Frequently Asked Questions

Q.  I am on the City Council here in  xxxxxxx, NE.  What can and/or should our city government do to  facilitate this type of broadband availability? We have discussed where we want to  go for economic development and we know that broadband internet availability  will play a big role in the future. We also want to position ourselves so  that we are not following but rather at the forefront.  Do you have any  particular suggestions for us?

A.  Does the city of xxxxxxx  have a community technology committee or team that is active?  If not, that is the first place to start.  A subcommittee of the City Council (or Chamber of Commerce?) that involves outside reps from the schools, libraries, Extension, hospitals, community college, private geeks and Internet Service Providers, cable company and telco reps. All need to be around the table.

Awareness... Access.....Ability

Three important words and concepts.  Someone or some group needs to be aware of 1) what resources you currently have  2) whether or not these are adequate and 3) continuously appraised of new IT options and opportunities. If all your community IT committee accomplished were these three things under 'awareness' it would earn a gold star of success.

Access:  Generally speaking, as my lengthy earlier note on broadband availability explained, all communities have been linked to the basic telco infrastructures (fiber and copper) and most larger communities have seen their telcos invest in laser equipment and software to be able to deliver in short order, broadband capacities to anyone in the area.  To find out, simply call the telco provider and ask if you can have DSL service to your home and/or your business.  If the answer is no, ask why not and 'when' you can expect that service to be upgraded?  Another test would be to pretend you're a major business with needs for major data line access; ask the
telco rep if they could connect a T-1 or T-3 line to your business?  Ask also about a 'fractional T-1 line'.  The answers you get will be a good guide as to access.  Now go to a small town out in the county somewhere and repeat this series of calls to the telco.... compare the answers you get.

Alternate broadband carriers and Access:  Researching this area is a bit tougher, the 'IT committee membership' will be of benefit here. Does your cable TV provider offer Internet Access?  Do you have local ISP's in the area?  Has anyone tested the satellite offerings from DirectPC and Starband? Do you have wireless point-to-point microwave services in your area?

Ability:  For every new technology, there comes a challenge to figure out the appropriate use and mastering the skills for optimum utilization.  This is where the community college, high school, Extension, state colleges, private vendors who offer training, etc.  are very important.  Another reason to have all these entities on your IT Committee if possible.  Coop Extension offers training series on IT for businesses  (Connect Nebraska and Managing Mainstreet)  and another one for individuals who want to learn these skills and train others (Master Navigator Program).

Q.  Can you tell me more about the fiberless laser optics and if anyone is using electrical lines for delivery?

A.  I don't know of any instances where 'electrical lines' are being utilized for delivery of telecommunication services. Much of the recent clamor has been  over electrical and other utility companies, municipalities, and our own state wide NPPD group's quest to utilize their own infrastructure(s) to deliver telco services. These telco services wouldn't be delivered literally over the electrical lines, but in most instances on accompanying fiber optic or copper lines that have been built parallel to the electric power lines.  In the past, the utility companies met their needs for communicating with scattered offices, substations and some customer locations via unregulated microwave radio signals.  Recent legislation has assigned these bandwidths to commercial uses, eliminating their use for utility companies.  In response, the power companies strung fiber optic cables throughout their core delivery areas, usually placing
these black cable lines at the top of the power poles, serving double-duty as a 'ground wire' and a 12 or 24 bundle fiber carrier. They installed the laser optics and software necessary to become their own internal communications operation.  Now, having become accomplished in this new phase of communication...some utility entities, Lincoln Electric System and NPPD are most visible ... are seeking new enabling legislation (LB827) to allow them to utilize, or lease the 'extra' fiber optic capacity that is now hanging on the poles throughout the state and in some cities.  In addition, many smaller towns and villages are also interested in servicing their citizens' broadband needs  by stringing their own fiber around town. For example, Norfolk is doing that now in its business district.  The new legislation would allow these towns to also sell or lease excess fiber capacity to telecommunication companies, creating a new revenue source, but predominantly to assure broadband services would be delivered to all citizens and businesses and not relying upon the telco industry to ramp-up to this level of service.

Fiberless laser optics are identical to fiber optic cable, except there is no glass fiber.  The atmosphere becomes the conducting medium.  The defense department and NASA have been playing with this for years, but until recent months, the technology was so fraught with problems that it was not given serious consideration.  Now, several global companies, and two US-based ones (Terabeam and Airfiber) are going full steam ahead in deploying the first commercial uses of the 'invisible fiber'.  An Internet2 conference in
Seattle was served by Terabeam Corp. fiberless optics, which is now beamed throughout 14 highrise buildings in Seattle, covering 70% of the downtown core.  The service is fast (up to OC-12, 622 megabit per second) and can be foreseen to reach gigabit speeds in the not-too-distance future.  Startup costs are low, no digging up streets or putting towers on rooftops, it shoots right through windows. Not bothered much by rain, snow, or birds, it is impacted by fog and movement or misalignments of the 'beam'.  For example, the lasers need to be mounted on sophisticated steering devices that move with the highrise buildings as they move in the wind, or even from heating/cooling cycles from the sun.  There is no danger to humans (burning eyes, etc.) since the laser is using the terahertz range, infrared and invisible to the human eye. This range is also currently an unlicensed spectrum in the U.S., thus keeping costs lower for now. Claims are made for carrier distances up of ten to twelve miles, however most practical applications are about a mile.  Severe fog will limit transmission distances to under a thousand feet.

For  more information on laser optics, go to this URL: http://www.americasnetwork.com/issues/2000issues/20000601/20000601_laser.htm

Q.  "How does one know if broadband services are available in our area?"

A.  Let's start with a definition or description of broadband services. Generally we define data communication capacity as a function of speed and volume or bandwidth. My home modem for example is connected to Alltel via a 56Kb device that is supposed to send out 56,000 bits of data every second. It never does that well, however, usually only running at 28,800 or 33,600 data bits per second.  This is not very much, thus is not classified as needing a 'broad' pathway to travel over and my home voice line can handle
it.

To get to broadband categories, you need to be communicating at speeds (data rates) of over 250,000 bits per second.  A digital subscriber line (DSL) for example can run up to 384Kb per second (384,000) and thus reaches what we'd call broadband levels.  Our ESN enabled county offices generally run on dedicated 56Kb frame relay lines.  While better than dial up modems, these lines are not broadband.  The lines we run to each R&E Center and to five or six county offices are rated as T-1 lines with a data speed of 1,500,000 bits per second.  This is broadband.  Our line running from UNL to UNK is a T-3 line, running 45,000,000 bits per second, and the line from UNL to UNMC/UNO is an OC-3 which is an optical carrier (fiber laser) running at a whopping 155,000,000 bits per second (and costing about $10,000 per month).  These are all broadband.

The answer to the question is that every Nebraska community has the infrastructure in place via the telephone company serving that area to sell you broadband level services.  By infrastructure, I mean the network of fiber and copper cables interconnecting all our 500+ cities.  Now for the "however" -- not all telco's have invested in the electronics and software to deliver high-end (i.e., big bucks) levels of broadband to all of their clients, even though they all have made huge investments in getting the cabling done.  They are awaiting the 'need' from customers requesting high bandwidth services prior to making huge investments in lasers and software.
At times, they will wait until 30, 40 or more customers request such levels before they can pencil-out a profitable return on such investments.

Alternative broadband services are becoming more available too.  Satellite, wireless point-to-point Microwave, cable TV carriers and fiberless laser optics all are becoming players.  Some of these service providers are 'pushing' local Telcos a little faster to upgrade their services, even if the need hasn't reached a significant number of customers.

Everyone community, and every individual has access to satellite providers. Two of note are DirectPC and Starband.  DirectPC is available (April 1) from your DirectTV provider and most places like BestBuy, etc.   Starband is licensed to DishTV carriers and also has a new contract with Radio Shack stores that you can buy today...you get broadband speeds, a new Compaq Computer, and a satellite contract all for writing one check!

Wireless Microwave services are growing rapidly across the state.  We are using Chase3000 company services to beam Internet services into the Perkins County Extension Office and another provider from Omaha and Wahoo beaming Internet into the ARDC facilities.  There is no listing anywhere that I can find of where all these startup-wireless folks are at.  But we're working on such a listing. My guess is, most areas of the state are now covered, or soon will be by one or more of these companies.  Levels of service, reliability, and startup costs all will vary a lot. I stress a lot.

So, I doubt that anyone can say they don't have broadband, but it's certainly not a clear-cut picture out there and some local investigation will be necessary to define the extent that broadband services are actually being deployed in your city and rural environments.