Thursday, June 26, 2014

There is buried treasure lying under the Lincoln Highway in Coatesville, Caln and Downingtown, PA.

Only a small part of the fiber optic cable under the Lincoln Highway for the traffic signal and surveillance camera system in Coatesville, Caln and Downingtown is used.
When he was Assistant City Manager of the City of Coatesville Jean Krack had 50 times the fiber optic cable laid as was needed for our traffic signal and surveillance cameras. 

I'm just guessing but it seems like Jean Krack would have mentioned the fiber optic cable to developers like Bart Blatstein of Tower Investments.

Jean anticipated community broadband in Coatesville, Caln and Downingtown. 
Local community broadband is an engine for economic development equal to transportation infrastructure. It's not the Twentieth Century anymore. Economic development in today's worldwide economy doesn't necessarily mean attracting or enticing some large manufacturing company to locate in a community. Most of IBMs employees don't work in a building with IBMs name on it. They work from a home office, office without IBM's name on it or a Starbucks on broadband.  "40% of IBM employees work remotely, either from home or at a client site."
SEE:

Disclosure, I have relatives that can work from wherever in the world they might be, as long as they have broadband access.
There was a window for a community broadband system before Verizon "passed" laws prohibiting community broadband in Pennsylvania. 
It's useless to bring up building a community based broadband at a borough, township or city council meeting in Pennsylvania. Community broadband is no longer something that can be done by Coatesville's Caln's and Downingtown's governments.
It's still possible to have a local broadband system Coatesville to Downingtown. But the community system needs to be private/non-profit or profit; not with public money. If it's public the details about a broadband system are discoverable and Verizon and Comcast will kill it before it can be started.
"At the State Capitol, legislative changes changed the future for Pennsylvania communities who might follow Kutztown's lead. Interestingly, the Governor actually gave Kutztown an award (news article at right) just under a year before signing a bill to ensure no other community could duplicate their success. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to begin passage of crippling legislation (at the behest of Verizon) that has moved across the country. While Kutztown was grandfathered in and can continue to provide services, laws prevent any expansion. Caruso even fears new legislation may one day bring an end to Home Net..." 
"Operating under the purview of open meeting laws and the public sector's high level of transparency create competitive disadvantages for Home Net. Caruso comments on how business plans, prices, products, and other information closely guarded by the private sector must be disclosed early in the process by Hometown Utilitcom. Marketing efforts can be thwarted and promotions are often one-upped by the private sector before they even take effect."  
FROM: 
Gigabit Nation Interview with Frank Caruso of
Kutztown, PA 
Thu, November 01, 2012 | Posted by lgonzalez
The most expensive part of a community based broadband system is laying fiber optic cable. In the City of Coatesville, Caln Township and Downingtown Borough fiber optic cable is buried under the Lincoln Highway, most of it unused. It's an economic and educational buried treasure waiting for some enterprising company to take advantage of.

One place to look for assistance in developing better communications in the Coatesville, Caln and Downingtown area is the Intelligent Community Forum

"The Community Accelerator program provides your city or region with a set of development tools to improve competitiveness, deepen social inclusion and enhance your ability to adapt in today's fast-moving Broadband Economy.  Based on years of research by the Forum, the Community Accelerator:
  • Educates your community on the factors that will determine its economic future and social health
  • Engages and energizes the key stakeholders in the community development process to take leadership roles in creating progress
  • Provides metric analysis that identifies where you stand today and offers specific guidance on where to focus efforts in the future
The Community Accelerator is not a consulting service.  It does not assess feasibility or develop requests for proposal.  Instead, it delivers education and analysis that you can use to plan and execute your future as an Intelligent Community, and a global context for action based on the actual practices of cities and regions around the globe." 

https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=Accelerator&category=Services

ALSO SEE:

1 comment:

  1. GIGABIT NATION Broadband Talk Radio
    CLIC to Help Turn Tide on Muni Network Restrictions.

    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gigabitnation/2014/12/04/clic-to-help-turn-tide-on-muni-network-restrictions-1

    There are 20 are about states with restrictions on muni- and public utility-owned broadband. More states may try to join them in  2015. But communities across America are gearing up to push back. Learn how the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC) is supporting them and how you can help.
    Local Internet choice directly impacts economic development and job creation, innovation, investment, and competition. Jim Baller, President of CLIC, and Joanne Hovis, CEO of CLIC, discuss why local communities, through their elected officials, must have the right and opportunity to play a critical role in choosing the best broadband infrastructure for their businesses, institutions, and residents.
    Listeners gather insights to working with willing incumbents, developing public-private partnerships, establishing their own networks when necessary, or creating other inventive approaches that work for their communities. Both guests share their many years of experience in helping communities obtain the many benefits of advanced communications capabilities. Baller and Hovis formed CLIC to give voice to the wide range of public and private interests that support local choice and to provide communities practical advice and the tools necessary to prevent new state barriers from being enacted and to remove existing barriers.

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