Brough Turner\'s presentation at eComm 2008

Flash Player 9 (or above) is needed to view presentations.
We have detected that you do not have it on your computer. To install it, go here.

more share options
Embed For WordPress.com

Without related presentations

15 comments

Comments 1 - 10 of 15 previous next Post a comment

+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
Since this slide deck is mostly pictures, I've written a comment for each slide that gives the essence of what I said while the slide was on the screen. This approach will probably fail if and when others add comments as their comments will end up on top.

However, for now, please click on the tab 'Comments on Slide 1' to view the presentation with my script.

Thanks,
Brough
15 April 2008
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
The best outcome would be private ownership or at least control of individual dark fibers to every building.

Obviously there are an enormous set of vested interests that would oppose any change in our current completely obsolete legal and regulatory environment, Vested interests who would indeed prefer to settle for “Network Neutrality” rather than see the form of structural separate that makes sense.

Let me suggest that, in Sweden, the approach was more like 'Structural Bypass,' i.e. there has been public sponsored support of dark fiber which is then made available to anyone, even the monopoly phone company, on equal terms.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
Finally, I must mention Stokab AB a city-owned corporation whose whole charter for their first eight years was to install and lease dark fiber under the street of greater Stockholm.
Today they have over 1.2 million km of fiber in the ground, over 800 optical distribution frames in local buildings and dark fiber to every block in metro Stockholm.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
But they were able to wire their own neighborhood, in part because the rights-of-way were owned by the neighborhood association, and they had a couple of eager beavers who wanted to make it happen. And they were able to get good connectivity to a nearby city, because Sweden has extensive dark fiber networks.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
This one dates from 1999 & 2000 and it’s just a neighborhood of about 100 houses in the town of Ulmea in northern Sweden.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
Personally I’d like to see individual homeowners own or at least control their own individual dark fibers. But is this even possible?

Let me briefly touch on three places that prove it is possible.

First in Quebec. This is a government program to aid schools and there were several years of political battles before it was enacted, but it is working now and it’s fostering the spread of condominium fiber projects where, not just school boards, but local businesses and local ISPs get access to dark fiber at reasonable cost.

Some of what's listed on this slide is still in progress, but it's a great start.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
There are some choices for who lights the fiber. But bear in mind the useful life of the electronics that lights the fiber.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
So you may have only one or a very few fiber optics cables into any neighborhood and only one fiber to any given property. The good news is one cable can hold many fibers and it doesn’t take up that much space in the right-of-way.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
And, the right-of-way owner has some legitimate interest in who gets to put how much junk in the right-of-way.
+ Brough Turner 2 years ago
Whether the right-of-way is owned by the state, the municipality or a homeowners association, or it is a deeded relationship between neighbors, it is a bottleneck. There is only one right-of-way that gives access to most properties, and that's true anywhere in the world.

Comments 1 - 10 of 15 previous next

Notes on slide 1

Since this presentation is mostly pictures, I’ll add some real notes to reflect what I plan to say…

2 Favorites

Steve Song, Fellow at Shuttleworth Foundation, favorited this 6 months ago
Brough Turner, Founder & CTO at Ashtonbrooke, favorited this 2 years ago
Tags ecomm brough ecomm2008

Brough Turner\'s presentation at eComm 2008 - Presentation Transcript

Own the Network A Radical Approach to Internet Connectivity Brough Turner, CTO, NMS Communications
Sweden 100 Mbps, $16/month Courtesy Lars Hedberg, The Swedish Urban Network Association Hammarbysjostad (Stockholm) Västerbotten (Northern Sweden)
US comparison…
But what to do? Telephony is not a “natural monopoly” — What about Internet connectivity? Regulation? Competition?
Be careful what you ask for…
Local Right-of-Way is a bottleneck
Using the right of way also has issues Photo by Dr. William T. Verts, http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~verts/things/things.html Swedish Urban Network Association
Cable bundles leading to one fiber per home
Who lights the fiber? At least 2 choices!
- Regulated monopoly lights the fibers
- Homeowners pick an ISP to light their fiber
Own (or Control) Individual Dark Fibers
- Condominium fiber
Community Association – Ulmea http://www.bjornerback.com/tomas/mattgrand/
Community Association – Ulmea 1 Gbps middle-km connection http://www.bjornerback.com/tomas/mattgrand/
Municipal dark fiber – Stockholm
http:// www.stokab.se
Own (or Control) Individual Dark Fibers
- Issues
- Existing (legacy) laws and regulations
- Vested interests
- Path forward
- Public & politicians notice US global rank
- High tech community has some lobbying clout
- Success models visible
Thank you ! Brough Turner [email_address] http://blogs.nmss.com/communications/
An eComm 2008 presentation – http://eCommMedia.com for more