The quest for regional broadband

Network optimization means different things to different people. For a group of Minnesota towns and counties in the Twin Cities area, the idea of an optimized network is one that links police departments, schools, libraries and other public institutions at ultra-high speeds - and lets them cut back on the number of expensive T-1s they're each paying for.

To make that a reality, members of the Twin Cities Regional Broadband Task Force are working through the technical and political hurdles that stand in the way of connecting a bunch of distinct fibernetworks in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

David Asp, who is fiber project leader for Minnesota’s Dakota County, talked about the progress the task force is making at the annual Minnesota Government IT Symposium, held last week in St. Paul.

The mission of the task force is to promote the expansion and integration of big broadband initiatives in the metro region, Asp said. “That’s the key word: big. Is T-1 broadband? Not to me. We’re talking about gigabit backbones between locations,” he said.

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Network optimization means different things to different people. For a group of Minnesota towns and counties in the Twin Cities area, the idea of an optimized network is one that links police departments, schools, libraries and other public institutions at ultra-high speeds - and lets them cut back on the number of expensive T-1s they're each paying for.

To make that a reality, members of the Twin Cities Regional Broadband Task Force are working through the technical and political hurdles that stand in the way of connecting a bunch of distinct fibernetworks in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

David Asp, who is fiber project leader for Minnesota’s Dakota County, talked about the progress the task force is making at the annual Minnesota Government IT Symposium, held last week in St. Paul.

The mission of the task force is to promote the expansion and integration of big broadband initiatives in the metro region, Asp said. “That’s the key word: big. Is T-1 broadband? Not to me. We’re talking about gigabit backbones between locations,” he said.

Already numerous fiber rings exist, built or leased by state, county and local institutions. Linking these isolated networks will not only increase coverage areas but also provide important redundancy. “We’re promoting interconnections between member networks, to build stronger, fault-tolerant fiber networks,” Asp said.

To get there, the task force is building a database and maps of available public fiber infrastructure and broadband services - documenting attributes such as the longitude and latitude of existing fiber; strand counts; the number of strands in use; whether there’s a spare conduit or not; and contact information for the operator. “We’re trying to find out where our resources are,” Asp said.

Aside from the infrastructure work, the task force also plays an advisory role for agencies that want to deploy broadband services. It can help parties iron out roaming and reciprocity agreements that need to be coordinated to link islands of connectivity operated by different public and private ventures. And it’s putting together metro-wide public policies and best practices so individual agencies or institutions don’t have to reinvent the wheel, Asp said.

The task force was formed last December, and already it is sharing some success stories and lessons learned. In Dakota County, for example, 203 locations are connected and sharing information, Asp said. The linkages have enabled the county to cut 29 T-1s, some of which were costing $1,000 per month, he said.

One Minnesota city, Apple Valley, was spending $35,000 per year on T-1 connections. After building out its own fiber network, it’s expecting a two-year payoff for the $70,000 it spent on the fiber deployment, Asp said.

Looking ahead, Asp said some of the task force’s members are working on plans to serve private industry and consumers through regional broadband networks. Individual cities and counties can pursue plans to partner with third-party providers to offer broadband access services to local businesses and residents, as part of economic development efforts, for example.