{"id":21063,"date":"2019-05-29T21:13:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T01:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=21063"},"modified":"2019-05-29T21:13:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T01:13:04","slug":"georgia-broadband-deployment-initiative-2019-04-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2019\/05\/georgia-broadband-deployment-initiative-2019-04-26.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative 2019-04-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nGood about the Georgia Broadband Deployment Inititative (GBDI)<\/a>: wired and wireless, and they are actively doing something, including mapping.\r\n

\r\n\"[Map<\/a>\r\n
Map Phase 1<\/a>\r\n
\r\nSee also interactive Phase 1 map<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDubious: stakeholders are only “private telecom\r\nand cable providers, local government, and electricity cooperatives”.\r\n

\r\nWhere are universities, technical colleges, doctors and hospitals, local businesses, nonprofits, and the people?\r\nSupposedly “Community partnership will be a central component”,\r\nbut where is the community in GBDI’s plans?\r\nWhere are the other stakeholders?\r\nWhere are the public hearings?\r\n

\r\nMaybe that’s farther along in their timeline:\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\"[Timelines]\"<\/a>\r\n
Timelines<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBut the rest of the community is not obvious in their milestones thus far.\r\n

\r\n\"[Milestones]\"<\/a>\r\n
Milestones<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSeveral key GBDI features are buried deep in the \r\nApril 26, 2019 Georgia Broadband Plan document<\/a>.\r\nOn page 9:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe goal of the proposed grant program is simple: to provide a\r\nmechanism to tweak the economics for providers and to encourage them\r\nto expand 25\/3 broadband service to unserved areas, should public\r\nfunding be made available.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nEven AT&T can do gigabit speeds when competing with google fiber<\/a>.\r\nIn August 2012 I suggested using 4G wireless as part of the mix<\/a>.\r\nYes, tweak the economics by making it clear somebody is going to do it.\r\n

\r\nThe cover letter says “ legislation was passed in 2018 to promote\r\nbroadband deployment in areas not currently served at a minimum broadband\r\nspeed of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload (25\/3).”\r\nPresumably this refers to\r\n\r\nGA SB 402 of 2018<\/a>,\r\nthe “Achieving Connectivity Everywhere (ACE) Act”.\r\nYes, that’s what \r\nbroadband.georgia.gov<\/a> says.\r\n

\r\nThe key ACE definitions are:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n50-39-1.\r\nAs used in this chapter, the term:\r\n
\r\n(1) ‘Broadband network project’ means any deployment of broadband services.\r\n
\r\n(2) ‘Broadband services’ means a wired or wireless terrestrial service that consists of the\r\ncapability to transmit at a rate of not less than 25 megabits per second in the downstream\r\ndirection and at least 3 megabits per second in the upstream direction to end users and in\r\ncombination with such service provides:\r\n
\r\n(A) Access to the Internet; or\r\n
\r\n(B) Computer processing, information storage, or protocol conversion.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe state of Georgia did not get stuck where the County of Lowndes\r\nalways has previously, in thinking of broadband as only physical\r\nconnectivity through wires, coax, or fiber.\r\nThe key phrase is “or wireless”.\r\n

\r\nVerizon 4G has been available in Lowndes County\r\nat least since September 2012<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n\"AT&T<\/a>\r\n
\r\nAT&T DSL\r\n<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
\r\n\r\n\"VZ<\/a>\r\n
\r\nVerizon 4G\r\n<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

\r\nIn January 2013 I noted wireless could be a key broadband component<\/a>, and asked “Who among our elected leaders, or other organizations such as the Chamber, is willing to step up and start an open process to get us fast Internet access?”\r\nGBDI is a process, but I don’t know that I would call it an open process.\r\n

\r\nIn February 2013, Angela Crance of Wiregrass Tech said<\/a> broadband is a top priority, and “\r\nIt’s definitely a priority for us…. Only 14% of our citizens have a college degree and we need 70% to have a college degree within ten years. To be able to accomplish that we\u2019d better have the right schools that have these students here. We want them to come here we want them to go to school and graduate and stay here with the jobs. And to do that we\u2019ve got to have the infrastructure in place to help us accomplish that.”\r\n

\r\nCrance wasn’t just talking about Valdosta or Lowndes County; she explicitly\r\nrefered to needing broadband in the eleven counties Wiregrass Tech serves.\r\n

\r\nAt the same meeting, Mary Gooding spoke for VSU<\/a>, saying it is “a huge strategic initiative for our community”.\r\n

\r\n\r\nLowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter said<\/a> broadband is “one of the number one issues”.\r\n

\r\nThat was at a meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes Industrial Authority<\/a>,\r\nwhose chair at the time, Roy Copeland, said of the Chairman’s assertion, “we’re on board with that.”.\r\n

\r\nHowever, VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer summed it up<\/a>: “I don’t want to say we don’t have broadband.”\r\n

\r\nThe only person to speak up at that meeting about a bad bill in the Georgia\r\nlegislature that would have limited municipal broadband was Gretchen Quarterman<\/a>,\r\nthe only person in the room with actual experience in Internet deployment.\r\nFortunately, that bill was defeated, maybe with the assistance of some of\r\nthe elected or appointed officials in that room,\r\nand with half the local legislative delegation voting against it<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nWell, it’s six years later and we still don’t have broadband.\r\n

\r\nIn July 2013 I asked Valdosta Mayor John Gayle<\/a>\r\nwhy I hadn’t seen anything about Internet access in either Valdosta’s or Lowndes County’s SPLOST lists? He said that was because it was being handled by the Community Assessment Group (CAG).\r\nWhich turned out to be\r\na group of representatives from the county and all the local cities, the two school districts (Valdosta and Lowndes County), VSU, Wiregrass Tech, the Industrial Authority, the Chamber, etc.\r\nHe said they had identified three top issues: Moody AFB, broadband, and SPLOST.\r\nToo bad they never did anything about broadband.\r\n

\r\nIn addition to the many reasons Wiregrass Tech, VSU, and VLCIA gave for needing broadband,\r\n\r\nBroadband fiber correlates with increased house prices<\/a>.\r\nAlso,\r\n\r\nbroadband adoption by the general population improves rural economic health<\/a>,\r\nand this one is causation, not just correlation.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"County-level<\/a>\r\n
\r\nCounty-level Household Broadband Adoption Rates, 2010; see\r\n\r\nBroadband’s Contribution to Economic Health in Rural Areas: A Causal Analysis<\/a>,\r\nBrian Whitacre, Oklahoma State University; Roberto Gallardo, Mississippi State University; Sharon Strover, University of Texas at Austin,\r\npresented at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference,\r\nSeptember 2013.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWay back\r\n\r\nin May 2012 I spoke to the Lowndes County Commission about\r\nlack of fast Internet access on Hambrick Road<\/a>,\r\nand mentioned the subject the next month in the VDT<\/a>.\r\nThat same May I noted \r\nGeorgia Public Web<\/a>, which since 1998 has been a member-owned nonprofit corporiation providing high-speed fiber links as far south as Thomasville and Valdosta, which could server as a nucleus for more ambient broadband access.\r\n

\r\nIn the first few months of 2019, AT&T has been running fiber\r\neast out of Hahira down GA 122, past ValDel Road, past Skipper Bridge, past Cat Creek. Will that service take a turn down Hambrick Road and serve those living there?\r\nCan’t we use that via for example the wireless tower on Hambrick Road\r\nto get real broadband on Hambrick Road and Quarterman Road\r\nfor less than the exorbitant price Verizon currently charges?\r\n

\r\nThe GBDI Phase 1 map<\/a>\r\nclaims Quarterman Road and Hambrick Road are “Served”.\r\nThink again, GBDI.\r\nIf “Community partnership will be a central component”, maybe you’d like to listen to the community beyond government and service provider stakeholders.\r\nMaybe even listen to the people who need to use the Internet.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>\r\n

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today<\/a>!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good about the Georgia Broadband Deployment Inititative (GBDI): wired and wireless, and they are actively doing something, including mapping. Map Phase 1 See also interactive Phase 1 map. Dubious: stakeholders are only “private telecom and cable providers, local government, and electricity cooperatives”. Where are universities, technical colleges, doctors and hospitals, local businesses, nonprofits, and the […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[1351,883,506,515,10765,6259,8701,10763,507,8741,8702,12,7,6,516,10764,518],"class_list":["post-21063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet-access-speed","tag-4g","tag-att","tag-broadband","tag-cable","tag-coax","tag-fiber","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-broadband-deployment-initiative","tag-internet","tag-internet-access-speed","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-valdosta","tag-verizon","tag-wired","tag-wireless"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-5tJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21063"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21069,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions\/21069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}