HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Comment Dickerman Allison Spani
From: Shanna Kuhlemier
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2023 9:56 AM
To: Allison Spani
Subject: FW: Public Comment - Broadband workshop
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
Please keep this as part of the packet and refer to the written comments.
Cheers,
Shanna D. Kuhlemier, CMC
District Clerk/Assistant to the General Manager
�'7RUCKEE DONNER
11570 Donner Pass Road
Truckee,CA 96161
P: 530-582-3980
www.tdpud.org
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From: Dan Dickerman [mailto:dan09@trueindiemedia.com]
Sent: Wednesday,January 18, 2023 10:06 PM
To: Shanna Kuhlemier
Subject: Public Comment- Broadband workshop
CAUTION:This email originated from outside of the Truckee Donner PUD. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
As suggested by Director Bender,please find below the written version of the comments I spoke from tonight.
Thanks for everything you do to keep our community moving forward.
Dan Dickerman
This survey quantifies the shortcomings many customers experience with internet in Truckee:
- speed
- responsiveness
-reliability
- price
- customer service
I would also like to highlight a few points from the presentation:
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Nearly half of TDPUD households not getting the speeds they want TODAY
I in 2 households perceive upload speed as very important
1 OGig and multi-1 OGig capability will be required within 10 years
A 100% fiber network offers the only pathway to multi-IOGig capability
How to we plan for the future? Over the 20 years we've been talking about this:
2006 this board voted to continue pursuing FTTH
2005 youtube.com was registered, and were bought by Google in 2006
2007 Netflix began its transition from DVD-by-mail to streaming service
2007 iPhone introduced, with 3rd party"apps" a year later
2011 Zoom teleconferencing software first released
2010-2020 we saw the emerging dominance of cloud-computing architectures, software-as-a-service, and other
virtualization architectures. Much of what many of us use every day now is dependent on access to services like
Google Cloud, iCloud, AWS, CloudFlare, Akamai, and many others... though most people aren't aware of it.
How are we accessing these services now? For many, the only viable option is the digital-coax network, which
Cebridge/Suddenlink/Altice/Optimum claims to provide nearly 1 G downstream,but we've shown here
measures at far less, is choked for upstream capacity, and is known for being deceptive about pricing,
unreliable, and unresponsive. And with their monopoly, they have no incentive to improve. Other providers are
able to find a niche here and there, but have an uphill battle fronting the enormous expense of creating a
competitive network.
These current broadband technologies are already operating at their capacity. What happens when we need to
upload our terabyte backup to cloud storage (I TB @ 20Mbps takes 5 days)? Turn-in our full-resolution movie
edit project to the studio? What other use cases are in our future? Had we deployed single-mode fiber 20 years
ago, we would be in much better place for what the next 20 years will hold.
So we know already that a completely fiber network is our district's best path forward to service our
community,but it is a significant cost. That cost is also why no for-profit company would invest in buildout to
provide better service for only a subset of customers just ask anyone who has tried to get the cable company
to trench to a new location about the quoted cost. But if this is what our community needs to move forward,
consider the alternative cost of NOT having this implemented?
The debate on how public and private organizations should work-together in this industry goes back a long way,
digging through history I found this quote from 1871: Not only would public ownership reduce rates while
rendering the same level of service, if not better, "It would secure the further advantage of extending the
telegraph through portions of the country where private enterprise will not construct it," as well as promote
commerce and education.
Historically, communities have often tried to improve services either by providing a pubic-owned option to
augment and compete-with existing for-profit companies, perhaps beginning with the customers who are
hardest to reach, or by subsidizing a for-profit company to do the build-out, essentially handing them a
monopoly along with complete control over the customers dependent on them. But other models are common:
for example, the Town builds roads, but everyone can chose what car we drive on that common infrastructure
This is also the advantage in designing an Open Access framework for broadband infrastructure discussed here,
effectively creating the wholesale "road system"to reach everyone, creating paths for all businesses and
customers to share. This is using public money to provide infrastructure which benefits everyone. TDPUD
would bring fiber to homes and businesses,but also lease connectivity to providers to improve existing
technologies like point-to-multipoint wireless, digital cable, cellular networks, and other services. By working
from the backbone connectivity outward, improving existing services and creating new opportunities along the
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way, the PUD would leverage economies of scale to reach everyone with equitable, fast, and scalable services.
Ffiber is not new: it has long been the underpinning of the entire Telecom industry. What we are discussing here
is how far out from the backbone fiber-based networks should reach, and how a public utility can best facilitate
that. We shouldn't be in the business of trying to out-compete our area's incumbent providers,which already
range from local companies like Oasis to multi-nationals like Altice and T-Mobile,but we should be finding
ways to help them improve their services while we bring fiber closer-and-closer to individual homes and
businesses, allowing multiple providers to deliver new and better end-customer services on those shared lines,
all while building-out those highest-speed lines to reach everyone, allowing existing and new ISPs to provide
best-in-class competitive services on top of a solid platform.
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