Gustavus Broadband Update: City's Top Priority

[Nathan Borson]

Gustavus Broadband Project City's Top Priority 

The Gustavus City Council voted January 13 to submit a capital request to the Alaska legislature for the Gustavus last-mile broadband project, and to designate it the city's top capital project priority. The city also submitted capital requests for an communications upgrade for the volunteer fire department and culvert replacement along the Good River Road. The city's capital requests will compete with the Gustavus Community Center for state capital project funds said to be extremely limited this year.

The city is requesting $315,000 from the state, to be matched with $5,000 from the city. The Gustavus Community Network's current funding plan is to apply for a federal Community Connect grant, which will pay for 85% of the project if awarded. The City of Gustavus has in the past pledged up to $120,000 as a local match. Project manager Nathan Borson advises that city money will be needed for grant preparation and in case part of the project area is found ineligible for the community connect grant because of existing AT&T 4G service. The specific grant requirements will not be known until a notice of funding availability is released this summer.

Broadband Technical Consultant Contract Extended

On February 10, the Gustavus City Council voted to extend the broadband technical consulting contract with ICF International through 2015. ICF provides assistance with identifying funding sources, revising plans as needed, and preparing grant applications. The contract extension does not increase the amount of funding for ICF, it just extends the period during which it may be spent.

The broadband project web site has been updated with this post. You
can always go there to see the latest news and status:
https://sites.google.com/a/corvid.info/gustavus-broadband-plan/

Nate

Nathan Borson, Co-Owner
Corvid Computing, Project Manager
City of Gustavus Broadband Plan
http://bit.ly/r48JAh
(907) 697-2810

[Nathan Borson]

June 14, 2014 

Last Mile Unfunded 

All efforts to obtain funding for the last-mile broadband project proposed in the Gustavus Broadband Plan have failed. 

• The Alaska Legislature did not fund any part of the city's capital request for funds to match a federal broadband grant. The city requested as its top capital project priority $360,000, 15% of the total estimated $2.4 million project cost. 15% is the amount required as a match to a federal Community Connect grant. The legislature did fund two other Gustavus projects, namely a communications upgrade for the fire department and replacement of a culvert along the Good River Road.
• The Rasmuson foundation has indicated they do not fund "critical infrastructure" projects, and they include telecommunications in that category.
• The US Department of Commerce public works grants we considered earlier probably are highly competitive and probably require a 50% match, which we have been unable to secure.
• The Gustavus Community Network Board voted on Wednesday to forego applying for a federal Community Connect grant. Community Connect was identified by GCN staff and technical consultants as the best and most likely funding source for the Gustavus last-mile broadband project, but chances of obtaining the grant were judged too slim to invest the very significant effort required to submit an application.
• The amount in the program is only $12 million nationwide.
• There is a tribal preference in the program, which Gustavus would not get.
• Existing "mobile broadband" service from AT&T covers a substantial part of the community, rendering that part ineligible for grant funding.
• Even with grants funding the capital cost of the last-mile project, our current upstream (middle mile) Internet access is too expensive to provide the 5 Megabit per second service at affordable prices.
• We have not been able to secure the required matching funds.

At this point, the Gustavus Broadband Plan and the last-mile network it proposes are shelved until a better funding source is found or until the conditions described above change.

Focus On Middle Mile

Originally, the Gustavus Broadband Project deliberately focused on just the last mile (connections within Gustavus), thinking it would be more manageable to tackle one project at a time. Since then, it has become clear that we cannot build a last mile network without addressing the problem of our extremely expensive middle mile connection to the rest of the world. Apart from satellite service, which is of lower quality and even more expensive, the only middle mile connection to Gustavus is the terrestrial microwave network owned by AT&T. We have no reason to think that AT&T is going to slash its prices to what we need them to be, so we are shifting the focus of our planning efforts to identify alternatives.

• Rainforest Telecom, based in Juneau, has long been interested in providing service to Gustavus. They have built their own microwave network to Hoonah Mountain. Pleasant Island blocks radio signals from Hoonah Mountain to most of Gustavus, but it is probably possible for a tall enough tower located in the Falls Creek hydro project area or near the landfill in Glacier Bay National Park to see Hoonah Mountain and establish a wireless link.
• Alaska Power and Telephone, soon to be the new owners of Gustavus Electric Co, have an extensive microwave network in Southeast Alaska, from Juneau to Ketchikan. They have not expressed to the city any intent to extend their network to Gustavus, but their expertise and presence make them a logical party to involve in middle mile discussions.

At this point, the viability of an alternate middle mile carrier depends entirely on the price at which they can deliver service to Gustavus. We have not yet completed an analysis of just how low the price would have to be to make our last mile project viable, but even if the price were half of what AT&T charges it would probably be too expensive. If it were one-tenth AT&T's prices it would probably justify significant effort on the part of the city to deliver that service throughout the community with a last-mile network. So discussions with middle-mile providers will start with the recurring price of service, moving on to technical and legal issues only if the price justifies further talks.

Next Steps

• Continue discussions with Rainforest Telecom.
• Open discussions with Alaska Power and Telephone.