Connecting Southwest Wisconsin Broadband Conference  April 22, 2010 Federal Stimulus Broadband Programs Bob Bocher WI Department of Public Instruction ; (dpi.wi.gov/pld/arrabbfunding.html)

BadgerNet Broadband Network (  1993 State Telecom Task Force Report  Manage transition to a competitive marketplace  Stimulate private sector deployment of enhanced telecommunications  2002 report on next generation network:  BadgerNet Converged Network (BCN)  85% of school districts and public libraries on BCN 2 1.Wisconsin needs an affordable network with adequate bandwidth to support multiple applications and provide universal connectivity to accommodate increasing demand. 2.Equity of access for all students regardless of age, geography or economic status is needed. Wisconsin has made a good start in its equity goal but must continue forward to complete that mission.

Schools, Libraries and Bandwidth Demand  School/library bandwidth subsidized by state/federal USF  State TEACH program (  Federal E-rate program (  Subsidies can’t keep up with demand, driven by:  Hosted services (aka cloud computing) Schools have remote student/administrative services Libraries have shared online catalogs, magazines  Content and access providers Schools video streaming events Libraries provide wireless access  Changing Web 2.0 landscape 3 The problem is not Internet access but having sufficient access as the demands of the medium and patrons grow rapidly. “Our bandwidth is 1.5Mbps but at 2pm so many people were on the Internet it was slower than dial-up.” ALA Library Connectivity Report (2007)

BadgerNet and Bandwidth Demand  BCN Advisory Council reviews bandwidth issue  Apply for ARRA broadband grant funds to: Increase broadband speeds Decrease broadband costs  Aug 2009 DOA filed $28.7 million grant to bring fiber to:  74 of the state’s 426 school districts  385 of the state’s 470 public libraries  Grants very competitive; $7 requested for $1 available  After lengthy review, grant approved in February 4

DOA BadgerNet Fiber Grant  Grant benefits all school districts and libraries on BCN  All public libraries will get 20Mbps for $100/month  All school districts will get 100Mbps for $250/month  Parties now working on implementation  Completing federal paper work  Must do environmental and historic review of all 467 sites  Some site visits happening now, but no specific date on fiber installs (“summer”)  Bandwidth increases likely to start in Q3 5

BadgerNet and SW Library System 6 All 17 WI regional library systems manage WANs using BCN circuits.

FCC National Broadband Plan (NPB) (  Mandated by ARRA, released March 16  Three key, long-term goals 1. At least 100 million homes should have affordable access to at least 100Mbps broadband. 2. Every community anchor institution (CAI) should have affordable access to at least 1Gbps broadband. 3. Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband. 7 America can no longer tolerate having digital divides between ethnic groups, between haves and have-nots, between those living in big cities and those living in rural areas. --Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner

The NBP and FCC Actions  FCC to issue over 30 rule making notices  Reposition High Cost USF on focus on broadband (8.13)  Action starts this week on Connect America Fund  Support R&E “Unified Community Anchor Networks” (8.22)  DPI filed comments on October 28 on fiber CAI  Reform E-rate  “Give schools and libraries more flexibility to purchase lowest- cost broadband solutions.” (11.17)  DPI filed comments on November 20, which Plan cites (p. 237) 8

What Is Sufficient Broadband? A: “As much as you can afford.” A: “More than we have.” A: “It’s determined by the number of irritated patrons.” A: “When you click, it happens.” 9

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