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Mountain Broadband
The Rocky Mountains in Colorado Present a Unique Challenge to Broadband Providers
Many areas have no broadband Internet providers at all. Thanks to the FCC, the path is now cleared for E-Rate funded schools to let neighborhood residents use their computer facilities to apply for jobs or learn how to read. And the agency has even more broadband-powered ideas on the way, including a national jobs center. The county should support Rural Broadband Cooperative advanced Internet access with translator funds.
On Wednesday, Minnie Ingersoll, Google product manager, posted a blog entry, asking us to “imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes … Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible … and today we’re announcing an experiment of our own.”
Last June, I helped form the Rural Broadband Cooperative. RBC was formed to accelerate broadband Internet technologies. I donated my time to this, as I have before. In 1997, I created a simple, low-cost DSL modem — my unique concept in 1996. That created several jobs, preserved many more jobs and opened up affordable broadband business access, along with the productivity gains everyone now knows high speed brings.
We’re on the cusp of a new revolution. Cloud computing and other Internet-hungry applications are ready for use. We just can’t reach them with our struggling Internet services today. I have the skills and have been paid handsomely for them for 20 years in telecommunications. I chose to donate my time to this cause in Aspen, again.
In 2009, within three months of the RBC being formed, RBC demonstrated 60-megabit consumer Internet access! Unheard of anywhere in our valley.
Then, in December, I met with the Pitkin County commissioners on this topic. I pleaded they consider funding legal, land-use and some technical planning. By redirecting a small part of the already collected translator budget, the county might find 10 times that money back in ARRA federal funds within 12 months!
