Mid Mile

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Atkinson <rca53 () columbia edu>
Date: May 1, 2009 9:36:29 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Mid Mile

Dave,

Today’s Wall Street Journal carried an item on the broadband stimulus  
which included this bit of news:

On Wednesday, National Economic Council member Susan Crawford told a  
telecom policy conference in Washington that “investments in backhaul  
[or middle-mile] networks, particularly in rural communities, will  
likely be particularly helpful.”  Ms. Crawford doesn’t have any direct  
control over stimulus funding, but she has been meeting regularly with  
Commerce Department officials in charge of handing out broadband  
stimulus dollars.

My conclusion from moderating the NTIA-RUS roundtable meetings in DC  
in March was that the lack of low cost “mid-mile” facilities is the  
principal infrastructure bottleneck that is causing many rural  
communities to be “unserved” or “underserved.”  I know a number of  
commentators on IP have been making this same point. It is good to see  
that the bottleneck problem is recognized because opening bottlenecks  
is one thing that governments are well-equipped to do, with either  
carrots or sticks.

Now, the challenge is to get mid-mile builders in touch with those who  
would like to build last miles (WISPs for example) so that they can  
coordinate their efforts.  Right now, last mile business cases aren’t  
being developed because of the paucity of low cost mid-mile and the  
mid-milers aren’t going to do speculative builds into “unserved”  
territory so they need to find the last milers.  They need a “match  
maker.”

Bob

Robert C. Atkinson
Director of Policy Research
Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI)
http://www.citi.columbia.edu

office: 212-854-7576
mobile: 908-447-4201

E-mail: rca53 () columbia edu
alt: bob () robertcatkinson com







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