Strategic Technology Plan
SPINDALE — The question was: How important is Internet connectivity to Rutherford County? The answer, judging from the number of stakeholders attending the Symposium on Connectivity Monday, is that it is vital. Foothills Connect invited business, community and county leaders, educators, Internet service providers and technical experts to a discussion of the county’s broadband accessibility and how to increase ultra high-speed broadband connectivity to virtually every resident. “It is time to not only dream but to take action,” said Fred Bayley, chairman of the board of directors of Foothills Connect, in his opening remarks. “ Time not to think about DSL, but ultra high-speed for everyone. “ We are starting the construction of a county technology plan,” Bayley said. “A plan that not only will tell us where to insert the backbone of our connectivity, but how to go the final mile for everyone’s ultra high-speed connection.” Sam Adams, senior researcher with IBM Corporation, set the stage by discussing some of the details in the recent IBM Global Technology Report. “Prediction in computing is a really important thing,” he said. “If you go back to the beginning, Thomas Watson, who was the original Chair of IBM, thought ‘ There’s maybe a market in the world for five computers.’ Granted, the computer would have been bigger than this whole room. “In 1949 Popular Mechanics said, ‘Future computers are going to weigh a ton and a half,’” Adams said. “And I’m not kidding you: The computers he’s talking about, now the computer in my watch is more complicated.” In the end, Adams said there is no way of knowing how far technology will go or what jobs will be created by technologies of the future, but in Rutherford County, ultra high-speed Internet can open up the possibilities for every child and every adult. “It’s about it being as normal and natural a tool in your life as a telephone, a bathtub, or running water or a light switch,” he said. “And that starts early. It’s not something you learn in high school; it’s something you learn when you’re 2.” Also addressing the symposium were the broadband providers currently offering or expecting to offer service to the county. Don Thompson, of Sky Catcher Communications, which provides wireless mesh technology, offered a challenge to the county in his presentation. “ What we’re suggesting is that by taking every first responder location — there are 19 — by taking every school — also 19 — and deploy on every single one of those locations, we can cover 98 percent of the county, today,” he said. Sky Catcher and Blue Ridge have recently combined and together currently have five sites that provide wireless connectivity to about one-third of the county, according to Thompson. These locations are on Chimney Rock, Railroad Avenue in Rutherfordton, Oakland Road, River Stone Business Park and Cherry Mountain. Thompson did not specify the cost of deploying the 38 additional sites around the county. Lavoy Spooner, with AT&T (formerly BellSouth), said the placement of broadband technology has to be based on a business model. “Part of the challenge in rural counties is that deploying these networks is a very expensive undertaking,” said Spooner. “And so, decisions on where to place DSL technology have been based on the cost of providing it and the anticipated usage. … In a rural community such as Rutherford County, you have, on a percentage basis, fewer people who are available to take advantage of the network, and then you have to put on top of that the projected percentage of people who actually buy the service.” E-Polk, provider of Pangaea Internet, is expanding into Rutherford County, and, in fact, according to Executive Director Stu Davidson, will be up and running within the next month on phase one of its expansion. Phase two of the expansion is the fiber-optic connectivity to 20 Rutherford County Schools. Davidson talked about the partnering of e-Polk with other Internet service providers to reach into the more rural areas. “ We provide to the larger businesses, the governments, the schools, the hospitals, people who require high bandwidth,” Davidson said. “ We hope that Pangaea will do a lot for the school system and promote economic development for the county.” Jennie Pressley, of ERC Broadband, also talked about her company’s partnerships with other ISPs. ERC is located in Asheville, but has a regional network backbone covering the area from Asheville to Boone, Hickory, Charlotte, Greenville, Cullowhee, Waynesville and Hendersonville. Although ERC doesn’t provide residential Internet service, it works with others who do. In her presentation, Pressley told attendees that people in rural areas would use broadband at home if they had access. She said that, generally, rural families use broadband access for continuing education. “People who have it, use it,” she concluded. Following the presentations, attendees broke into groups to talk about the benefits and pitfalls of creating a county-wide technology plan. Among the benefits cited:
Among the pitfalls listed:
Foothills Connect will now take the suggestions of the stakeholders to the symposium and put together a County Technology Team to begin to formulate a plan and make plans for the next symposium. Contact Bunch via e-mail at pbunch@thedigitalcourier.com |
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