Letter from the President: Matt Wainwright

 

Dude, get some fiber optics in your diet.

Although I've never tried it, I don't recommend eating fiber optic cabling. It's glass. However, I do recommend a plan to deploy fiber to communities lacking choice in Internet. Why? Mainly because our great country, the United States of America, the inventor of the Internet, ranks 31st in the world behind Estonia in terms of download speeds. Upload speeds for Americans are worse – we're No. 42 (The Week, March, 2014). These numbers are grotesque. For those scoring at home, Hong Kong is No. 1 right now for Internet speeds. In just 10 years, the U.S. has slipped from No. 1 to No. 31.

Susan Crawford details compelling reasons why we have slipped so far behind in Internet competitiveness in her book "Captive Audience." She also compares and contrasts the Internet today in the United States to railway deployment in the mid to late 1800s and the rail system's eventual relationship to Standard Oil. Standard Oil was declared a monopoly by the United States Supreme Court in 1911 and broken into 33 different companies, quickly making John D. Rockefeller the first billionaire on Earth. The U.S. rail system and partner oil industry earned what they deserved in the beginning, but corrupted the system by pricing out competition in the end. Sound familiar? It should.

Zoom to the Internet in 2014 and some of the stats I mentioned earlier in this piece. Now drop back to 1996 and the Telecommunications Act. The goal of this act was to "let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other." Needless to say we did not gain open competition with this act. The major vendors were able to navigate on their own and agreed to split into territories that would not overlap and compete. Entering the market was impossible for most independent vendors, competition was stifled, and back to the future of 2014 we find ourselves, Americans, embarrassingly behind.

The repercussions run far deeper now as they affect economic development, education, health, natural resource measurement, energy, real estate and many more important competitive advantages. Rural locations continue to be overlooked as not densely populated enough to warrant high speed fiber broadband. Our country's backbone of economic development, small business, continues to be strained by an inability to compete with better, faster and cheaper Internet.  

Some communities sit and wait for Google fiber to swoop in and save the day. This expectation is unrealistic. Google can help, but Google has its own hybrid version of an agreement, which in some cases is strikingly similar to that of our incumbent monopoly providers. For example, Provo, Utah, overbuilt its fiber network, meaning it deployed as much fiber as possible, thinking it would immediately get results through consumer and business subscriptions. That didn't happen and Google assumed control of the network – and left Provo with $12M+ debt.

The silver lining in all of this is GMIS International, believe it or not. I truly believe the reach of our organization can effect positive change if we come together on the topic. Some of our membership is currently engaged in highly innovative, compelling and creative fiber optic deployment solutions, which will benefit businesses and home Internet users. Others in our membership already enjoy the autonomy and success associated with providing an open network to constituents. I requested information through the listerv prior to writing this, asking for status on fiber optic deployment projects. I spoke to many other members during the GMIS International Annual Conference in Savannah, Georgia, on the topic as well. From New Mexico, Connecticut, Utah and our International friends in Canada, there are some great forward-thinking steps in a clear, concise direction. I truly believe GMIS needs to push toward more of a leadership role in the very hot and emerging municipal fiber optic market. Feel free to reach me and let me know how you'd like to help.

I'd like to acknowledge input for this article via my GMIS listserv request. Thanks to: 

 

Bill Haight, CIO for Salt Lake City Corporation, UT and 2nd Vice President on your GMIS International Executive Board

Jack McCoy, CIO, Town of Manchester, CT

Geoff Hogan, Director of Information Technology, Grey County, Ontario, Canada

Rick Bazzano, Director of IT, Town of Simsbury, CT and 4th Vice President on your GMIS International Executive Board