Telcom Update and New Direction

Russ Steele

The ERC Telecommunications Resource Committee is taking a new direction, and I will be passing the leadership to others. We have not met for a long time as we did not have a specific mission that I believed could produce come concrete results. I did not want to meet, just to be meeting. Now that the California Broadband Task Force Report: The State of Connectivity has been published, it is time to revisit the broadband issues in Nevada County.

Recommendation Number 7 in the CBTF is to form a Community Broadband Leadership Councils. The ERC Executive Boards has agreed with a recommendation that we reconstitute the Telcom Committee as the Nevada County Broadband Leadership Council.

Steve Monaghan has agreed to lead the NCBLC and will be holding an initial meeting on the 21st of March at 3:00PM, Empire Room at the Rood Center.  If your are interested in more broadband in Nevada County please come and support Steve and the NCBLC.  I will continue to participate in the NCBLC activities, and look forward to Steve's leadership.

Here is more information on Recommendation #7:

Community Broadband Leadership Councils: It is vital to spur local leadership that increases demand for broadband in unserved and undeserved communities. Currently no organized forum exists for these communities to developa business case for broadband; however, a statewide-public private
partnership could create this mechanism and facilitate both the creation of Community Broadband Leadership Councils (CBLCs) and the sharing of information across CBLCs. Individual CBLCs located in unserved and underserved communities and comprised of local residents who are passionate about broadband can articulate that the level of demand is substantial enough to warrant investment
by providers and develop the business case for broadband deployment. CBLCs can identify potential anchor tenants, critical infrastructure, state or local infrastructure, partnerships with surrounding communities, and residents and businesses who will commit to purchasing broadband. The CBLC model will be strengthened if representatives from each Council meet regularly, under the auspices of a formal
network, to share best practices and strengthen one another’s work. In fact, a similar model, pioneered in Kentucky, has a proven track record of success.

A typical CBLC, staffed by passionate, committed local champions will publish a business case for the local community and a set of lessons learned that other communities may use to develop financial models supporting broadband deployment. Examples of CBLC activities include: convening public discussions to assess infrastructure needs and explore broadband opportunities; holding farm demonstration projects for on-farm voice, data and telemetry applications; and developing presentations that examining water-management systems, on-farm mesh networks, and community public safety projects.