Archive: Around Town

When cable first arrived it brought television to Tompkins County, which has no broadcast television stations of its own.  Since then, cable has become the best option for broadband Internet connectivity, as well as telephone and security services.  As these uses have grown more vital, a disconnect has grown between those who have access to it and those who don't.  Meanwhile more uses such as Internet-based medical diagnosis could be a viable way to keep health care costs down.  If people can access it.

"Any solution is years off," says Hurf Sheldon, the sole member of the Town of Lansing's Rural Internet Committee.  "It's clear that the current government funding mechanisms are in disarray.  There are TARP funds for doing this, but there is not any clear regulation on how it's to be done."

Sheldon says that rural Internet became a hot item in Lansing about 18 months ago when the Zoning Review Committee recommended the formation of several committees to deal with Lansing's future.  One of those recommendations was to form an infrastructure committee with rural Internet being a prime issue the committee would attempt to address.  Sheldon says that it became clear that local government would have to do something to address rural Internet access in the last Town Supervisor election.

"Several times people asked the candidates about rural Internet," he says.  "I have to say most of the candidates just didn't get it.  People realized it was something that is important.  I realized at that point we had to push it harder."

That is exactly what he has been doing -- or trying to do.  Sheldon connected with Clarity Connect CEO Chuck Bartosch and Lightlink owner Homer Smith, as well as officials in local municipalities and at the County level.  Smith has been installing wireless radio Internet sites in Newfield, while Bartosh has been working on infrastructure in Dryden.  Bartosch's new grant would help pay for Internet infrastructure in the Town and Village of Lansing, the City of Ithaca, and others.  Karen Edlestein, a GIS researcher who lives in Lansing, was able to provide a lot of data to help Bartosch put the grant together.

Earlier this year Tompkins County and the local municipalities explored participating in the Southern Tier East Regional Planning and Development Board (STERPDB) initiative to get a grant to install Internet infrastructure throughout the 11 counties.  The initiative was led by a Rochester firm, ION.  But in March the Tompkins County Legislature voted to decline to participate in the  STERPDB grant, when they learned that the initiative would only provide an Internet backbone at a high cost to the taxpayers, but would not cover the 'final mile' -- the piece that connects the internet to homes and businesses.

Sheldon says that Tompkins County would have had to guarantee income for the companies installing the service that would have ranged between $350 and $900 per household, whether they used it or not.  In the face of a tanking economy county officials said they were not willing to take on that kind of financial responsibility.

When the franchises were first negotiated Tompkins County had a strong cable commission that was able to wrest concessions from the company including PEGASYS Community Access Television, which provides a way for local people to broadcast over the cable.  But that commission no longer exists, and there is no way to force companies to build out beyond the boundaries of the franchise agreements.


Sheldon is critical of companies like Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T that he says use the limits of their cable franchise agreement as an excuse to refuse service to rural residents, or to charge outrageous amounts to extend service to their homes.  He says Time Warner offered to extend the cable to his home for $10,000 about ten years ago, but when he offered to guarantee $1,000 per year for ten years if the company would give him income from the cable he was to finance Time Warner refused.  Recently he says the company offered a better price if ten neighbors were willing to ante up approximately $300 each, but not enough neighbors were interested.

"Many years ago there was a county cable commission," Sheldon says.  "They set up the franchise agreements with Verizon and Time Warner, Frontier, and others.  The Trumansburg Phone Company is the only company that has ignored the franchise and expanded beyond it voluntarily.  All of the other companies stop at the limit of their franchise agreement.  They won't go beyond it unless you pay them extra money.  Their return on investment is very short.  They're looking for three years, where in other industries the return is over seven to ten years."

Meanwhile large providers have instituted lobbying efforts in Washington, Albany, and other state capitals.  Sheldon says the purpose is to get the government to pay them to put in the infrastructure they should be investing in themselves, because they will make plenty of income from it.

"There are a lot of things I don't think the government should be doing," Sheldon says.  "If you look back at the rural they gave the utilities a monopoly in return for putting the infrastructure in," he says.  "Right now I believe that's what the communications utilities are lobbying for.  But because there is not a mandate from government with payments and a guarantee of a franchise for a certain amount of time they're really looking to get paid more than it's worth to do it.  That's a disincentive at this point to do anything until they see how much money they can get out of doing nothing."

While cable is currently the fastest broadband option, satellite and cellular Internet are at least better than dialup.  Unfortunately those options often cost more than cable and don't offer the speed or responsiveness.  And Sheldon says that wireless options like 3G don't have the bandwidth to offer Internet, television and all the options cable can currently handle.

So what are the prospects for getting viable rural Internet access?  Various groups in Tompkins County are working independently or together.  Smith has been installing radio units in Newfield to be able to offer affordable wireless Internet there.  Bartosch has been involved in bringing Internet to Dryden, and his grant that was folded into the STERPDB initiative has now been pulled out to be submitted as a stand-alone grant request.  He has asked Tompkins County residents to fill out an on-line survey to provide supporting data that will make the grant proposal stronger.

A pie-in-the-sky option is the 'Google Fiber For Communities' competition.  County officials have sent an entry into this contest for which the prize is that Google will wire a community with next generation fiber optics cable at no charge.  Sheldon says the chances of being chosen are slim because so many communities are competing.  But you can't win if you don't play, and Sheldon says that Deputy County Administrator Paula younger has been working with Cornell Cooperative Extension to make sure Tompkins County is in the running.

Sheldon says the push right now is to provide Internet for education, medical useage, and home telecommuting.  He says that local medical officials are interested in rural Internet so they can provide diagnostic services that could include connecting a blood pressure measuring device or a thermometer or some kind of stethoscope to a USB port in your computer.  Before going to the emergency room or convenient care a patient would be able to have preliminary tests at home.  That could save resources and money by keeping the emergency room clear for real emergencies.

Meanwhile he is connecting to all of these groups and local officials as best he can, offering what help he can, and hoping to get more people in Lansing to serve on his committee to find viable solutions as soon as possible.

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