Daily Archive

Tonight, Traverse City Light & Power took the bull by the horns to bring our city into the 21^st century economy. TCLP decided to seek a $1 million federal stimulus grant to distribute broadband over its dark fiber system, and to write a business plan for lighting up downtown TC and the waterfront area with free wireless.

Most of the info in this post comes from Boardman Neighborhood resident Mike Coco, who is also the vice chair of TCLP and a citizen leader who has been out front of this from the beginning.

First some background. Every report you read about the “new” economy says that the future is knowledge-based businesses that can locate most anywhere. Traverse City has assets to attract businesses who have a choice about where they locate. But we also have liabilities, and one significant one is our weak broadband infrastructure.

What electricity did for economic development 100 years ago and the interstate highways did 50 years ago, the internet is doing today. Lightning-fast and reliable internet connectivity is necessary to make it possible for new home-based and small knowledge based businesses to move here. This was a big topic at TC Tomorrow http://planfortc.com/question-of-the-week/jan-24-31-tc-tomorrow/.

Large organizations and businesses can get and pay for fiber optic high-speed internet, but residents and small businesses can only get what is available from traditional phone and cable companies. Traverse City’s telecom providers are actively making investments in in other areas, but not here. See http://planfortc.com/2009/10/08/economic-development/#comments for more info. We need 25, 50 or 100 Mbps service available for homes and small businesses at a cost competitive price ($50-75/month).

A company named Merit is bringing high speed fiber up this way from a major hub in Chicago using a stimulus grant, but this will mainly benefit those large institutions. Merit’s press release does specify their fiber optic network being available to greater-than-886K homes, but it is not clear where this access will be offered.

Mike Coco sees a few key user groups we need to serve. For residents who are doing “light work” (i.e. in a coffee shop) or tourists, wifi service downtown and perhaps other areas such as the warehouse district and 8^th St will boost activity there, help businesses draw and keep customers there, and enhance TC’s reputation as a modern place to be.

But downtown wi-fi won’t provide home-based and small businesses with what they need. Those users need video conferencing, streaming video, etc. As Mike puts it, “We are no longer a society that simply reviews content from the internet….we’re all content producers now (blogs, pictures, videos, etc.).”

Therefore, these home and small businesses need fiber connections to their premises, or significantly faster cable or DSL at better prices and higher upload speeds (not just download speeds).

Large organizations and businesses have higher needs that require fiber. TCLP is already connecting some of them with its dark fiber system. According to TCLP Executive Director Ed Rice, dark fiber means there is no connectivity built into the system. The user has to “light” the fiber by installing equipment at the two ends to create the connectivity. TCLP put in the dark fiber system in partnership with TCAPS. TCLP installed it to meet needs to send data between substations, and also offers the service to the city and county governments. The fiber is so powerful it is only being used to about 1% of its capacity now.

So tonight, the TCLP board authorized the preparation of a grant application for broadband stimulus funds. The grant recipients will be announced in September. If received, this grant would help TCLP build the distribution infrastructure between its dark fiber (and potentially a partnership with Merit) and those home based and small businesses that need to be served.

TCLP’s board also decided to prepare a business plan for wireless services downtown. Whether through ads or otherwise, the board rightfully understands that providing a free service like this nonetheless needs to financially support itself.

These two actions cost $40,000. TCLP would need to spend around $350,000 later to bring wireless downtown. TCLP would borrow from its internal utility account to fund it. This investment will only happen if the business plan supports a full pay back.