networks in the near future.
Broadband Service Providers - Contact Information
Services
Provided
Phone Number
Website
Applewood
Communications
Wireless
(434) 376-5529
www.brookneal.com
B2X Online
Wireless
(434) 389-7924
www.b2xonline.com
BridgeMAXX (Digital
Bridge)
WiMAX
1-800-979-3797
www.bridgemaxx.com
Broadband Over
Powerline
(434) 263-8336
www.forcvec.com/bplcoop
Comcast
Cable, Fiber
1-800-266-2278
www.comcast.com
Embarq
DSL
1-866-304-6820
www.embarq.com
GNS Networks
Wireless
(434) 993-3709
www.gnsnetworks.com
HughesNet
Satellite
1-888-892-2434
www.nationwidesatellite.com
Cable, Fiber
1-877-743-8538
www.jetbroadband.com
Wireless
(434) 392-4804
www.kinex.net
Cable, DSL, Fiber,
Wireless
1-877-468-3567
www.ntelos.com
Fiber, Wireless
1-866-517-0033
www.pure.net
Satellite
1-800-4STARBAND
www.starband.com
Verizon
DSL
1-888-587-7333
www.verizon.com
WildBlue
Satellite
1-866-945-3258
www.wildblue.com
Company
Central Virginia Electric
Cooperative
Jet Broadband
Kinex Networking
Solutions
nTelos
Pure Internet, Inc.
Starband (By Spacenet)
Broadband Service Providers - Estimated Bandwidth and Pricing*
Company
Applewood
Communications
Technology
Provided
Wireless
Number of
Service Plans
Available Bandwidth Range
(Upstream/Downstream)
Price Range of Service
Plans
Installation Fees
Varies
2 Mbps / 2 Mbps – Both
$29.95 - Both
$250
One – Residential
1 Mbps / 1 Mbps – Residential
$42.50 – Residential
$120 – Residential
One – Business
1.5 Mbps / 1.4 Mbps – Business
$100.00 – Business
$200 – Business
Wi-MAXX
Two – Residential
2-3 Mbps / 500 Kbps – Residential
$28.99 - $43.99 – Both
None
Broadband over
Powerline
One – Residential
Cable
Two – Residential
6-8 Mbps / 384-768 Kbps – Residential
$42.95 - $59.95 – Residential
N/A – Residential
Three – Business
4-8 Mbps / 384 Kbps-1Mbps – Business
$59.95 - $160.00 – Business
$250 – Business
Varies
Varies
Varies
Varies
Five – Residential
768 Kbps-10 Mbps / 384-896 Kbps – Residential
$24.95 - $64.95 – Residential
$15 – Residential
Five – Business
768 Kbps-10 Mbps / 128-896 Kbps – Business
$19.95 - $119.95 – Business
$150 – Business
Two – Both
256 Kbps-2 Mbps / 257 Kbps-3 Mbps - Both
$34.95 - $84.95 – Both
$295 – Both
Three – Residential
700 Kbps-1.5 Mbps / 128-200 Kbps – Residential
$79.99 - $99.99 – Residential
Two – Business
1.5-2 – Kbps / 300-500 Kbps – Business
$119.99 - $199.99 – Business
Two – Residential
3.1-5.1 Mbps / 384-640 Kbps – Residential
$39.95 - $59.95 – Residential
Three – Business
760 Kbps-5.1 Mbps / 512 Kbps-2 Mbps –
Business
$34.95 - $99.95 – Business
Varies
Varies – Business
Varies
Varies
One – Residential
512 Kbps / 512 Kbps – Residential
N/A – Residential
N/A – Residential
Two – Business
768 Kbps-3 Mbps / 768 Kbps-3 Mbps – Business
N/A – Business
N/A – Business
Cable
One – Both
1 Gig / 1 Gig – Both
$39.99 – Both
None – Both
DSL
Two – Both
1.5-3 Mbps / 512-768 Kbps – Both
$29.95 - $34.95 – Both
Waved – Both
Fiber
Varies – Business
Varies – Business
$693 - $10,000 – Business
Varies – Business
Wireless
One – Residential
T1-T1 – Residential
None – Residential
Wireless
Two – Residential
768 Kbps-1.5 Mbps / 769 Kbps – Both
$49.99 - $79.95 – Residential
Varies – Residential
$59.99 - $79.95 – Business
Varies – Business
B2X Online
Wireless
BridgeMAXX
(Digital Bridge)
Central Virginia Electric
Cooperative
Comcast
Fiber
Embarq
256 Kbps / N/A – Both
One – Business
$50
$69.00 – Business
DSL
GNS Networks
Wireless
HughesNet
Satellite
Jet Broadband
Cable
Fiber
Kinex Networking
Solutions
nTelos
Pure Internet, Inc.
Wireless
Two – Business
Starband (by Spacenet)
Fiber
Varies – Business
Varies - Business
Varies – Business
Varies – Business
Satellite
Four – Business
1-1.5 Mbps / 128-256 Kbps – Business
$69.99 - $109.99 – Business
$299.99 - $499.99 – Business
Two – Residential
768 Kbps-3 Mbps / 128-768 Kbps – Residential
$17.99 - $29.99 – Residential
Varies – Residential
Four – Business
3-7.1 Mbps / 768 Kbps – Business
$17.99 - $39.99 – Business
Varies – Business
Three – Both
512 Kbps-1.5 Mbps / 128-256 Kbps – Both
$49.95 - $79.95 – Both
$179.95 - Both
Verizon*
DSL
WildBlue
Satellite
* Pricing and bandwidth data provided by broadband service providers - contact your local provider for specific price and bandwidth plans.
Region 2000
Broadband
Infrastructure Study
Conducted by the Region 2000 Technology Council
May 2004
Sponsored by:
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By:
Bill Guzek
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Region 2000 Broadband
Table of Contents
Table of Contents......................................................................................................... ii
Table of Figures .......................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... v
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................viii
1. Project Goals and Scope .........................................................................................1
2. Problem Statement – The need for speed…............................................................2
3. Approach / Methods Employed ................................................................................5
4. Broadband Internet Technologies ............................................................................6
5. Region 2000 Broadband Service Providers ...........................................................11
6. Service Areas.........................................................................................................15
7. Regional Internet Service Providers.......................................................................16
8. Region 2000 External Connectivity ........................................................................24
9. Local Government Meetings ..................................................................................33
10. Business Survey ..................................................................................................35
11. Analysis of Coverage .vs. Demand ......................................................................42
12. Broadband Policy Efforts in other Communities...................................................43
13. Grant Opportunities and Resources.....................................................................45
14. Conclusions and Recommendations...................................................................49
Appendix A - Coverage Maps Provided by Region and Technology..........................52
Appendix B - Glossary of Terms ................................................................................54
Appendix C - Survey Forms .......................................................................................60
Appendix D - References Cited..................................................................................68
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Table of Figures
Fig. 1 - Bandwidth Requirements of Some Applications ..................................................2
Fig. 2 – Illustration of relative speed for various connectivity options ..............................3
Fig 3. Cable Internet System Architecture .......................................................................8
Fig 4. Illustration of several types of Internet connections ..............................................9
Fig 5. Ntelos Wireless Internet Service Area (Fall 04) ..................................................12
Fig 6. Possible future Area served by CVEC broadband over power lines ...................14
Fig 7. Contact information for Regional Broadband Internet service providers..............17
Fig 8. Broadband Internet providers in Region 2000 by Technology Offerings.............18
Fig 9. Broadband Availability and Residential Pricing...................................................20
Fig 10. Broadband Availability and Business Pricing ....................................................23
Fig 11. Statewide connectivity of Verizon (Bell Atlantic) and Sprint (GTE) CO’s ..........26
Fig 12. Overview of Net.Work.Virginia Network Diagram .............................................28
Fig 13. Overview of COVANET Network Diagram........................................................28
Fig 14. Appomattox County eCorridors Plan ................................................................29
Fig 15. Campbell County eCorridors Plan .....................................................................30
Fig 16. Bedford County eCorridors Plan .......................................................................30
Fig 17. Overview of eCorridors Southside and Southwest Fiber Design ......................31
Fig 18. Bandwidth per student in Regional High Schools .............................................34
Fig 19. Bandwidth per Student in Regional Middle Schools .........................................34
Fig 20. Breakdown of Connection types by region ......................................................38
Fig 21 - Internet impact on business Cost Centers........................................................42
Fig A.1.1 Region 2000 Overview – ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors
and Technology zones ...........................................................................................52
Fig. A.1.2 Region 2000 Overview – Fiber Service .........................................................52
Fig. A.1.3 Region 2000 Overview – DSL Service ..........................................................52
Fig. A.1.4 Region 2000 Overview – Wireless ISP’s .......................................................52
Fig. A.1.5 Region 2000 Overview – Cable Service........................................................52
Fig. A.1.6 Region 2000 BTA License regions for LMDS Service ...................................52
Fig A.2.1 Amherst Overview -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Technology zones, Survey Feedback.....................................................................52
Fig A.2.2 Amherst –Fiber...............................................................................................52
Fig A.2.3 Amherst – DSL ...............................................................................................52
Fig A.2.4 Amherst – WISP.............................................................................................52
Fig A.2.5 Amherst – Cable Service................................................................................52
Fig A.3.1 Appomattox -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.3.2 Appomattox – Fiber ........................................................................................52
Fig A.3.3 Appomattox – DSL .........................................................................................52
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Fig A.3.4 Appomattox – WISP .......................................................................................52
Fig A.3.5 Appomattox – Cable Service ..........................................................................52
Fig A.4.1 Bedford -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and Technology
zones, Survey Feedback ........................................................................................52
Fig A.4.2 Bedford – Fiber...............................................................................................52
Fig A.4.3 Bedford – DSL................................................................................................52
Fig A.4.4 Bedford – WISP..............................................................................................52
Fig A.4.5 Bedford – Cable Service ................................................................................52
Fig A.5.1 Bedford City -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.5.2 Bedford City – Fiber .......................................................................................52
Fig A.5.3 Bedford City – DSL.........................................................................................53
Fig A.5.4 Bedford City – WISP ......................................................................................53
Fig A.5.5 Bedford City – Cable Service .........................................................................53
Fig A.6.1 Campbell Overview -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.6.2 Campbell – Fiber ............................................................................................53
Fig A.6.3 Campbell – DSL .............................................................................................53
Fig A.6.4 Campbell – WISP ...........................................................................................53
Fig A.6.5 Campbell – Cable Service..............................................................................53
Fig A.7.1 Lynchburg Overview -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.7.2 Lynchburg – Fiber ..........................................................................................53
Fig A.7.3 Lynchburg – DSL............................................................................................53
Fig A.7.4 Lynchburg – WISP .........................................................................................53
Fig A.7.5 Lynchburg – Cable Service ............................................................................53
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Acknowledgements
The Region 2000 Technology Council would like to acknowledge the Region 2000
Economic Development partnership and the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology
for their sponsorship of this work. Special Thanks goes to Lee Cobb of Region 2000
and to Dave Burtis at CIT who helped procure the funding for this project.
The R2KTC Broadband Committee oversaw the work. This group of volunteers
participated in the planning and review meetings that drove the scope and direction of
this work. Special thanks go to the participants in the Broadband Committee that
included:
Anne Blair
Travis Brown
Scott Burger
Dave Burtis
Chris Chartrand
Lee Cobb
Britain Crooker
Mike Davidson
Gil Dinkins
Bill Douglass
Mike Goetz
Bill Guzek
Barbara Hartley
Chris Judd
Joe Kent
Andrew Newton
Dan Overstreet
Dick Penoza
Keith Polarek
Dave Ramsburg
David Scott
Mark Sisson
Craig Szczutkowski
Mark Varah
Robert Vaughan
Kevin Warman
Jonathan Whitt
Campbell County
Netwave Internet
Versar Inc.
Center for Innovative Technology
GE Capital
Region 2000 EDP
Fifth Order Technologies
Campbell County
Commlink Technologies
Applied Technology Resources
City of Lynchburg
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Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce
HT Communications
Adelphia Business Solutions
nTelos
HT Communications
Liberty University
Innovative Wireless Technologies
McBratney Sisson Advertising
Fifth Order Technologies
Nesbe Cable
CRT Staffing
Region 2000 Technology Council
The following Chambers of Commerce also played a key role in helping to send out the
3300 business surveys and help arrange the town meetings that were held around the
region:
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Amherst County Chamber of Commerce
Bedford Chamber of Commerce
Altavista Chamber of Commerce
Appomattox Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center
The following economic development officials were instrumental in helping to set the
direction for the study as well as help arrange the meetings with the local government
officials.
John Spencer – Appomattox County
Dennis Jarvis – Amherst County
Elizabeth Berry-Mosley – Bedford City
Sue Montgomery – Bedford County
Mike Davidson – Campbell County
Ed Miller – Lynchburg City
Special thanks to Victor Clark at Central Litho for printing the 3300 business surveys
that were distributed.
We also gratefully acknowledge the following companies for the information that they
provided in support of this project:
NESBE Cable
Adelphia Cable, Roanoke Office
Verizon
Netwave Internet
NTelos
Project Director
Project Sponsors:
May 2004
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Disclaimer
All of the information in this report was believed to be accurate (to the extent that the
providers would release the data) at the time of release. It is intended to be guideline
and offer some insight to the technology, variety, and availability of services in Region
2000. Economic development officials should contact the providers at the time of need
for the latest information about service areas, capabilities, and costs for the most
accurate information. Pricing of business service is complex and involves many
variables. The survey data was based on a limited sampling of the members of the
region’s chambers of commerce and was not intended to be a statistically
representative sample but rather in indicative sample. 3300 surveys were distributed
and 164 returned for a return rate of about 5%. Some regions had much better returns
than others; this is shown in the data reported.
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Executive Summary
There is a growing realization that the availability of broadband technologies is critical to
the regional economy. Broadband is an accelerator of economic development. It has a
pervasive impact that comes from both direct and indirect sources.
At the request of the Region 2000 Economic Development Partnership, the Region
2000 Technology Council undertook this study of the Broadband Internet infrastructure
in the Region 2000 area.
The study was undertaken to gain a better understanding of the Internet infrastructure in
the region as well as the demand side of Internet usage in business, industry and
government. The study did not specifically address residential use or deployment of
Broadband Internet capability; however, the coverage information applies to residential
use as well. The mapping gives a quite complete description of the availability of
Internet services regardless of use by businesses or households.
Findings
•
Confirmation of the perception that there is a great disparity in high-speed
access to the Internet between rural and populated areas of the region. The
“digital divide” in the region has more to do with the population density rather
than socio-economic divisions. High speed Internet service still costs
substantially higher than cut-rate dial up services and this will likely create
somewhat of a divide based on socioeconomic differences.
•
From some of the town meetings and surveys it appears that many
businesses do not know about the availability of high speed internet in the
area or have an idea of the impact it could have on their business. Once they
switch to a high-speed service they wonder why they did not do it earlier. Part
of the business survey that was conducted attempts to understand how local
businesses are using the Internet.
•
Businesses in the Lynchburg area have many options for high-speed access
to the Internet and appear to be adopting the technology. Businesses in
Lynchburg indicated a higher usage of DSL than Dial-up for Internet access.
Areas outside of the core Lynchburg area and especially in rural areas were
found to have no or limited access to broadband capability and limited Internet
connectivity by dial-up.
•
At least 3 independent options for high-speed Internet access via fiber are
available in Lynchburg and into businesses and parks along Route 29 and
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Route 460 corridors. Availability is highly dependent on demand and
willingness to pay for the bandwidth.
•
There is an issue with a lack of competition for last mile connectivity for T1,
fractional T1’s, leased lines, and DSL. Nearly all of the last mile connectivity
comes through the local ILEC and the Wire Centers they control. Although
backbone connectivity may come from other third parties; most companies will
still have to go through either Verizon or Sprint (in Altavista & Brookneal) to
get connected.
•
Most of the local governments have plans to use the Internet to provide better
access to government services, forms, and information. However some
applications like GIS and access to large documents require the constituents
to have broadband Internet service to access or make use of these services.
•
The eCorridors project is being implemented in Southside VA to bring gigabit
Ethernet capability to communities in the area. Three out of four Region 2000
counties (Campbell, Bedford and Appomattox) were included in the design for
a fiber backbone for the area. Discussions were held and ongoing with the
Virginia Tech eCorridors team about having them do a similar design for
Amherst County so that the complete Region 2000 area would be covered if
an effort to execute this plan were made.
•
Nearly all of the cable service in the region has or will soon be converted to 2way Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) systems allowing high-speed Internet access.
The only exception is around the Smith Mountain Lake area.
•
This effort already has positive impact on the region. The airport now has free
wireless Internet access courtesy of Nesbe Cable as a result of this study.
Other areas around the region will soon follow. A new project to inform
people and promote wireless hot spots in key areas around the region will
soon be launched by the R2KTC as a spin-off of this study.
•
The state mandate that Standards of Learning tests (SOL’s) will all become
computer-based could be a growing issue. School systems will have to have
the internal and external network capacity to download SOL tests from
administration computers, and relay information back to them. Schools which
only have a T1 connection back to the administration HQ will find it
increasingly difficult since this connection is used both for the school systems
intranet as well as school internet traffic. Performance issues may become a
major problem. School systems will have to take this into account in their
planning and budgets.
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Recommendations
Ø Promote the awareness of broadband connectivity in the area. This can be
done by promoting broadband connectivity on the Region 2000 and R2KTC
websites and having R2KTC members speak to the topic at Chamber of
Commerce meetings and other business gatherings in the region. Many
companies apparently still spend hours waiting for documents and e-mail to
download over the phone line. This effort should also benefit the IT service
companies in the region that can help small businesses set up their systems
for high speed internet. The Regional Commission or other regional authority
should undertake a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) to raise
the level of broadband awareness in the region. For example, a PSA could
show local businesses how they can improve their operations, and in some
cases lower communication and labor costs, by using broadband Internet
services.
Ø Promote an effort to get Region 2000 more involved with the projects such as
the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative that are working to bring the next
level of internet connectivity to the region. Actively engage the political
representation in the area to help make this happen.
Ø Initiate an effort to provide adequate and equal Internet access to all schools
and libraries within Region 2000. We should look at a way to provide high
speed (10MB or better) connections to all schools and libraries in the region.
Ø Investigate ways to aggregate demand in the region and provide bandwidth at
a cost that can make it commercially viable to offer high bandwidth
connection to small and medium size businesses in underserved areas. This
could be done in partnership with regional carriers capable of supplying Tier 1
connectivity and then selling the bandwidth to providers in rural areas at a
reduced rate so that they can make a business case to provide service in the
rural areas. It appears that wireless or Internet over power line will be the
best choice to reach rural areas of Region 2000.
Ø Put in place an effort to maintain a GIS database of regional Internet
connectivity and get regular updates from area providers on expansions of
existing service or new service that is offered. Collection of this information
could be mandated if necessary as well as paid for by changes to the permit
or franchise regulations.
Ø Information on the regions right-of-ways should be collected as well to
facilitate the introduction of new providers to the area.
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1. Project Goals and Scope
The purpose of this project was to provide the economic development departments in
the region with an assessment of the high-speed Internet capability available in the
Region 2000 area. Region 200 is the area consisting of the 4 counties of Amherst,
Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell and the cities of Lynchburg and Bedford. The
primary goal of this project was to discover who are the Internet providers in the region,
what do they have to offer and where they offer it. The goal is to make this information
easily available to the ED officials in the area so that they can quickly respond to
potential prospects and to existing businesses looking to expand.
This study will serve two purposes. First is to identify and catalog the broadband
resources in the region with an emphasis on discovering the region’s strengths and
weakness in this area. Those broadband resources will be a combination of fiber,
wireless, cable, and digital subscriber line providers. The second is to suggest solutions
to the problem areas as well as how the region should proceed to implement the
suggested solutions. This information is critical to the region’s economic developers.
Project goals
The project seeks to provide answers to the following questions:
• Where is fiber and last-mile broadband access currently available?
• Who are our current broadband providers (will include all technologies), what services
do they offer, to whom is it offered, and what are the costs?
• What are the steps to hook up to fiber and what are the costs?
• What is the state of redundancy in the region?
• Where are the Internet Service Provider’s Points of Presence (POP’s) located in
relation to the region’s Industrial Parks?
• Who is currently using broadband in the region?
• What are the differences between the carriers?
• Would businesses use broadband if it was available and what would they be willing to
pay? (Focus on Commercial & Industrial Development)
• Who could provide broadband to underserved communities within the region in the
short term (1 to 2 years) and in the long term (3-5 years)? (What would the
technologies be that deliver the service)
• What does having broadband availability mean to individuals, businesses, and local
government?
• What can broadband do for communities in terms of quality of life, economic
development, healthcare, and education?
• In targeted areas (heavy commercial and industrial) not served by fiber or wireless,
what must be done to get service?
• Where should existing broadband service be upgraded and why?
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2. Problem Statement – The need for speed…
Access to the Internet and the interconnection of businesses, partners and
communities has become an area of increasingly close attention. Communities
have realized that the availability of high-speed Internet service is as valuable as
any of the other utilities like water, electricity, workforce, and land. High-speed
Internet service has become an important utility for communities seeking to bring
in new or grow existing businesses. Broadband is an accelerator of economic
development. They are finding that they need to do this not only to remain
competitive and catch up but also to keep up as other communities continue to
raise the bar for service speed and availability.
New applications like Telemedicine, Voice over IP, Video on demand and
network gaming will keep driving the demand for higher speed network
connections. As use of the Internet increases so will the sophistication of the
applications and the demand for bandwidth. The table below lists some of these
applications and the bandwidth required to implement them at a minimum usable
rate and the desired ideal bandwidth needed for full realization of the capability.
Application
Minimum Bandwidth
Ideal Bandwidth
Teleworking
Videoconferencing
E-Learning
Telemedicine
Video Telephony
Near video on demand
Movies on Demand
Audio on Demand
Telegaming
Home Shopping
Electronic Newspapers
Digital Television
110 kbps
110 kbps
110 kbps
110 kbps
70 kbps
1 Mbps
1 Mbps
110 kbps
40 kbps
40 kbps
40 Kbps
1 Mbps
1.5 - 7 Mbps
800 kbps
1.5 - 7 Mbps
1.5 -100 Mbps
200 kbps
1.5 - 7 Mbps
1.5 - 7 Mbps
700 kbps
1.5 - 7 Mbps
1.5 - 7 Mbps
2 Mbps
7 Mbps
1
Fig. 1 - Bandwidth Requirements of Some Applications
One of the key things to notice is that for half of these applications dial-up is no
longer an adequate technology based on the minimum bandwidth needs.
Satellite, Cable, DSL and a T1 connection only meet the low end of the ideal
bandwidth needed for nearly all of the applications. Applications such as these
will continue to drive a demand for higher data speeds.
1
Source: Canadian Broadband Task Force, per http://www.lonestarbroadband.org/
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A few of the myriad of applications that will drive the need for more bandwidth
are highlighted below:
Telemedicine
Telemedicine refers not only to making remote diagnosis of patients conditions
via voice video and data but of also the impact of doctors to connect to hospitals,
patients to get access to information or purchase drugs and medical supplies online. Broadband technology is allowing doctors to view and send medical images
quickly and securely. This can be especially helpful in rural areas but is also a
valuable time saver in urban areas. It would allow a doctor to review medical
information while away from the office and to respond to a critical case. Having
patients go to local rural medical centers and still receive treatment from
specialists located in urban hospitals could reduce transportation costs and
discomfort. Electronic monitoring of patients may allow medical facilities to work
closely with assisted-living facilities. Using remote video families could even
monitor and communicate with their loved ones in assisted living facilities. One
might consider how long it would take to transfer a typical set of eight x-rays to a
doctor’s office cross country (about 8 Gigabytes) based on the chart in Figure 2.
Fig. 2 – Illustration of relative speed for various connectivity options
Teleworking
Teleworking is not just working from home, but the ability to work from remote
locations or while traveling. It is the concept of a virtual office, and can save
companies significant amounts of time and expense. It allows people more time
working and less time spent commuting to/from work. This is true for rural remote
areas as well as for congested urban areas. It can reduce the amount of travel
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needed to attend face-to-face meetings, allow employees to collaborate on
projects, and maximize the efficiency of scarce professional resources.
E-Government
Government is basically a service business serving the citizens of the
community. E-government facilitated by broadband allows more convenient
interaction with government. Phone calls and visits to government offices can be
replaced with electronic self-service interfaces. These can also be made
accessible on a 24-hour basis helping those that work long hours or night shifts
as well as elderly and other people with mobility problems. Examples of such
services are fining for financial aide, applying for licenses, permits, and other
government programs. Broadband can help governments save money by better
managing task flow and also automating internal processes as well. It can save
money on mailing, printing and handling costs.
Agriculture
Broadband can provide several benefits to the agricultural sector. It can play an
important role in bringing the farmers and their markets together more quickly
and efficiently. Studies in Canada suggest it can reduce the cost of bringing
calves to market from CA$11 a head to CA$4 a head. Services such as Agri
ImaGIS networks are transmitting satellite imagery by wireless broadband to
farmers, soil scientists and conservationists. The images provide weather and
soil condition information. The USDA is working to make its programs accessible
via the Internet to save farmers time and effort in obtaining and submitting forms
and reports. The 2002 Farm Bill stated that the RUS should provide loans and
loan guarantees for broadband services in eligible rural areas.
Distance Learning
Distance learning is one of the most heavily promoted applications of broadband.
There are major initiatives at the community college level to convert more of the
courses to be available in an on-line format. Broadband enables students from
any geographic location to take advantage of educational institutions. It allows
them to see and interact with professors in real time. Locally it was used to teach
a Spanish class at the Altavista Center from the main campus that would have
otherwise been canceled due to low enrollment. By combining those students
remotely with the main CVCC campus it was able to run. The Center for
Advanced Engineering uses broadband technology extensively to bring graduate
level technical education for engineers and MBA students from UVA, ODU and
VT to the CAE site on the CVCC campus.
Public Safety
Broadband technology can serve several public safety roles. Remote monitoring
of critical infrastructure, borders, and airports has become increasingly important
since September 11, 2001. With a wireless broadband connection, large data
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and image files can be quickly transferred allowing rapid distribution of
photographs, building plans, and fingerprints. Video information and reports can
make mobile units and first responders more effective. It will allow command
centers to receive full motion videos from mobile units to help them make more
effective decisions and provide remote backup. Teleconferencing and using
voice over IP or Radio-over-IP technology with other agencies in times of natural
or manmade disasters help relieve interoperability issues between them. The
Telecommunications Industry Association and European Telecommunications
Standards Institute have created project MESA2 (Mobility for Emergency and
Safety Applications) to develop standards for public-safety oriented broadband
communications.
Tourism
Tourism can be enhanced by using broadband to allow visitors to get a flavor of
the region by taking virtual tours enhanced by online videos, web cams and
interactive websites. Tourism agencies can put small snippets of tours of key
historic landmarks online while an audio track entices them to come and visit in
person to see more. Major sporting and social events can also be web cast or
archived for playback later to accommodate differences in time zones for those
that cannot view them in real-time. With broadband, the tourist web sites can be
linked into other related sites like live hotel reservations, a tourist center help
desk or ticket sales agents allowing a potential visitor to talk to a live person right
from their PC.
3. Approach / Methods Employed
The project was carried out by the Region 2000 Technology Council at the
request by the Region2000 Economic Development Partnership. A Broadband
Study Group was formed to work out a statement of work and deliverables. The
committee selected the project leader and met on several occasions to get
updates at each phase and to make recommendations based on the information
gathered. Execution of the project was accomplished in three main phases.
The first phase was to collect the data from the service providers that serve the
region. Service providers were asked to provide detailed information about the
coverage area they served. This data was then overlaid on a map of the region.
Each distribution technology and provider is identified as a layer in the
Geographic Information System (GIS). These layers collectively illustrate the total
access to broadband Internet capability in the region.
2
See http://www.projectmesa.org
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Data from the providers was collected including contact information, types of
service offered, speed of each type and the cost of using and installing the
service. Exact figures on this were not always easy to obtain. Where possible
face-to-face meetings were arranged with company representatives. Several of
the area providers also participated in the Broadband Study Group and the
Technology Council encouraged their active participation.
The second phase was designed to answer the questions of who needed
broadband Internet service? Where did they need it? What did they need it for
and how did they justify the cost? A survey was developed, based on surveys
done in other communities and on the CSPP (Community Systems Policy
Project) assessment that was completed in the region in 2002. In partnership
with all of the chambers of commerce in the region, the surveys were sent out in
the monthly mailings to chamber members as well or in special mailings to the
chamber’s membership.
As part of the second phase, meetings were also held with local government IT,
school and economic development leaders. The purpose of these meetings was
to gather information on the network capabilities of the local governments and
their initiatives to make local government electronically accessible. By talking to
this diverse group of people we could get a good idea of the breadth of
capabilities that the government had as well as what was needed by constituents
of the government to interact with it.
Finally in the third phase data supplied by the providers was mapped using
Geographic Information System (GIS) tools to graphically illustrate the availability
of different types of service and how industrial sites, economic corridors and The
results of the business surveys were also plotted to pinpoint areas of the region
where there was demand but was insufficient service. All of this data and
information was presented to the broadband committee for them to generate a
list of recommendations for future actions. The result of which is this final report.
4. Broadband Internet Technologies
Broadband Internet connectivity is delivered by a variety of technologies.
Different technologies are suited to different uses and the technology choice
usually is determined by the capacity needed or the geographic availability of the
service. The technologies found in Region 2000 are described in the sections
below as background information.
DSL
xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line) allows high speed connectivity over standard
telephone lines. The advantage is that no additional wires need to be run to the
customer. Download speeds are typically 500 Kb/s. Most users of Verizon’s DSL
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modems in the region appear to be getting about 768Kbps. DSL sends a
modulated signal over the regular copper wiring going into and office or business.
DSL signals and telephone signals can coexist on the same wire; usually no
rewiring is needed to receive DSL. Some types of DSL use a filter to help provide
better separation of voice and data signals. ADSL is similar to Cable Internet in
that it is asymmetric; the download speed is faster than the upload speed.
Wireless Internet
Typical wireless Internet service is a point to multipoint system. That is, there is
one tower that simultaneously broadcasts and receives signals from a number of
base stations at fixed locations. In many cases these systems operate in the
unlicensed band at 2.4Ghz or 5.2 GHz. They may also operate at other licensed
frequencies as well. The systems at these frequencies usually have to operate as
Line-of-sight systems; this means that there has to be a direct visual path from
the tower to the customer site. Some wireless ISP’s have started to introduce
systems that operate in the 900Mhz band. These can be used in non-line-of sight
situations; however the drawback of this flexibility is typically lower data rates.
The service providers are commonly referred to as WISP’s, for Wireless Internet
Service Provider. Most commercial services use one or more of three wireless
technologies, LMDS, MMDS, or Unlicensed (802.11a,b,e g).
Cable Modem
Cable modem service is a method of providing broadband Internet access over a
Cable System Hybrid Fiber Coax network. Basically the system uses Fiber optic
lines to get into a neighborhood and then converts the fiber signals to a system of
copper coaxial cable that distributes the signal into the houses in the
neighborhood. A cable system using the DOCSIS 1.0 system enables a standard
6 MHz TV channel to distribute up to 27 Mbps of shared bandwidth to between
200 and 2000 users.
Customers of the cable system typically get 1mb/s service or better depending
on the number of simultaneous users on the system. In response to recent
competition from DSL suppliers, some cable companies are increasing their
customer bandwidth up to 3Mbs but keeping the price the same. Cable systems
are asymmetric, that is, the download (downstream) speed is higher than the
upload speed (upstream). Cable systems typically set the upstream speed to
256Kbps. The following figure shows the basic architecture of a cable Internet
system.
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Fig 3. Cable Internet System Architecture
Fiber
Fiber optic systems convert data streams into coded laser light that is transmitted
through glass fibers to a receiving unit. Because of its higher bandwidth and
higher cost, fiber optic cable has typically been used to provide high-speed
connections to businesses. Residential last mile systems known as FTTH (fiber
to the home) and FTTC (fiber to the curb) refer to bringing high-speed bandwidth
to the home. In nearly all cases in the region fiber is used to provide high
bandwidth connections to businesses or government organizations. There are
currently no known deployments of FTTH in Region 2000. A few fiber carriers do
however operate and have local connections available in the region. A fiber cable
typically contains several strands of fiber. Typically when the fiber is deployed
providers will only use a portion of the total fibers in the cable. The fiber that is
not “lit up” with a laser is referred to as “dark fiber”. The dark fiber is used as
spares for damaged fibers or to provide future additional capacity. Fiber is
usually deployed where DS-3 or better bandwidth is needed. Most providers will
describe the data handling capacity of their fiber as OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, up to
OC-192 and by the number of strands a fiber link has.
Frame Relay
Frame relay or leased lines refers to the use of data circuits from a service
provider. The providers (carrier) usually sell the service as switched virtual
circuits between two or more sites. When you link your sites with frame relay you
basically create a virtual private network (VPN). A carrier programs virtual
circuits into the network between your sites and charges for a specific level of
service.
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The service can range from 56kbps up to T-3 speeds (45Mbps) A leased line is
usually required between your site and the carriers frame-relay access point. A
frame relay access device is a router type device that is installed at the
customer’s site. It connects over the leased line to an edge switch on the carrier’s
frame-relay network, which is usually the nearest wire center. A connection is set
up electronically each time a request to send data occurs. Permanent virtual
circuits can also be created for the customer as preprogrammed connections as
a path through the network. It does not need to be set up or torn down for each
session.
DSL
Fiber/
Frame-Relay
LMDS
WISP
Fig 4. Illustration of several types of Internet connections3
Satellite
Satellite Internet is available nearly country wide except in a few areas where
there is no good exposure to the (usually southern) sky. In many rural areas of
the region it is currently the only choice for a broadband internet connection. The
3
Ref: Dragonwave whitepaper DWI-PAP-002 www.dragonwave.com with edits
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satellite hub is connected to the internet and transmits this to the satellite, the
satellite acts as a repeater and retransmits the data stream to the customers
receiver. The received signal is converted back to a standard Ethernet signal by
a Satellite Internet Modem. The receiving dish is about 2-3 feet wide, slightly
larger than a satellite TV dish. Directway and Starband are the leading providers
of satellite service in the area. Typically a user can expect data rates of about
400-700 kbps download and 50-100 kbps upload. Service must be installed by a
licensed technician and the initial cost is usually high compared to cable or DSL.
Satellite systems can be subject to poor performance in heavy rain, snow and fog
due to rain fade. Satellite Internet systems also have some latency because of
the distance the signal has to travel. This is not a problem for web surfing, e-mail,
and basic web applications. The connection is less suitable for interactive uses
such as online gaming, VoIP, or other latency sensitive applications. Several
companies offer combined satellite Internet and TV service.
Broadband over Power-Line - BPL
A relatively new technology being deployed is the use of power lines to distribute
Internet data. The power company connects the Internet switchgear at the local
substation. The Internet data travels over the power lines to houses and
businesses it supplies power to. A special power line modem is used to extract
the Internet signals from the power line and safely feed these into the home or
business network. The technology is based on the industry HomePlug standard.
The technology is advertised as capable of delivering up to 500 kbps over
standard power lines. One advantage is that nearly any power outlet in the
house can be used to plug into the service (Commercial buildings may have
some restriction due to power conditioning equipment). Residential and
commercial services are being initiated in several pilot locations. Central
Virginia Electric Cooperative is running trials of the service and could offer
service in Amherst and Appomattox counties in the near future.
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5. Region 2000 Broadband Service Providers
Survey of Regional Providers
The following sections list providers in Region 2000 and information about their
service areas and upcoming plans.
Adelphia Cable
Adelphia cable provides TV, digital TV and Internet service. The Internet service
is sold as their Powerlink service. They serve western Bedford County the city of
Lynchburg, Areas of Amherst County near Lynchburg including Madison Heights
and the town of Amherst. All of these areas are believed to have 2-way cable
modem service capable of providing Internet service with cable modems.
Adelphia also has one-way cable service on the north side of Smith Mountain
Lake that is not equipped for cable Internet service. Adelphia Cable will soon be
renamed as part of the restructuring of the Adelphia company.
Adelphia Business Systems provides high-speed Internet service over fiber
service provides. They have an extensive redundant fiber loop system within the
city of Lynchburg. Their long haul connections are north to Adelphia offers T1 up
to OC-12 service. They have recently reactivated a sales office in downtown
Lynchburg. Adelphia offers Internet service bundled with voice services as well.
Adelphia Business Solutions will also soon be changing its name as part of
Adelphia’s business restructuring. Adelphia also provides long-haul fiber into
and out of the region to tier one networks.
EZtel
EZTel has announced it will offer wireless Internet service in the Brookneal area.
The current extent of the service is unknown. They plan to do this in partnership
with the BTP group a northern Virginia wireless ISP development company.
Nesbe Cable
Nesbe Offers cable internet as well as TV and digital TV service in northwestern
Bedford county, parts of Campbell County and the town of Appomattox. The
majority of their systems have been converted to 2-way cable to support its
internet service. Nesbe expects to have all of its system internet enabled by the
end of 2004.
Netwave
Netwave was one of the first wireless Internet providers in the Lynchburg area.
They are also currently the largest WISP in the region. They have been in
operation about 6 years and currently have towers located on No Business,
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Tobacco Row, and Candlers, mountains as well as some smaller mini cells
covering various Lynchburg locations. They have recently added coverage from
Long Mountain near Rustburg. They have recently merged with C3I
Technologies. C3I is building out an extensive broadband wireless backbone
system across Virginia. Netwave will be providing last mile connectivity in rural
areas via this backbone. Netwave is working with C3I to implement wireless
broadband coverage in the Appomattox area and later to other areas. They offer
business and residential services as well as service to rural municipalities and
schools. The majority of the coverage is line of sight, however they are starting
to build out a non-line of sight system to complement the current coverage.
NTelos
NTelos is based out of Waynesboro, VA. Several years ago they purchased the
Lynchburg fiber optic system when Lynchburg was forced to sell the system by
the state. NTelos provides service and support for the fiber system as well as
providing Internet service to businesses, schools, and Lynchburg government
facilities. NTelos also provides DSL service out of four central offices in
Lynchburg.
Fig 5. Ntelos Wireless Internet Service Area (Fall 04)
Starting in September they will be introducing wireless broadband service in
Lynchburg and surrounding suburban area shown in Fig 5. NTelos sells cellular
service in the region in addition to its Internet services. They offer broadband
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commercial Internet service bundled with voice services as well. NTelos also
provides long-haul high bandwidth fiber connectivity in and out of the region.
Verizon
Verizon is the ILEC for the majority of Region 2000 except for the AltaVista and
Brookneal areas. All of the primary Central Offices belong to Verizon. They offer
fiber and leased line services. In addition, they provide DSL from about half of
the wire centers. They have also started the installation of outpost DSL
equipment in some of the suburban areas to extend their DSL coverage out
beyond the 18,000 foot limitation from the CO’s. Because they are the ILEC and
own the CO’s (wire centers) most of the last mile wired leased line and DSL
capability in the region has to go through them.
Sprint
Sprint is the ILEC in the Altavista and Brookneal area and owns the wire centers
there. The also provide leased line and long haul Fiber and Internet backbone
service for business customers in the region. They are also the backbone service
provider through Network Virginia. Sprint offers DSL service in the Altavista
area. They also offer cellular service in the Region 2000 area.
Pure Internet
Pure was brought in by Campbell County after a study found they had no good
alternatives for providing high speed broadband to the town of Brookneal.
Campbell County solicited bids for an Internet service provider for Brookneal and
Pure Internet won the bid. They offer wireless Internet to homes and businesses
in the immediate Brookneal area. Pure Internet also serves several rural areas
outside of Region 2000.
Central Virginia Electrical Co-op
In a press release from April 5, 2004 they announced starting trials of their
Internet over Power Line service starting with Colleen, Martins Store, and Piney
River Substations. They have electric customers in Amherst and Appomattox
counties where BPL could be offered in the future. The entire service area that
could be served is shown in the shaded area in Fig. 6 below.
Tradewinds (D-Tel)
Is working on the development of a mesh-network LMDS system for Broadband
Internet service. They have an agreement for use of the LMDS licenses owned
by Virginia Tech. The license area (BTA) owned by VT includes Bedford County.
The remainder of Region 2000 is in another BTA. The licenses in this BTA are
owned by Adelphia and NTelos. Tradewinds is currently running trials on the
system in Salem, VA and has not announced plans yet to scale up the system.
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Fig 6. Possible future Area served by CVEC broadband over power lines
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6. Service Areas
The maps in Appendix A show the service areas provided by the various providers.
There is a map series for each Region 2000 county and city. The maps also show the
service areas by type of service provided. Each type of Internet technology is
represented by a layer set on the map. Within this layer set the various service
providers deploying that technology are shown. There is one regional set of maps and
then more detailed maps of each individual county and city in Region 2000. Hyperlinks
from Appendix A will bring up the selected map file.
Cable service areas are shown as a 200 ft buffer on either side of the roads they serve.
Service beyond the 200 ft. will require additional installation fees.
DSL service is shown as a region around the central office that is enabled to provide
DSL service. DSL is typically available within 18000 feet of the CO. This is illustrated as
three concentric bands 6000 feet apart. Service has a higher probability of being
available the closer to the CO that you are.
Wireless Internet service is also estimated by a series of concentric rings. The service
area is the shaded area around the tower. It is broken down into 2 levels to show areas
of good service and areas of marginal service or where high gain antennas might be
needed. The estimated range does not take into account topography of the region.
The available local fiber routes are shown as a 100-foot buffer on either side of the
route they travel. Connections to the fiber will have extra cost if it is needed father away
from the mainline than this. Pricing of connectivity is complex and heavily dependent on
the service bundle and bandwidth being purchased. Fiber is indicated as long-haul and
local. Long haul fiber may not be available to service areas along its route unless a
customer with high demand (OC-3 or better) requires it. Industrial parks along the long
haul route may not be served by it unless and until there is enough demand in the park.
Economic corridors are those areas that have a high concentration of shops or
businesses along them they are highlighted as yellow buffers along the main roads
through the corridor. Industrial parks are highlighted as red areas and are scattered in
various parts of Region 2000. Industrial areas and parks overlaid with green are the
current or proposed Technology Zones in the region.
Survey results are also mapped to the location of the companies that responded to the
surveys. They type of answer is highlighted in different icons or colors. Technology
council members are also located on the map to show the types of service available to
our members.
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7. Regional Internet Service Providers
The following tables show the Internet service providers in the area, the type of service they provide and contact
information. In addition the tables also show pricing where that data could be obtained. Pricing of service greater than a
T1 is a parameter of the length of contract, bandwidth required, bundling with voice services and other variables.
Regional Broadband Internet Service Providers – Contact Information
Company
Adelphia Business
Solutions
Adelphia Cable
AT&T
Central VA Electric Coop
Charter Communications
Directway
Nesbe
Netwave
Ntelos
Pure Internet
Contact Name
434-316-1015
888 233 5638
800 248-3632
434-263-7627
540 586 5300
866-556-9662
434-821-7110
434-366-0656
434-401-0004
434-517-0033
800 877 2000
Sprint
Cust Svc
800 387-7070 business
Starband
Cust Svc
800-4STARBAND
US Cellular
Cust Svc
434 455 2355
Verizon (large accts.)
Sally Seagraves 540-265-5055
Verizon (small business)
Sandi Sturgeon 540-887-9924
Verizon (local government) Fred Walters
540-265-5064
4
Andrew Newton
Cust Svc.
Cust Svc.
Greg Kelly
Matt Favre
Cust Svc.
Robert Vaughan
Susan Clark
Dan Overstreet
Kelly Shaw
Phone
E-mail
Service
type4
[email protected] Fi, FR
Ca
Fi,FR
BPL
[email protected]
[email protected]
Cable
Sat
[email protected]
Ca
[email protected] W
[email protected]
Fi,FR,D
[email protected]
W
Fi,FR,D
Sat
Cell
Fi,FR,D
web address
http://www.adelphia.com/business_
solutions/
www.adelphia.com
www.att.com
www.forcvec.com
www.charter.com
www.directtv.directway.com
www.nesbeonline.com
www.netwaveinternet.com
www.ntelos.net
www.pure.net
www.sprint.com
http://smallbusiness.sprint..com
www.starband.com
www.verizon.com
Service Type: Fi –Fiber, FR – Frame Relay, D – xDSL, Ca – Cable, LMDS- LMDS, W - Wireless
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Regional Broadband Internet Service Providers – Contact Information
Company
Tradewinds (D-Tel)
EZTel
MCI (COVANET)
Contact Name
Phone
Dan Draughn
540-562-0104
Customer Svc. 434-376-1096
E-mail
[email protected]
[email protected]
Service
4
type
web address
W
www.dtel.com
W
Fi,FR
www.mci.com
Fig 7. Contact information for Regional Broadband Internet service providers
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DSL
Technology >
Cable
Fiber
Frame-Relay
X
X
X
?
X
Wireless
Power-line
(BPL)
Satellite
2/3G
Cellular
Providers v
Adelphia Cable
Adelphia Business
Solutions
AT&T
Charter
Communications
CVEC
Directway
EZTel
Netwave Internet
Nesbe Cable
nTelos
Sprint
Pure Internet
Starband
Nextel
Verizon
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Sep 04
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Fig 8. Broadband Internet providers in Region 2000 by Technology Offerings
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Provider
Technology
Adelphia Cable
Cable
Region 2000 Broadband Internet – Residential Service
Installation Monthly
Trade name
Download Upload
Cost
Fee
Speed
Speed
Self/Pro
5
$0 /$49.95
$0/$49.95
$49.95
$79.95
Charter
Communications
Directway
EZ Tel
Cable
$0/$49.95
39.95
Satellite
Wireless
$600-700
$250
$59.99
$29.95
Nesbe
Cable
$0
Netwave
Wireless
$99
Ntelos
DSL
$50
Ntelos
Wireless
$49.95
$29.95
$39.996
$79.95
$79.95
$29.95
$49.95
$44.957
$49.95
$59.95
$79.95
$69.958
Pure Internet
Wireless
$299.999
Sprint
DSL
0
$29.95
$99.95
$41.95
Powerlink
Powerlink Premier
Charter HighSpeed
Directway
Residential Lite
Residential
Residential Ultra
Residential Ultra
WirelessDSL
Portable
Broadband
WirelessDSL
Earthlink
Current General
Availability
(See maps in Appendix A for
details)
1.5Mbps
4Mbps
256Kbps
512Kbps
3Mbps
256Kbps
Lynchburg, Madison Hts.,
Amherst, Montvale parts of
western Bedford Co.
Bedford City
400kbps
Up to
1.5mbps
128Kbps
500Kbps
1Mbps
3Mbps (fall04)
256kpbs
384kbps
384Kbps
512Kbps
728Kbps
1.5Mbps
Up to
1.5Mbps
768kbps
1.5Mbps
Up to 3Mbps
40kbps
?
Entire region
Brookneal (late 04?)
128Kbps
256Kpbs
500Kbps
500Kbps
256kpbs
384kbps
384Kbps
512Kbps
768Kbps
384Kbps
550Kbps
Forest, Eastern Bedford Co.
Western Campbell County,
Town of Appomattox
768kbps
1.5Mbps
384kbps
Lynchburg, Forest, Rustburg
Appomattox (late 04)
Lynchburg Area
Lynchburg area (Sep 04)
Brookneal
Altavista area
5
$0 for self install; $49.95 for professional installation.
Price with existing cable service, add $12.95 if not currently a cable TV customer
7
12 month contract price.
8
Month to Month price; 1 year contract $59.95; 2 year contract $49.95
9
Payable as monthly fee over 12 or 24 month term.
6
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Provider
Technology
Starband
Verizon
Satellite
DSL
Region 2000 Broadband Internet – Residential Service
Installation Monthly
Trade name
Download Upload
Cost
Fee
Speed
Speed
Self/Pro
$499
$0/
69/59/49
$29.99
Starband
Residential
500kbps
1.5Mbps/
10
768 kbps
50Kbps
128kbps
Current General
Availability
details)
Entire region
Lynchburg, Forest, Bedford
City, Montvale,
Fig 9. Broadband Availability and Residential Pricing
10
Customers provisioned within 12,000 ft. of CO 1.5mbps; 768Kbps elsewhere
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Provider
Region 2000 Broadband Internet – Business Service
Technology Installation Monthly Trade name
Download
Upload
Cost
Fee
Speed
Speed
Self/Pro
Adelphia Cable
Cable
Powerlink
Powerlink Premier
Adelphia
Business
Solutions
FrameRelay/Fiber
variable
Charter
Communications
Nesbe
Cable
$0/$49.95
Ntelos
DSL
Ntelos
Wireless
Ntelos
Frame-Relay /
Fiber
11
Cable
Varies
with
bandwidth
and
bundled
services
39.95
$79.95
$99.95
$199.95
$49.95
$69.9511
Charter HighSpeed
Commercial 128
Commercial 500
Commercial
1000
Portable
Broadband
Varies
with
bandwidth
and
bundled
services
1.5Mbps
4Mbps
256Kbps
512Kbps
Fractional T1
to OC-x
Fractional T1
to OC-x
3Mbps
256Kbps
128kbps
500kbps
1024kbps
56Kbps
256Kpbs
500Kbps
384Kbps
512Kbps
728Kbps
1.5Mbps
Up to 1.5Mbps
384Kbps
512Kbps
768Kbps
384Kbps
550Kbps
Fractional T1
to OC-x
Fractional T1
to OC-x
Current General
Availability
details)
Lynchburg, Madison Hts,
Amherst, Montvale parts
of western Bedford Co.
Direct connections in
Lynchburg City area,
Frame services via CO’s
Bedford City and
immediate area
Forest, Eastern Bedford
Co. Western Campbell
County, Town of
Appomattox
Lynchburg Area
Lynchburg area (Sep 04)
Lynchburg City area
Month to Month price; 1 year contract $59.95; 2 year contract $49.95
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Provider
Download
Upload
Cost
Fee
Speed
Speed
Self/Pro
Netwave
Wireless
$399
Verizon
DSL
$84
Verizon
SHDSL
$60
Verizon
Frame-Relay
/Fiber
Variable
Sprint
ADSL
$150
$69.95
$99.95
$149.95
$199.95
$249.95
12
$59.95
$79.95
$129.95
$204.95
WirelessDSL
$149.9515
$179.95
$249.95
$299.95
$369.95
Varies
with
bandwidth
and
bundled
services
$164.9916
$174.99
$99.99
$74.99
$44.99
Business
SHDHL
Flexible Lan
128kbps
256kbps
384kbps
512kbps
768kbps
128kbps
384kbps
768kpbps
768kbps
128kbps
256kbps
384kbps
512kbps
768kbps
Up to
13
1.5Mbps
384kbps
768kbps
7.1Mbps14
192kbps
384Kbps
768Kbps
1.1Mbps
1.5Mbps
Up to 1Gbps
192kbps
384Kbps
768Kbps
1.1Mbps
1.5Mbps
Up to 1Gbps
640kbps
3Mbps
1.5Mbps
1.5Mbps
512kbps
640kpbs
512kbps
384Mbps
256kbps
128kbps
Current General
Availability
details)
Lynchburg, Forest,
Boonsboro,
Madison Hts..
Appomattox (fall 04)
Lynchburg, Forest,
Bedford, Montvale?,
Lynchburg area
Near Verizon wire
centers and fiber routes
Altavista area
12
1-yr contract required for this pricing, dynamic IP address; $20-$30 more for static IP
Customers within 12,000 ft of CO provisioned with 1.5Mbps, 768kbps elsewhere.
14
Requires customer to be within 12,000 ft of CO.
15
1-yr contract required for this pricing, one static IP address provided
16
1-yr contract pricing, Static IP extra
13
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Provider
Download
Upload
Cost
Fee
Speed
Speed
Self/Pro
Sprint
FrameRelay/Fiber
variable
Pure Internet
Wireless
299.95
Directway
Starband
Satellite
Satellite
EZ Tel
Wireless
$600-700
$80018
$900
$250
17
Varies
with
bandwidth
and
bundled
services
$29.95
$129.95
$59.99
$130/1 yr
$150/1 yr
$29.95
Directway
Small Office 360
Small Office 480
Current General
Availability
details)
Fractional T1
to OC-x
Fractional T1
to OC-x
Altavista/ Brookneal
768kbps
1.5mbps
768kbps
1.5mbps
Brookneal
400kbps
500-790kbps
up to 1Mbps
Up to 1.5Mbps
40kbps
40-80Kbps
120kbps
?
Entire region
Entire region
Brookneal (late 04)
Fig 10. Broadband Availability and Business Pricing
17
18
Payable over 12-24 months as part of monthly fee.
SO 360 installation $500 with 2 or 3 year contract; SO480 installation $600 with 2 or 3 year contract
R2K Broadband Study
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8. Region 2000 External Connectivity
Although much of the study is devoted to the identification of “Last Mile”
connectivity it is important to consider how the region is connected to the rest of
the country. For businesses it is critical that there be more than one connection
to the networks outside the region in case a connection is interrupted by a natural
or man-made disturbance (like “backhoe fade”). Only direct connections to
Adelphia Business Systems, NTelos fiber networks, and wireless ISP’s (not using
Verizon as a backbone) will provide independent connectivity out of the region
bypassing the ILEC. Several carriers exist or have potential to bring Internet
connectivity into Region 2000. The paragraphs below discuss the alternatives
currently available or possible near term solutions for the region.
Adelphia Business Solutions connects its local fiber network to areas north
through Charlottesville and south through Danville. These connections are part of
a larger loop that provides redundancy in the region. The larger loop in VA
consists of Danville to Martinsville to Roanoke to Winchester. The northern route
connects to Charlottesville and then to Dulles and Winchester. The service is
currently deployed in the region. The map in appendix A.4.3 shows both the long
haul and local fiber routes available from Adelphia.
Verizon has fiber connectivity to all switching centers. SONET rings connect the
switching centers. Fiber is also used to connect the switching centers to the mini
switches in suburban areas. Since Verizon is the ILEC for the area most
connectivity through the region is established through Verizon equipment. Third
party equipment used to establish a Point of Presence (POP) is usually colocated in a Verizon Central Office.
AT&T offers long haul fiber high capacity fiber and T1-T3 frame–relay service
through a POP collocated in the Verizon downtown Lynchburg Central Office.
There is a possibility that AT&T will relocate its POP to someplace farther south
in VA. Connectivity to AT&T would most likely be through the ILEC central
offices.
Sprint is the ILEC in the Altavista and Brookneal but also has an extensive fiber
network in Virginia and much of the US with connections to tier one Internet
providers in Northern Virginia and the Richmond area. Connection to Sprint is
through the Verizon CO in Lynchburg or via Verizon leased lines to a Sprint POP.
Pittsylvania County School System has its own broadband wireless backbone
system linking all of the schools. They are looking at connecting their system to a
high bandwidth tier one Internet provider in North Carolina. They may have
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excess capacity and bandwidth so that they could serve as a wholesale provider
of high bandwidth service (50-60Mbps) This would require setting up a tower in
Campbell or Appomattox county to connect to the wireless backbone Pittsylvania
has. Such an arrangement would require approval from the school board as well
as the Region 2000 municipality planning to work with them.
nTelos provides long haul fiber connectivity north through Charlottesville, south
through Danville and west through Roanoke. These long haul connections are
shown in the diagram below. Access to the nTelos network is through their local
fiber network and through ILEC CO’s.
Willtel Offers high bandwidth Internet connectivity via fiber via local ILEC CO’s.
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Fig 11. Statewide connectivity of Verizon (Bell Atlantic) and Sprint (GTE) CO’s
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Bandwidth Aggregation Plans
VITA (www.vita.virginia.gov)
The Virginia Information Technology Agency assists schools and local
governments with obtaining discounted Internet and network connectivity from
various carriers. They also help Virginia schools apply for and get e-Rate
discounted service from the Universal service program. Under the current license
agreement COVANET allows schools to get up to a 90% discount (thru e-rate) on
telecommunications services. VITA also monitors that the carriers are fulfilling
contract terms and Service Level Agreements.
e-Rate
E-Rate is a program of the federal Universal Service Program to bring affordable
Internet connectivity to local schools libraries to purchase telecommunications
services at a discount (up to 90%) in three service categories,
Telecommunications, Internet Access and Internal networks. E-Rate discounts
depend on whether a school is in an urban or rural area and uses the number of
students eligible for the National School Lunch Program as an indication of need.
(contact: www.vita.virginia.gov)
Network Virginia (www.networkvirginia.net)
Network Virginia was formed to aggregate demand for data services and high
bandwidth Internet connectivity across the state. It was set up to help the
colleges, governments, and school systems reduce the cost of their data
connections as well as provide a mechanism to provide virtual networks for these
groups. Businesses can also become members of Network VA. They negotiate
terms and conditions of service level agreements as well as rates to get to the
Internet backbone for Internet and Wide Area connectivity. Contracts are usually
required for the backbone provider selected by network Virginia as well as the
local provider to get the local connection. There are approximately 40 customers
for Network VA in the region 2000 area. It is used by the local colleges such as
CVCC, Sweet Briar, Randolph Macon, and Lynchburg College.
Basically it leverages the group buying power of a large number of Internet
access customers.
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vBNS
Internet2
ESnet
Internet
Net.Work.Virginia Architecture
Backbone / Gateways
2xOC3
SprintLink
Router
2x
Sprint WTN OC3
OC3
OC3
Sprint RIC
OC3
Sprint ROA
Lynchburg
jmc 1/3/97
Fig 12. Overview of Net.Work.Virginia Network Diagram19
COVANET (www.covanet.state.va.us)
is the next generation Net.Work Virginia . It offers an advanced statewide network
providing advanced communications services to state agencies, local and city
governments, public universities and schools. VITA entered into an agreement with MCI
in November 2003 for a four-year contract to provide integrated voice and data
communications network services.
COVANET
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Fig 13. Overview of COVANET Network Diagram20
19
The Virginia Model: A Research and Education Driven Public Advanced Network Infrastructure, Erv Blythe & Brenda Neidigh
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eCorridors (www.ecorridors.vt..edu)
The overall goal of the Virginia Tech eCorridors program is to serve as a catalyst
for deployment of affordable access to fiber optic network infrastructure needed
to create economic and educational opportunities for citizens and businesses.
ECorridors program works with communities and private sector and municipal
partners to facilitate the rapid development of advanced fiber optic, wireless and
next generation Internet infrastructure. The eCorridors group at Virginia Tech has
developed a fiber network architecture for Southside and Southwest Virginia.
This design includes 3 of the four counties in Region 2000, Appomattox,
Campbell, and Bedford. The fiber network design for these counties is shown in
the following three figures (14,15,16). The complete fiber network design for
southern Va. is shown in Fig. 17. A meeting was held with the eCorridors group
about their mission and to also discuss having them do a similar design for
Amherst County so that the entire Region 2000 area would be covered. Funding
for an initial part of the build out was authorized and work has begun on the build
out of a fiber network that will cover part of Southside Virginia. The project will
connect all 22 counties and 56 industrial parks via an open access broadband
network by 2006. The project is being managed by the Mid-Atlantic Broadband
Cooperative, a non-profit entity created to oversee this work.
Fig 14. Appomattox County eCorridors Plan
20
The Virginia Model: A Research and Education Driven Public Advanced Network Infrastructure, Erv Blythe & Brenda Neidigh
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Fig 15. Campbell County eCorridors Plan
Fig 16. Bedford County eCorridors Plan
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Fig 17. Overview of eCorridors Southside and Southwest Fiber Design
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Use of 3rd party Internet providers
There are dozens of other third party suppliers such as WorldCom, UT-Starcom,
AT&T and many other smaller players. They also provide backbone connectivity.
However these carriers have no infrastructure of their own in the Region 2000
area. Final connectivity to these carriers comes through the carriers listed above
that actually have the physical infrastructure in place here in Region 2000. Since
the goal of the broadband study was to identify providers with actual
infrastructure in the region it did not look extensively into available 3rd party
providers.
Most people can relate this to their long distance service. Although you may have
some cut rate long distance service you still get to them through the local phone
company and in many cases their fees show up on the regular bill from the
phone company. You have to make the call through the local company to get to
the long distance provider and you end up paying a share to both companies.
For example to take advantage of Network Virginia’s discount Internet service
you have to sign a contract with Sprint (the backbone carrier) and Verizon (the
local provider) to physically get the service connected to your building or office.
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9. Local Government Meetings
As part of the survey, meetings were held around the region with all of the local
county and city governments to get their status regarding network infrastructure.
Access to government via the Internet is increasingly becoming a priority
however, in many cases the problem is that the county and city governments are
ahead of the curve. Many of the services they are currently offering or want to
offer online require faster Internet access than dial-up. For example in Amherst
County they have made meeting minutes and background material available on
the counties web site. However to download the material by a dial-up Internet
connection may require several hours. Other governments such as Bedford and
Lynchburg have created on-line GIS tools with property data to help builders,
developers, and homeowners but trying to use these web sites with a dial-up
connection is a test of patience.
We also talked to school MIS directors in the counties about the challenges they
faced. One of the common issues that surfaced in these discussions was the
move by the State to conduct Standards of Learning (SOL) testing on-line. This
year the state mandated that all high schools would conduct on-line SOL testing.
Next year all middle schools will be required to do this followed by all elementary
schools the year after. The tests are downloaded from the state to the district’s
computers and then to the schools.
A rough approximation metric was developed see if schools had equal access to
the Internet. The metric is the total bandwidth going into the school divided by the
number of students enrolled at the school. This gives a metric of bandwidth per
student. For the purposes of this study the metric assumes the entire amount of
bandwidth is available to students. Another way to look at this is to divide the
total bandwidth by the number of computers in the school with Internet access.
However, the number of computers per school with Internet access was not as
easy to obtain as the number of students. The region 2000 high schools are
compared to the Pittsylvania County school system, which has installed high
bandwidth connections to all schools and made a point of trying to provide equal
access to all schools in the county. The city of Lynchburg has made sure that all
of its schools were connected to the fiber network it built as well.
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High School
Bandwidth per Student - High Schools
TUNSTALL SR. HIGH
STAUNTON RIVER HIGH
RUSTBURG HIGH
LIBERTY HIGH
JEFFERSON FOREST HIGH
HERITAGE HIGH
GRETNA SR. HIGH
E. C. GLASS HIGH
DAN RIVER SR. HIGH
CHATHAM HIGH
BROOKVILLE HIGH
APPOMATTOX COUNTY HIGH
AMHERST COUNTY HIGH
ALTAVISTA HIGH
0.000
20.000
40.000
60.000
80.000
100.000
Bandwidth per student (Kbps/student)
Fig 18. Bandwidth per student in Regional High Schools
Middle School
Bandwidth per student - Middle Schools
STAUNTON RIVER MIDDLE
SANDUSKY MIDDLE
PAUL L. DUNBAR MID. FOR INNOV.
MONELISON MIDDLE
LINKHORNE MIDDLE
GRETNA MIDDLE
FOREST MIDDLE
DAN RIVER MIDDLE
CENTRAL MIDDLE
BROSVILLE MIDDLE
BROOKVILLE MIDDLE
BLAIRS MIDDLE
BEDFORD MIDDLE
APPOMATTOX MIDDLE
0.00
10.00
20.00
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
70.00
Bandwidth per Student (Kbps/student)
Fig 19. Bandwidth per Student in Regional Middle Schools
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80.00
10. Business Survey
The second phase of the project was to collect data on Internet capabilities and
usage from businesses in the region and local governments. The survey shown
in Appendix C was developed to help characterize the businesses and identify
the current type of Internet connectivity that regional businesses had, if they
thought it was adequate and how they make use of the Internet and the impact of
this usage.
Approximately 3300 surveys were distributed. These were distributed by mail to
the mailing lists of the following chambers of commerce:
Amherst County Chamber of Commerce
Bedford Chamber of Commerce
Altavista Chamber of Commerce
Appomattox Chamber of Commerce
A total of 164 surveys were returned. This is about a 5% return. We had
anticipated about a 10% return. Overall the numbers of Surveys returned broke
down as shown in the figure below.
Number of Survey Respondents by Region
n=162
Amherst
29%
Lynchburg
30%
Campbell
10%
Bedford City
17%
Appomattox
1%
Bedford
13%
The companies were classified by the NAIC codes to get some idea of the types
of companies that were responding to the survey. The breakdown of companies
by the top 8 classifications were:
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NAIC Classification
Other Services
Retail Trade
Finance and Insurance
Manufacturing
Professional Scientific and Technical Svc
Educational Services
Construction
Health Care
% of
Respondents
12%
12%
12%
9%
8%
7%
6%
6%
The majority of companies that sent in surveys were small companies with 5
employees or less. Companies with 10 employees or less accounted for about
48% of the responses. Typically these small companies are the ones that have
the most difficulty with the cost of high speed Internet service.
Number of employees
1-4
5-9
10-19
20-49
50-99
100-249
250-499
500+
# of
Responses
55
24
21
26
16
10
3
5
% of
Responses
33.5%
14.6%
12.8%
15.8%
9.7%
6.1%
1.8%
3%
The majority of companies had e-mail addresses. Curiously, although 15
companies indicated they did not have Internet service all but 4 of them had email addresses and all but 5 indicated that they had a company web site.
Apparently there was some confusion about what was meant by having Internet
data. The encouraging news is that the dial-up connectivity is shrinking and the
number of high-speed connection now accounts for about 67% of the total
number of connections used.
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Type of Internet Connectivity - Region 2000
n=163
Cellular
1%
Wisp
7%
Satellite
5%
Fiber Other
3%
3%
Dial_up
33%
Cable
10%
DSL
23%
Frame_relay
15%
The results of the questions on the type of Internet connections used showed
that the Dial-up was the type of connection used most often. Keeping in mind that
approx 50% were 10 or less employees. What is good news is that high speed
Internet was in use in 66% of the connections. DSL was the next largest at 23%,
followed by Cable service at 10% of connections used. Current generation
broadband service is making inroads into the area. The percentage of
broadband usage may actually be lower than indicated since we did not receive
many surveys from outlying communities and rural areas.
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Overview of Internet Connections by Type and Region
30
Amherst
Appomattox
25
Bedford
Bedford City
20
Campbell
Lynchburg
# Responses 15
10
5
Lynchburg
Campbell
Bedford City
Bedford
Region
Appomattox
Amherst
other
fiber
Cellular
wisp
Satellite
Cable
DSL
Frame_relay
Dial_up
0
Connection Type
Fig 20. Breakdown of Connection types by region
This data was then broken down by region to show how businesses in each region
typically get Internet service. In Fig 20 It is apparent that DSL has become a lead player
in providing broadband in Lynchburg where there are 2 DSL suppliers as well as cable
service and multiple suppliers of Frame relay service. It appears that for Lynchburg the
broadband connections are the majority in use. In Amherst County where DSL is only
available near Lynchburg, the largest numbers of connections are dial-up. Only 2
surveys were returned from Appomattox, which did not really provide a good sample but
it is interesting that one company had high speed internet and the other used dial-up.
The result of this shows up in some of the other statistical data. The other counties also
show dial-up as the type of connection in greatest use. The GIS maps of the area show
that these samples are not widespread enough to give a true picture of the lack of
broadband connectivity in the rural areas.
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After the type of connection was established the companies were asked if they
felt that the connection that they had was adequate for their business or if they
needed a faster connection to the Internet.
Is Your Connection to the Internet Adequate?
Lynchburg
Region
Campbell
Bedford City
No
Bedford
Yes
Appomattox
Amherst
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Number of Responses
Amherst
Appomattox
Bedford
Bedford City
Campbell
Lynchburg
No
23
1
11
7
3
10
Yes
20
1
10
18
12
37
The next series of questions was designed to gain some understanding of what
the Internet connection was used for in the business and establish some
understanding of how these businesses could justify the expense of a high-speed
connection. The data was collected in three sets of questions. The first set was a
series of things the Internet could be used for. These were broken down into
subcategories of Basic services, e-Commerce and Remote applications. The
other two sets of questions were aimed at understanding the business processes
where companies felt that the Internet had an impact and for main areas where
use of the Internet had an impact on operational cost or savings to the business.
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Internet Usage Ranking - % of Respondents Indicating Use
(n=164)
100.00%
90.00%
% of Rrespondants
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
E-Mail
Web site
Customer Support
Tech Support
Web Marketing
Extranet
Type of Use
In the next set of questions the companies were asked to simply select the types of
services they felt that they used the Internet access for. By a wide margin, the two
types of E-commerce usage that in most use were to purchase some goods for the
company and to maintain links to partners. EDI was in relatively small use. For small
companies the adoption of EDI is often driven by the needs to its larger customers.
E-commerce Usage Scores
( n =162)
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
% of Surveys
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
E-Comm purchase
some good via web
Linking to Partners
E-Commerce buy all
Elec Funds Xfer
EDI to Place Orders
goods via web
EDI to Order and
E-comm purc hase
Invoice
only via web
E-Commerce Usage
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Other data looked at the companies’ usage of the Internet and adoption of ASP services
like Internet fax, remote payroll, and accounting services provided over the Internet.
Internet Usage Patterns
(n=164)
60.00%
% Responses
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
Sa
le
s
In
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et
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Ap
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se
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-R
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Im
ag
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Ed
uc
at
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R
es
ea
rc
h
0.00%
Type of Use
Customer Relations
Partner Relations
Business Impact Areas
Marketing
Sales
Database Dev.
Supplier Relations
Mgmt/ Decisions
Office Efficiency
Emp. Productivity
Cost Controls
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Business Impact (1=Low, 5=High)
The last two sets of data focused on the impact of Internet / broadband connectivity on
various business processes and cost centers in a business. In business impact areas,
Improving customer relations and employee productivity were rated as areas benefiting
the most from Internet connectivity (shown in the previous chart).
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The second set of business process questions looked at which business cost centers
Internet connectivity had the most impact on. The idea was to look for areas of the
Accounting
Inventory/Whse
Cost Impact Area
Sales
Travel
Mfg/Production
Communications
Distribution
Human Resources
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Cost Impact (1=Low, 5=High)
Fig 21 - Internet impact on business Cost Centers
business where cost savings occurred. Understanding this could help businesses with
making a cost/benefit evaluation when considering the purchase of broadband Internet
services. Fig 21 shows the survey results. Communications and Sales followed by
travel and accounting were mentioned as being the business areas that benefited the
most from Internet connectivity.
11. Analysis of Coverage .vs. Demand
Rural Areas
Most of Region 2000’s rural areas do not currently have many options for
reasonable proceed broadband connectivity. This was no surprise to the
broadband committee and it was an expected finding. On the horizon, solutions
using wireless Broadband and Broadband over Power Line will be coming.
However a competitive situation still needs to develop or be developed in the
rural areas to keep prices to a reasonable level.
- 42 R2K Broadband Study
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Urban Areas
The general Lynchburg area is served be several companies that offer
broadband services for residential, small and medium businesses. There
appears to be a number of competitive offerings in nearly all types of broadband
Internet service, DSL, Cable and wireless as well as fiber and Frame-relay
services. DSL seems be very popular with small businesses in Lynchburg.
However, it still appears that many small businesses have not signed up because
of a lack of awareness of the availability or benefits of using broadband Internet
services.
Suburban Areas
The suburban areas surrounding Lynchburg are primarily served by cable and
wireless Internet. DSL is just starting to appear in some of the suburban areas.
Except for long haul fiber connections along the major corridors of Rt. 29 and Rt.
460, fiber connections are not widely available here. The survey showed that
many companies that could benefit from broadband are not taking advantage of
the resources that they do have available.
Industrial Parks
Most of the industrial parks in the central part of the region surrounding
Lynchburg are fairly well covered. Fiber does not currently reach the industrial
parks in the outlying regions. Most providers will not install fiber into the park
until the demand is there. The eCorridors network design aims to bring high
bandwidth fiber to the edges of many of these parks.
Economic Corridors
The Economic corridors, areas with concentrations of small businesses and retail
shopping are highlighted on the maps. These areas are well covered only in the
highly populated areas. Economic Corridors in smaller towns like Rustburg,
Appomattox, and Amherst currently have limited options and little or no
competition for broadband Internet access.
12. Broadband Policy Efforts in other Communities
Below are just a few of the many examples around the country of communities
taking action to provide broadband internet services and some of the benefits
they anticipate.
Brookneal, VA
Campbell county conducted a study in 2002 to determine of there was a
Demand for broadband services in the area and identify potential providers. It
found that no providers were available. Subsequently Campbell County issued
an RPF for providers of services to the Brookneal area. Pure Internet was
chosen to provide service. A wireless broadband system is currently being
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deployed. The IDA assisted by helping to provide financing of equipment to area
businesses.
Tacoma, Washington
In 1997 the city of Tacoma, Washington, built a publicly funded $100 million fiber
optic network called Click! Network, linking homes and businesses to fast
Internet connections. It connects every city block with the equivalent of a T3 line.
Over the past 4 years 100 new start-up businesses have been created as a
result of the fiber network. The university of Washington chose Tacoma as the
location for a new research institute as a result of the network.
Glenwood springs, Colorado
Since early 2001 Glenwood springs has buried additional fiber optic cable while
laying electricity cables. The project cost $3M, which came from the electricity
department’s budget. As a result Glenwood Springs was the first Colorado
municipality to offer broadband Internet service on its own network. Because of
the network, a hospital in Glenwood Springs will be able to send x-rays to the
may Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and receive a response in 15 minutes, rather
than the 8 hours it took with dial-up service. Glenwood Springs' network
combines Ethernet cable with wireless technology. Most customers receive and
transmit their signals wirelessly, via antennas on their homes.
Danville, VA
Pittsylvania County and the city of Danville will soon have a new fiber optic
network names e-Dan. The network will be the first part of the e-58 network,
which will link all cities and communities across Southside Virginia. The Danville
network will run for nearly 40 miles throughout the county and expected to be
complete in 2004. the e-Dan infrastructure will be open-access, so any provider
can use the fiber backbone to provide service.
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13. Grant Opportunities and Resources
Incentives provided by grants and low interest loans can encourage development
of broadband high-speed Internet networks in areas within Region 2000 that
currently do not have the subscriber base required to encourage private
investment. According to a recent Federal Communications Commission report,
rural areas lag far behind their urban counterparts in getting high-speed Internet
connections. This lag in high-speed connectivity is due in part to the financial
disincentives Internet connectivity providers are faced when they invest in
developing high-speed networks in areas of low population density. This means
rural areas cannot support a business case for a return on investment equivalent
to the more densely populated urban areas with the potentially larger numbers of
subscribers.
The Region 2000 Broadband Survey conducted by the Region 2000 Technology
Council confirms the rural areas of region 2000 lack high-speed connectivity
consistent with the FCC reported findings. Broadband grants and low interest
loans could be obtained in order to plan, organize, deploy, and manage rural
networks until market conditions and/or technology innovations create a business
case for private investment in rural area high-speed telecommunication networks.
The preliminary grant research found various federal, state, and private agencies
with existing grant programs prepared to work with local government and nonprofit organizations that are addressing high-speed Internet connectivity in the
Region 2000 rural and urban areas. While conducting this research an
observation was made that many government and private grant providers require
the recipient agency or organization to have cooperative agreements in place to
ensure economic developers, workforce support networks, and educational
resources succeed in their mission objectives. The manner in which the
Regional Commission of Region 2000 creates intra agency cooperation provides
a distinct competitive advantage above many communities for obtaining grants.
Broadband Planning, Infrastructure, and Application Grants
Medical Diagnoses and Treatment
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Education and Training
Department of Education (ED),
Funding Opportunities - U.S. DoEd
Federal Register Documents at the DoED
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Apple's Education Grants Program
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AT&T Learning Network
Computers for Learning - Surplus Equipment for Schools
The Council on Foundations
The Foundation Center
Hewlett-Packard
The Journey Inside Program - Intel
National Science Foundation - Fastlane Homepage
NEH Grants
Polaris Grants Central
Reinventing Education - IBM's K-12 Initiative
tech-LEARNING
US Department of Education - Resource Guide to Federal Funding For Technology
in Education
Economic Development
Department of Energy (DOE)
Department of Defense (DOD)
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Department of Commerce (DOC)
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Technology Innovation
Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information
Administration CFDA Number: 11.552 -- Technology Opportunities
National Science Foundation (NSF)
National Science Foundation - Grants, Funding, and Program Areas
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Public Safety
U.S. Department of Homeland Security http://www.dhs.gov
State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security administers the State Homeland
Security Grant Program to provide funds through states to local first responder
agencies. To find the ODP state administering agency for your state, log on to:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/state.htm , select the desired state from the map, and scroll
down to the "Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP)" contact list.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security administers a number of grant programs
through FEMA. To learn of current grant opportunities, visit the FEMA Web site at
www.fema.gov
"JustNet" of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology
Center (NLECTC)
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A program of the National Institute of Justice, NLECTC offers technological
information and expertise to state and local law enforcement and corrections
agencies. Visit "JustNet" at http://www.nlectc.org and click on "Grant Information."
Public Safety Foundation of America (PSFA)
Formed by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), PSFA
is a charitable foundation that provides grant programs to promote PSAP readiness.
To learn about current grant opportunities, log on to the PSFA Web site at
http://www.psfa.us or call the PSFA Grants and Program Office at 386-322-2500
(Daytona Beach, Florida).
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
http://www.usdoj.gov/10grants/index.html
COPS Grants
The COPS (Community-Oriented Policing) Office of the U.S. Department of Justice
administers one of the largest federal grant programs for law enforcement agencies.
To view current funding opportunities, log on to http://www.cops.usdoj.gov and click
on "Funding" or contact the DOJ Response Center at 800.421.6770. To find the
COPS grant program specialist for your state, log on to
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=487
OJP Grants
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs (OJP) administers
various discretionary and formula grant programs. To review current funding
opportunities, log on to http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fundopps.htm A number of OJP
grants are administered through state agencies. To find your state-administering
agency, log on to: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/state.htm
Other Grant Resources
Technology Grant News
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov
Grants.gov is a "one stop shop" for information about federal funding opportunities.
the Web site includes a section where site visitors can sign up for e-mail notification
of selected grant opportunities.
The Grantsmanship Center
The Grantsmanship Center offers grant information for non-profit and government
agencies. The Web site features a daily summary of the Federal Register, including
new grant announcements. http://www.tgci.com
http://www.teleworkconsortium.org/Technology_Partners_and_Affiliates/default.asp
http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/backtoschool/articles/popup_granttips.htm
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Broadband Loan Sources
USDA, Rural Utilities Services - $602 million Budgeted for 2004
The RUS loans are geared toward smaller companies -- including many that
use wireless technology to serve rural customers. Companies serving more
than 2 percent of the telephone lines in the United States are ineligible for the
loans.
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14. Conclusions and Recommendations
Key Observations
Findings
1. Confirmation of the perception that there is a great disparity in high-speed access to
the Internet between rural and populated areas of the region. The “digital divide” in
the region has more to do with the population density rather than socio-economic
divisions. High speed Internet service still costs substantially higher than cut-rate dial
up services and this will likely create somewhat of a divide based on socioeconomic
differences.
2. From some of the town meetings and surveys it appears that many businesses do
not know about the availability of high speed internet in the area or have an idea of
the impact it could have on their business. Once they switch to a high-speed service
they wonder why they did not do it earlier. Part of the business survey that was
conducted attempts to understand how local businesses are using the Internet.
3. Businesses in the Lynchburg area have many options for high-speed access to the
Internet and appear to be adopting the technology. Businesses in Lynchburg
indicated a higher usage of DSL than Dial-up for Internet access. Areas outside of
the core Lynchburg area and especially in rural areas were found to have no or
limited access to broadband capability and limited Internet connectivity by dial-up.
4. At least 3 options for high-speed Internet access via fiber are available in Lynchburg
and into businesses and parks along Route 29 and Route 460 corridors. Availability
is highly dependent on demand and willingness to pay for the bandwidth.
5. There is an issue with a lack of competition for last mile connectivity for T1, fractional
T1’s, leased lines, and DSL. Nearly all of the last mile connectivity comes through
the local ILEC and the Wire Centers they control. Although backbone connectivity
may come from other third parties; most companies will still have to go through
either Verizon or Sprint (in Altavista & Brookneal) to get connected.
6. Most of the local governments have plans to use the Internet to provide better
access to government services, forms, and information. However some applications
like GIS and access to large documents require the constituents to have broadband
Internet service to access or make use of these services.
7. The eCorridors project is being implemented in Southside VA to bring gigabit
Ethernet capability to communities in the area. Three out of four Region 2000
counties (Campbell, Bedford and Appomattox) were included in the design for a fiber
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backbone for the area. Discussions were held and ongoing with the Virginia Tech
eCorridors team about having them do a similar design for Amherst County so that
the complete Region 2000 area would be covered if an effort to execute this plan
were made.
8. Nearly all of the cable service in the region has or will soon be converted to 2-way
Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) systems allowing high-speed Internet access. The only
exception is around the Smith Mountain Lake area.
9. This effort already has positive impact on the region. The airport now has free
wireless Internet access courtesy of Nesbe Cable as a result of this study. Other
areas around the region will soon follow. A new project to inform people and
promote wireless hot spots in key areas around the region will soon be launched by
the R2KTC as a spin-off of this study.
10. The state mandate that Standards of Learning tests (SOL’s) will all become
computer-based could be a growing issue. School systems will have to have the
internal and external network capacity to download SOL tests from administration
computers, and relay information back to them. Schools which only have a T1
connection back to the administration HQ will find it increasingly difficult since this
connection is used both for the school systems intranet as well as school internet
traffic. Performance issues may become a major problem. School systems will have
to take this into account in their planning and budgets.
Recommendations
Ø Promote the awareness of broadband connectivity in the area. This can be
done by promoting broadband connectivity on the Region 2000 and R2KTC
websites and having R2KTC members speak to the topic at Chamber of
Commerce meetings and other business gatherings in the region. Many
companies apparently still spend hours waiting for documents and e-mail to
download over the phone line. This effort should also benefit the IT service
companies in the region that can help small businesses set up their systems
for high speed internet. The Regional Commission or other regional authority
should undertake a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) to raise
the level of broadband awareness in the region. For example, a PSA could
show local businesses how they can improve their operations, and in some
cases lower communication and labor costs, by using broadband Internet
services.
Ø Promote an effort to get Region 2000 more involved with the projects such as
the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative that are working to bring the next
level of internet connectivity to the region. Actively engage the political
representation in the area to help make this happen.
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Ø Initiate an effort to provide adequate and equal Internet access to all schools
and libraries within Region 2000. We should look at a way to provide high
speed (10MB or better) connections to all schools and libraries in the region.
Ø Investigate ways to aggregate demand in the region and provide bandwidth at
a cost that can make it commercially viable to offer high bandwidth
connection to small and medium size businesses in underserved areas. This
could be done in partnership with regional carriers capable of supplying Tier 1
connectivity and then selling the bandwidth to providers in rural areas at a
reduced rate so that they can make a business case to provide service in the
rural areas. It appears that wireless or Internet over power line will be the
best choice to reach rural areas of Region 2000.
Ø Put in place an effort to maintain a GIS database of regional Internet
connectivity and get regular updates from area providers on expansions of
existing service or new service that is offered. Collection of this information
could be mandated if necessary as well as paid for by changes to the permit
or franchise regulations. Information on the regions right-of-ways should be
collected in the GIS database as well to facilitate the introduction of new
providers to the area.
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Appendix A - Coverage Maps Provided by Region and
Technology
Fig A.1.1 Region 2000 Overview – ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Technology zones
Fig. A.1.2 Region 2000 Overview – Fiber Service
Fig. A.1.3 Region 2000 Overview – DSL Service
Fig. A.1.4 Region 2000 Overview – Wireless ISP’s
Fig. A.1.5 Region 2000 Overview – Cable Service
Fig. A.1.6 Region 2000 BTA License regions for LMDS Service
Fig A.2.1 Amherst Overview -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Technology zones, Survey Feedback
Fig A.2.2 Amherst –Fiber
Fig A.2.3 Amherst – DSL
Fig A.2.4 Amherst – WISP
Fig A.2.5 Amherst – Cable Service
Fig A.3.1 Appomattox -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and Technology
zones, Survey Feedback
Fig A.3.2 Appomattox – Fiber
Fig A.3.3 Appomattox – DSL
Fig A.3.4 Appomattox – WISP
Fig A.3.5 Appomattox – Cable Service
Fig A.4.1 Bedford -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and Technology
zones, Survey Feedback
Fig A.4.2 Bedford – Fiber
Fig A.4.3 Bedford – DSL
Fig A.4.4 Bedford – WISP
Fig A.4.5 Bedford – Cable Service
Fig A.5.1 Bedford City -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.5.2 Bedford City – Fiber
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Fig A.5.3 Bedford City – DSL
Fig A.5.4 Bedford City – WISP
Fig A.5.5 Bedford City – Cable Service
Fig A.6.1 Campbell Overview -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.6.2 Campbell – Fiber
Fig A.6.3 Campbell – DSL
Fig A.6.4 Campbell – WISP
Fig A.6.5 Campbell – Cable Service
Fig A.7.1 Lynchburg Overview -- ED Features, Industrial Sites, Economic Corridors and
Fig A.7.2 Lynchburg – Fiber
Fig A.7.3 Lynchburg – DSL
Fig A.7.4 Lynchburg – WISP
Fig A.7.5 Lynchburg – Cable Service
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Appendix B - Glossary of Terms21
ADSL
Short for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a technology that allows more data
to be sent over existing copper telephone lines. ADSL supports data rates of
from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and
from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate).
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
A high-performance cell-oriented switching and multiplexing technology that uses
fixed-length packets to carry different types of traffic. ATM can also scale from
low to high speeds. It has been adopted by all the industry's equipment vendors,
from LAN to private branch exchange (PBX). With ATM, network designers can
integrate LANs and WAN’s, support emerging applications with economy in the
enterprise, and support legacy protocols with added efficiency. ATM creates a
fixed channel, or route, between two points whenever data transfer begins. This
differs from TCP/IP, in which messages are divided into packets and each packet
can take a different route from source to destination.
Broadband Internet – Internet data service that provides data rates faster than
200Kb/s. (approx 10 times faster than dial-up) High Speed Broadband is service
with data rates faster than 1.5Mb/s. (working definition of R2KTC BB Study)
BPL – Broadband over Power Line – Internet data service transmitted over
standard power lines to the home. Uses a modem that implements protocols
based on the Homeplug standard. Commercial services claim to provide a
minimum of 256Kb/s service.
Cable Modem
A modem designed to operate over cable TV lines. Because the coaxial cable
used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable
modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access to the World Wide Web.
Central Office – See Switching Center
CLEC
(pronounced see-lek) A Competitive Local Exchange Carrier is a telephone
company that competes with an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) such
as a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC), GTE, ALLNET, etc. With the
passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, there has been an explosion in
21
“Are We Connected Yet? Mapping the Technology Infrastructure of Central Virginia”
VPTC, June 2001 with additions.
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the number of CLEC's. The Act allows companies with CLEC status to use ILEC
infrastructure in two ways:
1) Access to UNE’s Important to CLEC telecommunications networking is the
availability of unbundled network elements or UNE’s (through a collocation
arrangement). UNE’s are defined by the Act as any "facility or equipment used in
the provision of a telecommunications service," as well as "features, functions,
and capabilities that are provided by means of such facility or equipment." For
CLECs the most important UNE available to them is the local loop, which
connects the ILEC switches to the ILEC's present customers. With the local loop,
CLECs will be able to connect their switches with the ILEC's switches, thus giving
them access to ILEC customers.
2) Resale Another option open to CLECs is the resale strategy. The Act states
that any telecommunications services ILEC’s offer at retail, must be offered to
CLECs at a wholesale discount. This saves the CLEC from having to invest in
switches, fiber optic transmission facilities, or collocation arrangements.
DBS
Known as Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), it provides cable-like television
programming and now Internet connectivity directly from satellites to small
satellite dishes, typically 18 inches in diameter.
Dial-up Access
Refers to connecting a device to a network via a modem and a public telephone
network. Dial-up access is really just like a phone connection, except that the
parties at the two ends are computer devices rather than people. Because dialup access uses normal telephone lines, the quality of the connection is not
always good and data rates are limited. In the past, the maximum data rate with
dial-up access was 56 Kbps (56,000 bits per second), but new technologies such
as ISDN are providing faster rates.
DS1
(See T1) 1.544 Mb/s
DS3
(See T3) (28 T1’s) 54Mb/s
DSLAM
A Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer is a mechanism at a phone
company's central location that links many customer DSL connections to a single
high-speed ATM line. When the phone company receives a DSL signal, an ADSL
modem with a POTS splitter detects voice calls and data. Voice calls are sent to
the PSTN, and data are sent to the DSLAM, where it passes through the ATM to
the Internet, then back through the DSLAM and ADSL modem before returning to
the customer's PC.
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Frame Relay
A form of packet switching that allows high-speed, statistically multiplexed
connectivity over a shared network. The technology depends on high-quality
transmission facilities and makes the intelligent endpoints responsible for the
integrity of the data. Relay networks in the U.S. support data transfer rates at T-1
(DS0) (1.544 Mbps) and T-3 (DS-3)(45 Mbps) speeds. In fact, you can think of
Frame Relay as a way of utilizing existing T-1 and T-3 lines owned by a service
provider. Most telephone companies now provide Frame Relay service for
customers who want connections at 56 Kbps to T-1 speeds.
Gbps
Short for Gigabits per second, a data transfer speed measurement for highspeed networks such as Gigabit Ethernet. When used to describe data transfer
rates, a gigabit equals 1,000,000,000 bits.
ILEC
Short for incumbent local exchange carrier. An ILEC is a telephone company
that was providing local service when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was
enacted. Compare with CLEC, a company that competes with the already
established local telephone business.
ISDN
Abbreviation of integrated services digital network, an international
communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital
telephone lines or normal telephone wires. ISDN supports data transfer rates of
64 Kbps (64,000 bits per second). Most ISDN lines offered by telephone
companies give you two lines at once, called B channels. You can use one line
for voice and the other for data, or you can use both lines for data to give you
data rates of 128 Kbps
Kbps
Short for kilobits per second, a measure of data transfer speed. Modems, for
example, are
measured in Kbps. Note that one Kbps is 1,000 bits per second, whereas a KB
(kilobyte) is 1,024 bytes. Data transfer rates are measured using the decimal
meaning of K whereas data storage is measured using the powers-of-2 meaning
of K. Technically, kbps should be spelled with a lowercase k to indicate that it is
decimal but almost everyone spells it with a capital K
LMDS
(Local Multipoint Distribution System) is a system for broadband microwave
wireless transmission direct from a local antenna to homes and businesses
within a line-of-sight radius, a solution to the so-called last-mile technology
problem of economically bringing high bandwidth services to users. LMDS is an
alternative to installing optical fiber all the way to the user or to adapting cable
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TV for broadband Internet service. Depending on the implementation, LMDS
offers a bandwidth of up to 1.5 billion bits per second (1.5 Gbps) downstream to
users and 200 million bits per second (200 Mbps) upstream from the user. A
more typical data rate is 38 Mbps downstream. They typically operate on
frequency bands licensed by the FCC.
.
Mbps
Short for megabits per second, a measure of data transfer speed. Networks, for
example, are generally measured in Mbps.
MMDS
Multipoint Microwave Distribution System, also know as Multi-channel Multi-point
Distribution System and wireless cable, is another wireless broadband
technology for Internet Access. MMDS channels come in 6 MHz chunks and runs
on licensed and unlicensed channels. Each channel can reach transfer rates as
high as 27Mbps (over unlicensed channels: 99MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.7 to 5.8GHz)
or 1Gbps (over licensed channels). MMDS is a line-of-sight service, so it won't
work well around mountains, but it will work in rural areas, where copper lines are
not available.
OC
Short for Optical Carrier, used to specify the speed of fiber optic networks
conforming to the SONET standard. The table shows the speeds for common OC
levels.
OC = Speed
OC-1 = 51.85 Mbps
OC-3 = 155.52 Mbps (100 T1’s)
OC-12 = 622.08 Mbps (4 OC-3’s)
OC-24 = 1.244 Gbps
OC-48 = 2.488 Gbps (4-OC-12’s)
The base rate (OC-1) is 51.84 Mbps. OC-2 runs at twice the base rate, OC-3 at
three times the base rate, and so forth. Planned rates include OC-1, OC-3
(155.52 Mbps), OC-12 (622.08 Mbps), and OC-48 (2.488 Gbps).
OC-1 (Optical Carrier Level 1)
The speed used by fiber optic cables and systems, 51.84 Mbps. A single OC-1
link can handle 672 simultaneous 64 Kbps voice channels. Higher OC-N levels
exist. N can be either 1, 3, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 192 or 256.
OC-3 (Optical Level 3)
Three times 51.84 Mbps (155.5 Mbps or 155 Mbps or 100 T1’s).
Twelve times 51.84 Mbps (622 Mbps)
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48 times 51.84 Mbps (2488.32 Mbps or 2.5 Gbps ). An OC-48 link can handle
32,256 simultaneous voice links at 64 Kbps. If voice is compressed over an OC48 link, it can handle up to 200,000 simultaneous voice calls.
OC192 (Optical Level 192)
192 times 51.84 Mbps (10 Gbps).
PCS
PCS (personal communications services) is a wireless phone service somewhat
similar to cellular telephone service. It's sometimes referred to as digital cellular.
Technically, cellular systems in the United States operate in the 824-849
megahertz (MHz) frequency bands; PCS operates in the1850-1990 MHz bands.
SONET
Short for Synchronous Optical Network, a standard for connecting fiber-optic
transmission systems. SONET establishes Optical Carrier (OC) levels from 51.8
Mbps (about the same as a T-3 line) to 2.48 Gbps. With the implementation of
SONET, communication carriers throughout the world can interconnect their
existing digital carrier and fiber optic systems.
Switching Center – Referred to as Central Office (CO) or Wire Center these are
the local telecom Points of Presence (POP) and contain the switchgear for
handling telephone and Internet communications for a geographic region. They
are typically owned by the ILEC in the region. Third parties providers may rent
space in the Switching Center to locate their own switchgear and for connection
to the ILEC’s equipment.
T-1
A label describing a transmission speed of 1.544 Mbps, or the equivalent of 24
analog lines. Also known as DS1.
Fractional T-1
One or more channels of a T-1 service. A complete T-1 carrier contains 24
channels, each of which provides 64 Kbps. Most phone companies, however,
also sell fractional T-1 lines, which provide less bandwidth but are also less
expensive. Typically, fractional T-1 lines are sold in increments of 56 Kbps (the
extra 8 Kbps per channel is used for data management).
T-3
A label describing a transmission speed of approximately 45 Mbps
(44.735Mbps). Also known as DS3 for Digital Signal 3 speed. Equivalent to 28
T1’s
V.34 : The standard for full-duplex modems sending and receiving data across
phone lines at up to 28,800 bps. V.34 modems automatically adjust their
transmission speeds based on the quality of the lines.
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V.90: A standard for 56-Kbps modems approved by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) in February 1998. By viewing the public
switched telephone network as a digital network, V.90 technology is able to
accelerate data downstream from the Internet to your computer at speeds of up
to 56Kbps. In this way V.90 technology is different than other standards of today,
because it digitally encodes downstream data instead of modulating it as analog
modems do. The data transfer is a asymmetrical method, so upstream
transmissions (mostly keystroke and mouse commands from your computer to
the central site, which require less bandwidth) continue to flow at the
conventional rates of up to 33.6Kbps. That is upstream data (Data sent from your
modem) is sent as an analog transmission that mirrors the V.34 Standard. Only
the down stream data transfer takes advantage of the high-speed V.90 rates
VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol. Protocol for sending voice over Internet
connections. Used as replacement technology for private business exchanges in
offices and for providing telephony services over regular Internet connections.
Wire Center – See Switching Center
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Appendix C - Survey Forms
C.1 Provider Survey
Provider Survey
Provider Name:___________________________________ Date: ___________
Address:
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
Contact Name____________________________
Tel:
_______________
Title: ___________________________________
E-Mail _______________
Contact Name____________________________
Tel:
Title: ___________________________________
E-Mail _______________
Contact Name____________________________
Tel:
Title: ___________________________________
E-Mail _______________
_______________
_______________
Web site: ________________________________
Services offered since: _____________________
Type of services offered:
Cable
__
DSL
__
ISDN
__
Wireless
__
Fiber
__
PCS/Cellular __
Frame Relay __
Attach copies of brochures:
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Detail Service Info
Provider Name: ___________________
Type: ________________
(complete one set of forms for each type of service offering)
Service levels and rates:
Service
Level
Res/Bus
Dnstream
Bandwidth
Upstream
Bandwidth
Install
cost
Monthly
cost
Min
agreement
term
Avail
today?/
when
Service Area:
1. Indicate the local POP’s from where service is available or delivered
POP address
City / County
Zip
Svc type
2. Describe the service area where these services are available today
(notes / mark on maps, % of licensed area covered,
3. Describe the areas where services will be available within the next 12
months (notes / mark on maps, note % of licensed service area covered)
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4. Describe the areas where services will be available in next 12-24 months
(notes / mark on maps)
5. Customer Support - Indicate the levels of customer support provided
(typical SLA terms)
6. Other support services provided (e-mail, static IP addresses, web hosting,
etc.)
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C.2 Business Survey
Region 2000 Technology Council
2004 Broadband Survey of Business & Industry
This Survey’s Purpose
•
•
To learn what the business needs are for broadband connectivity in Region 2000
To better understand how area businesses use computer related technologies
The Broadband Study’s Purpose
•
•
•
To develop maps that show where broadband is available and where coverage is lacking
Provide information to regional planners conducting Broadband Infrastructure Planning for industrial parks, major
commercial corridors, schools, libraries, government buildings and facilities
Create interest in pursuing grant opportunities to provide broadband coverage to rural areas
Survey Instructions
Please read and complete each question by marking your choice. When information is requested that requires a free form
reply please print your response. We are requesting everyone return his or her survey no later then March 15, 2004.
Please return the completed survey to: Region 2000 Technology Council by mail or FAX 434 847-1455.
Corporate Profile
Date:
Company Name and Physical Location (Please Print)
Company Name: ________________________
City/County: ____________________
Street: _______________________________
Phone Number: (___)_____________
Email Address: _________________________
Company Zip Code: ___________
Point of Contact
Dr./Mr./Mrs./Ms: ________________
Web Address: __________________________
1.
What is your primary business or industry?
NAIC Commerce Category
Mark One Category Only
O
O
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting
Mining
O
O
O
Utilities
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Construction
Manufacturing
Wholesale Trade
Retail Trade
Transportation and Warehousing
Information
Finance and Insurance
O
O
O
O
O
O
Professionals Scientific and Technical Services
Management of Companies and Enterprises
Administrative and Support, Waste Management
and Remediation Services
Educational Services
Health Care and Social Assistance
Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
Accommodation and Food Services
Other Services (except Public Administration)
Public Administration
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O
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
2.
How would you describe your company?
O
Start-up less then 5 years old; main office is in Region 2000
O
Start-up less then 5 years old; main office is elsewhere
O
Fully established 5 or more years; main office is in Region 2000
O
Fully established 5 or more years; main office is elsewhere
3.
Does your company rely on any type of electronic data exchange to conduct
business?
O Yes
4.
5.
O No
O Do not know
How many full-time employees does your company have at this location?
O
O
O
1-4
5-9
10-19
O
O
O
50-99
100-249
250-499
O
20-49
O
500+
Please indicate your company's sales range for fiscal year 2003
O
O
O
O
Less then 100k
100K-500K
501K- 1M
1M-10 M
O
O
O
O
11M- 20 M
21M-30 M
41M-50 M
More then 51M
Electronic Data/Internet Connectivity Profile and Needs
6.
O
O
O
O
Does your company have Electronic Data/Internet access?
O Yes and we have:
Please Print Providers Name
Dial-up
Frame Relay (T1)
DSL
Cable Modems
O
O
O
O
Please Print Providers Name
Satellite
Wireless Internet
Cellular/PCS
Fiber
O Do not know access method or provider
O No Internet access available
7.
Is your company’s current electronic data exchange and/or Internet
connection fast enough to meet your business needs?
O Yes
8.
O No
O Do not know
Does your company need a Broadband connection?
(“Broadband” is defined as electronic transfer rates of greater then
200kbps)
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O Yes
O No
O Do not know
Why? _________________________________________
9.
Approximately, how many computers does your company have in use at this
location?
O
O
O
1-10
11-20
21-75
O 76-150
O 151-250
O More then 250
_____% Connected to the Internet or other remote access technologies
10.
Does your company allow employees the option to work from alternate sites?
(i.e. from home, while traveling etc….)
O Yes
11.
12.
O No
O Do not know
How many people at other locations need remote access to (data, voice, or images)
stored at this location?
O
O
O
1-4
5-9
10-19
O
O
O
50-99
100-249
250-499
O
20-49
O
500+
Who may remotely access your company's data/applications? (Check all that
apply)
O
O
O
O
All Employees
Managers
Salespeople/reps
Telecommuters
O
O
O
O
O
Partners
Customers
Suppliers/Vendors
Other
Not Applicable
Business Processes
13. How does your company use the Internet? (Check all that apply)
O E-mail
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O Sales force automation
Web site
O Recruiting/job postings
Extranet (Remote access data sharing) O Distance learning
Web-based marketing/advertising
O Video conferencing
Customer service
O Research
Technical support
O Internet Fax
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
O Internet Telephony
Order
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Order and
Invoice
EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) Billing O Image Transfer
Links to partners/affiliates
O Continuing Education
E-commerce (selling your products through the Web): some
via Web
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O
O
O
O
E-commerce (selling your products through the Web):
exclusively via Web
E-commerce (purchasing products for your company)
Web-based applications (HT, project management, etc.)
Hosted applications (procured from ISP or other provider)
14. In what areas has the use of the Internet had a positive impact to your company?
(Rank all that apply; 0 No Impact, 1 LOW - 5 HIGH)
Cost controls
Database development
Employee productivity
Sales
Back-office efficiency
Marketing
Management decision-making
Partner relations
Supplier relations
Customer relations
An example of how to rank impact is found below:
3
Employee productivity
4
Sales
5
Back-office efficiency
4
Marketing
0
Management decision-making
0
Partner relations
5
Supplier relations
5
Customer relations
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15. In what Cost Centers has your company's use of the Internet been instrumental
in cutting or avoiding costs?
(Rank all that apply; 0 No Cost Savings, 1 LOW - 5 HIGH)
Human Resources
Reduce costs to identify and retain
a qualified workforce
Distribution
Travel
Reduced travel expenses
Increase on time delivery, provided
automated replenishment
Communications
Decrease costs for voice, and data
transfer
Manufacturing/Production
Increased productivity reduced
fixed and variable costs
Increase customer and
prospect relations
Inventory/Warehousing
Reduced inventory volume
Sales/Marketing
Accounting
Decrease receivable and
purchasing costs
Please return Survey by March 15, 2004
Fold and Mail
Mail to: Region 2000 Technology Council
c/o Broadband Study
P.O. Box 937
Lynchburg, VA 24505
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Copyright 2004
IPT Consulting
Appendix D - References Cited
http://www.broadband-daily.com/whats.htm
Strategic Technology Infrastructure for Regional Competitiveness in the Network
Economy, Executive summary, 2003 Virginia Tech eCorridors Program
Strategic Technology Infrastructure for Regional Competitiveness in the Network
Economy, Volume 1-8, 2003 Virginia Tech eCorridors Program
Campbell County Wireless Broadband Study and Plan
Survey of NRV Regional Telecom Survey 1/12/2004
Survey of Roanoke – Allegheny Highlands ITI Survey 2/2/04
WITSA Public Policy Report 5/15/03
The Economic and Social Benefits of Broadband Deployment, October 2003
Telecommunications Industries Association.
Broadband Wireless Framework for 2003 – Which Wireless Technologies Deliver
Broadband www.telechoice.com
Are We Connected Yet? - Mapping VA Piedmont’s Technology Infrastructure
VPTC – June 2001
Digital Rivers Final Report, Carnegie Mellon University and 3 Rivers Connect,
4/11/2002
Summary Data Report: CSPP Living in the Networked World Assessment, CIT
and Region 2000 Technology Council, 3/14/2002.
Dragonwave White Paper DWI-PAP-002, Dragonwave Inc. Ottawa, Canada
www.dragonwave.com
Encyclopedia of Networking, Tom Sheldon, McGraw-Hill, 1998
“Cable Modems: Broadband Highway to the Home”, Juan Figuroa and Bill Guzek
Ericsson Review No1 Jan 2001,
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Virginia`s Region 2000 Broadband Infrastructure Study

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