Own the NetworkA Radical Approach to Internet Connectivity

Brough Turner, CTO, NMS Communications

Sweden

HammarbysjostadHammarbysjostad (Stockholm)(Stockholm)

VästerbottenVästerbotten(Northern Sweden)(Northern Sweden)

100 Mbps, $16/month

Courtesy Lars Hedberg, The Swedish Urban Network Association

US comparison…

But what to do?

Regulation?Competition?

Telephony is not a “natural monopoly”— What about Internet connectivity?

Be careful what you ask for…

Local Right-of-Way is a bottleneck

Using the right of way also has issues

Photo by Dr. William T. Verts, http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~verts/things/things.html Swedish Urban Network Association

Cable bundles leading to one fiber per home

Who lights the fiber? At least 2 choices!

1. Regulated monopoly lights the fibers• All homes get same speed(s) and are locked to those

electronics until the whole neighborhood is upgraded

2. Homeowners pick an ISP to light their fiber• Homeowner selects the speeds & services desired

Own (or Control) Individual Dark Fibers

• Condominium fiber• Québec’s Villages Branchés program (2002)

62 school boards participatein commercial dark fiber coops

• 18,000 km dark fiber

• 184 new “non-dominant carriers”

• 7 engineering firms; 10 fiber contractors

• 4332 buildings connected

Community Association – Ulmea

http://www.bjornerback.com/tomas/mattgrand/

Community Association – Ulmea

1 Gbps middle-km connection

http://www.bjornerback.com/tomas/mattgrand/

Municipal dark fiber – Stockholm

Stokab AB founded 1994

Fibre to the block – entire metro Stockholm

http://www.stokab.se

Own (or Control) Individual Dark Fibers

Issues

• Existing (legacy) laws and regulations

• Vested interests

Path forward

• Public & politicians notice US global rank

• High tech community has some lobbying clout

• Success models visible

Thank you !

Brough Turnerrbt@nmss.com

http://blogs.nmss.com/communications/

An eComm 2008 presentation –

http://eCommMedia.com for more