Person:
Warner, Waide

Profile Picture

Email Address

AA Acceptance Date

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Warner

First Name

Waide

Name

Warner, Waide

Filters

2015 - 20173

Settings

Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.e7354842-47e4-4c0b-b6cf-46988c5986d1

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    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, Jacob
    This 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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, Susan
    This 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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, Daniel
    This 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.