Person: Talbot, David
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Talbot, David
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Publication Enabling Competition & Innovation on a City Fiber Network(Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2017) Leerssen, Paddy; Talbot, DavidThis report describes how the municipally owned fiber-optic network in Ammon, Idaho, uses a technology known as network virtualization to inexpensively allow retail service providers to compete for users and provide innovative services over a public network without any requirement for new hardware at the customer’s home or business. Among other novelties, Ammon allows users to instantly switch between services, receive more than one service at a time, and inexpensively create private sub-networks. Under network virtualization, functions previously performed by specialized hardware devices are instead performed by software. In the United States, such technology is most often used by private telecommunications companies in ways that reduce internal costs but leave those companies controlling all services over their networks. Ammon’s technology strategy—along with other aspects of Ammon’s financing and operational model—provides competition and innovation. Other models include building public "dark" (or unused) fiber for use by private entities, and using virtualization in a more limited way.Publication Maximizing K-12 Fiber Connectivity Through E-Rate: An Overview(Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2016) Thompson, Ryan; Talbot, David; Krueger, KeithThe federal E-rate program provides up to $3.9 billion annually to subsidize the provision of high-speed Internet access to schools and libraries. Recent revisions to the program greatly expand the options for how such service can be provisioned. Notably, school districts can now seek reimbursement for the costs of building their own fiber optic networks. What’s more, municipalities and counties can inexpensively add more fiber to such networks to serve wider community needs. This new toolkit released by the Berkman Center in partnership with CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking), provides school system leaders the guidance to understand and leverage this newly expanded program. The report, Maximizing K-12 Fiber Connectivity Through E-Rate: An Overview comes as schools are feeling a bandwidth crunch. A recent CoSN survey revealed that 68 percent of district technology officers believe their school systems do not have the bandwidth to meet their district’s connectivity demands in the next 18 months.Publication Citizens Take Charge: Concord, Massachusetts, Builds a Fiber Network(The Municipal Fiber Project. Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2017) Talbot, David; Warner, Waide; Crawford, Susan; White, JacobThis report describes a multi-year effort by the town of Concord, Massachusetts, to establish a robust and versatile communications infrastructure to better serve its citizens. The town’s municipal utility, Concord Municipal Light Plant, or CMLP, built a 100-mile fiber optic network as a backbone for a smart grid, and then used the network to deliver high-speed Internet access to homes and businesses, competing with Comcast. With the fiber installed, the town realized significant savings on municipal communications costs and generated new fiber-leasing revenue. CMLP recently launched a strategic planning effort to use the smart grid network and the data it generates to reduce peak power demand and costs, and to reduce systemwide greenhouse gas emissions. CMLP may earn additional revenue by allowing the New England transmission system to use parts of CMLP’s smart grid to balance regional electricity loads. And Concord now has the potential to expand its Internet access business beyond town boundaries, starting in neighboring Acton.Publication Smart Grid Paybacks: The Chattanooga Example(The Municipal Fiber Project. Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Research Publication., 2017) Talbot, David; Paz-Canales, MariaAfter building a fiber optic network throughout its service territory, the city-owned electric utility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, became the first U.S. company to offer Internet access speeds of 1 gigabit per second to customers. The fiber also serves as the backbone for a sophisticated smart grid. Data show that the savings produced by the smart grid, plus revenue from access fees paid by the utility’s Internet access business, more than cover the capital and operating costs of the smart grid. What’s more, we estimate this would still be true even if the utility hadn’t received a $111.6 million federal stimulus grant, and instead borrowed the extra amount. We reach this conclusion after counting direct savings in the utility’s operating costs (such as labor, truck maintenance, and fuel), avoided purchases of expensive wholesale power at peak times, and avoided power losses. The region is also experiencing second-order benefits including economic development and savings to local businesses thanks to fewer and shorter power outages. The data on the following two pages were provided by the utility (known as the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, or EPB), and include data on second-order benefits originally published by Bento Lobo at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.Publication WiredWest: a Cooperative of Municipalities Forms to Build a Fiber Optic Network(Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2016) Talbot, David; Warner, Waide; Crawford, SusanThis report describes WiredWest, a cooperative formed by towns in rural western Massachusetts. WiredWest has put forward a detailed proposal to provide “last-mile” high-speed Internet access connections to homes and businesses in a region policymakers have long lamented suffers from poor Internet access. On behalf of its member towns, WiredWest plans to operate and provide services over a state-of-the-art fiber optic network in these chronically underserved communities. WiredWest has taken a regional approach to spread risk and achieve economies of scale. Thirty-one towns passed Select Board resolutions declaring their intent to participate in a cooperative network with WiredWest. Under the plan, they will pay about two-thirds of the network’s costs; so far 24 of them have authorized borrowing a total of $38 million. To cover remaining costs, they will need to receive a portion of $50 million already authorized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to subsidize high-speed Internet access in the region. The state agency responsible for disbursing the funds, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), recently tabled any decision on the project. The administration of Gov. Charlie Baker subsequently asked MBI to “develop policies to ensure that it is reviewing and analyzing all options” for making lastmile grants. WiredWest’s future hangs in the balance.Publication Holyoke: A Massachusetts Municipal Light Plant Seizes Internet Access Business Opportunities(Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2015) Talbot, David; Warner, Waide; Anderson, Carolyn; Hessekiel, Kira; Jones, DanielThis case study documents the success of a municipally-owned electric utility in providing Internet access services. Massachusetts has 41 such “munis” –- serving more than 900,000 people and thousands of businesses -– but only 10 are in the Internet access business as allowed by state law. The Holyoke Gas & Electric Department’s telecom division competes with Comcast and Charter and serves 300 business customers and numerous public buildings. It has shown steady growth in revenues, and $500,000 in net earnings over the past decade. It also saves the city at least $300,000 a year on various Internet access and networking services. HG&E's telecom division is also now providing a variety of services to three other municipalities. Finally, the utility is considering a residential high-speed Internet access offering, something the muni in neighboring Westfield is piloting later this year. HG&E’s success in a competitive environment was achieved without any debt issuance, tax, or subsidy from electricity or gas ratepayers. Key Findings: HG&E Telecom saves city offices and HG&E itself more than $300,000 a year by providing Internet access and networking and telephone services to public agencies. The utility provides approximately 300 businesses and large institutions with telecom services and creates competition, which tends to improve service offerings from all market participants, aiding the local economy. HG&E Telecom forged inter-municipal agreements that extend services and accompanying benefits to the neighboring city of Chicopee and to the city of Greenfield, 30 miles north. While HG&E Telecom has focused on selling services to businesses, the utility is now considering a residential fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) offering, given the declining market pressure to provide television content. Demonstrating that a municipal light plant can diversify into the consultancy business, HG&E Telecom also recently became project and network manager for a FTTH project in the town of Leverett. HG&E Telecom has shown steady growth in the face of competition, never incurred debt, and has reaped a 10 percent profit in both 2013 and 2014.Publication Community-Owned Fiber Networks: Value Leaders in America(Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 2017) Talbot, David; Hessekiel, Kira; Kehl, DanielleWe collected advertised prices for residential data plans offered by 40 community-owned (typically municipally owned) Internet service providers (ISPs) that offer fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service. We then identified the least-expensive service that meets the federal definition of broadband—at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload—and compared advertised prices to those of private competitors in the same markets. We found that most community-owned FTTH networks charged less and offered prices that were clear and unchanging, whereas private ISPs typically charged initial low promotional or “teaser” rates that later sharply rose, usually after 12 months. We were able to make comparisons in 27 communities. We found that in 23 cases, the community-owned FTTH providers’ pricing was lower when averaged over four years. (Using a three year-average changed this fraction to 22 out of 27.) In the other 13 communities, comparisons were not possible, either because the private providers’ website terms of service deterred or prohibited data collection or because no competitor offered service that qualified as broadband. We also made the incidental finding that Comcast offered different prices and terms for the same service in different regions.