50 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 consultant originally suggested a public‐ private partnership to provide telephone services, and in 2007, the city entered negotiations with the incumbent cable and telephone providers. As a backup plan, the city simul- taneously prepared to build a network on which it would provide telephone, television, and access to the Internet. Wilson Utilities began reaching out to local elected officials and business lead- ers about a possible FTTH network, em- phasizing the importance of fiber optics and its unlimited potential capacity. e city’s priority was to build essential infra- structure, not just a cable television net- work. Cable TV service would be offered to make sure the network would attract enough subscribers to pay the debt. e City Council (with one mem- ber absent) voted unanimously on No- vember 16, 2006, to finance the con- struction of an FTTH network using Certificates of Participation (COPs), financial instruments akin to revenue bonds. Under COPs, the network itself is the collateral, and taxpayers are not obligated to cover potential losses. After negotiations with the incumbents failed, Wilson issued $15.7 million in COPs in 2007 and $13.5 million in 2008. Both rounds were for a term of 15 years; inter- est rates varied from 3.25 to 5.2 percent. GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT FIBER Before embarking on a citywide system, Wilson Utilities built a 1 Gbps backbone network connecting its own institutions and the locations of BB&T, a national bank that was founded in Wilson and remains a prominent local employer. e network was designed with the capacity for later expansion to handle thousands of connections to residents and businesses, if deemed necessary. City leaders – in and out of govern- ment – provided important support for creating a municipal fiber optic net- work. An executive at BB&T lent the bank’s support to the initiative in a let- Wilson Gives Greenlight To Fast Internet By Christopher Mitchell ■ Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Todd O’Boyle ■ Common Cause Following the collapse of key sectors of the local economy, and after years of deliberation, a midsize town in eastern North Carolina made the tough choice to build its own fiber optic network. About the Authors Christopher Mitchell is the director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self‐Reliance. He can be reached at christopher@newrules. org. Todd O’Boyle is the program director for the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause. He can be reached at [email protected]. Christopher Mitchell will be speaking at the BROADBAND COMMUNITIES Summit in Dallas about using broadband networks to drive economic development. Editor’s Note: is article was excerpted from Carolina’s Connected Commu- nity: Wilson Gives Greenlight to Fast Internet, a publication by the Institute for Local Self‐Reliance created in partnership with Common Cause. e complete text is available at www.ilsr.org/wilson-fiber -greenlight/. A follow-up report details the state politics surrounding the network. W ilson, N.C., is a city of 49,000 approximately an hour east of the state capital in Raleigh. Historically, Wilson’s chief industry was agriculture, with tobacco and cot- ton forming a crucial part of the local economy. Global competition under- mined the traditional cash crops, and, like many communities, Wilson watched many young people move away to search for opportunity elsewhere. As a result, Wilson has an older population and a higher rate of poverty than North Caro- lina as a whole. Wilson’s seniors make up 14.1 percent of the population versus 12.9 percent statewide; 25.4 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, versus 15.5 percent for the state. By 2008, the three largest employers in the city were Bridgestone/Firestone, the hos- pital WilMed and the Wilson County Schools. Agriculture now accounts for just 1.4 percent of employment. In light of these trends, the city sought alternatives to promote prosper- ity, including improving its telecommu- nications infrastructure. Despite past frustrations, the city first sought to part- ner with its existing providers to improve telecommunications services. e city’s
consultant originally suggested a public‐private partnership to provide telephone services, and in 2007, the city entered negotiations with the incumbent cable and telephone providers.
As a backup plan, the city simul-taneously prepared to build a network on which it would provide telephone, television, and access to the Internet. Wilson Utilities began reaching out to local elected officials and business lead-ers about a possible FTTH network, em-phasizing the importance of fiber optics and its unlimited potential capacity. The city’s priority was to build essential infra-structure, not just a cable television net-work. Cable TV service would be offered to make sure the network would attract enough subscribers to pay the debt.
The City Council (with one mem-ber absent) voted unanimously on No-vember 16, 2006, to finance the con-struction of an FTTH network using Certificates of Participation (COPs), financial instruments akin to revenue
bonds. Under COPs, the network itself is the collateral, and taxpayers are not obligated to cover potential losses. After negotiations with the incumbents failed, Wilson issued $15.7 million in COPs in 2007 and $13.5 million in 2008. Both rounds were for a term of 15 years; inter-est rates varied from 3.25 to 5.2 percent.
GettinG SeriouS About FiberBefore embarking on a citywide system, Wilson Utilities built a 1 Gbps backbone network connecting its own institutions and the locations of BB&T, a national bank that was founded in Wilson and remains a prominent local employer. The network was designed with the capacity for later expansion to handle thousands of connections to residents and businesses, if deemed necessary.
City leaders – in and out of govern-ment – provided important support for creating a municipal fiber optic net-work. An executive at BB&T lent the bank’s support to the initiative in a let-
Wilson Gives Greenlight To Fast Internet
By Christopher Mitchell ■ Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Todd O’Boyle ■ Common Cause
Following the collapse of key sectors of the local economy, and after years of deliberation, a midsize town in eastern North Carolina made the tough choice to build its own fiber optic network.
About the AuthorsChristopher Mitchell is the director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self‐Reliance. He can be reached at [email protected]. Todd O’Boyle is the program director for the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause. He can be reached at [email protected].
Christopher Mitchell will be speaking at the BroadBand Communities Summit in
Dallas about using broadband networks to drive economic development.
Editor’s Note: This article was excerpted from Carolina’s Connected Commu-nity: Wilson Gives Greenlight to Fast Internet, a publication by the Institute for Local Self‐Reliance created in partnership with Common Cause. The complete text is available at www.ilsr.org/wilson-fiber -greenlight/. A follow-up report details the state politics surrounding the network.
Wilson, N.C., is a city of 49,000 approximately an hour east of the state capital in Raleigh.
Historically, Wilson’s chief industry was agriculture, with tobacco and cot-ton forming a crucial part of the local economy. Global competition under-mined the traditional cash crops, and, like many communities, Wilson watched many young people move away to search for opportunity elsewhere. As a result, Wilson has an older population and a higher rate of poverty than North Caro-lina as a whole. Wilson’s seniors make up 14.1 percent of the population versus 12.9 percent statewide; 25.4 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, versus 15.5 percent for the state. By 2008, the three largest employers in the city were Bridgestone/Firestone, the hos-pital WilMed and the Wilson County Schools. Agriculture now accounts for just 1.4 percent of employment.
In light of these trends, the city sought alternatives to promote prosper-ity, including improving its telecommu-nications infrastructure. Despite past frustrations, the city first sought to part-ner with its existing providers to improve telecommunications services. The city’s
ter published in the local newspaper. The presidents of Barton College and Wilson Community College also got on board with a letter to the city manager.
The network was expected to break even within 12 years, and the entire debt would be repaid within 15. The COPs specify that taxpayers could be li-able only if Greenlight’s revenues were insufficient to pay its costs. In that case, some form of tax increase or utility rate increase could be used to make up the shortfall. To date, the network has not missed any debt payments and has been funded by subscriber revenues.
The first services launched in June 2008. The network was completed one year ahead of schedule, in January 2009. At that time, Wilson reported it had 1,840 subscribers, far ahead of the 1,400 projected in the business plan. In addi-tion, 110 businesses had subscribed. The subscriber count rose to 2,700 by May and to more than 4,600 by March 2010.
Greenlight’s Internet speeds are higher than its competitors’. The basic tier of service is competitively priced and provides 10 Mbps symmetrical up-load and download speed. Greenlight’s capacity and reliability are far in ex-cess of what competitors offer. In 2011, Greenlight was the first provider in the state to offer residential consumers 100 Mbps service. Greenlight’s business us-ers may purchase up to 1 Gbps with existing equipment, and even higher speeds can be accommodated.
Greenlight accesses the wider Inter-net from a Tier-1 service provider colo-cated in the Greenlight headend facility. Greenlight also has a backup Internet connection from a second service pro-vider that has a presence in the nearby city of Greenville.
After exceeding initial revenue and subscriber projections, in October 2010, Greenlight realized its first monthly op-erating profit a year ahead of schedule. It now has more than 6,050 subscribers, a 30 percent share of the Wilson mar-ket. Ninety-one percent of Greenlight customers subscribe to data services, 87 percent to video and 81 percent to voice.
Community impACtGreenlight currently offers competitive packages for fiber optic voice, data and video services (including DVR service). It provides the fastest Internet speeds, along with other benefits. It has yet to raise prices in more than three years of operation and has imposed greater price discipline on the local cable provider, which has raised rates more rapidly around Wilson than in the city.
Because of lowered prices both for those subscribing to Greenlight services and for those subscribing to cable ser-vices, the community saves $1 million each year. This money previously would have been paid to the cable provider but now is likely to stay in the local economy.
Greenlight has also had a positive effect on the ISP market in Wilson. The cable provider upgraded its level of service to remain competitive, and the Tier-1 network provider that now co-locates at Greenlight facilities provides data management services through a world‐class Tier-1 point‐of-presence to high-capacity users such as large firms and other Internet service providers. This investment in Wilson would not have been possible without the city’s state‐of‐the‐art infrastructure.
Though Greenlight offers local busi-nesses more broadband choices, it did affect small, dial‐up ISPs in town. Tina
Mooring, manager at Computer Central, was particularly vocal about Greenlight. In a 2011 interview, she argued that the city had been unfair to her and that her small business had lost two-thirds of its dial‐up customers to Greenlight. She said that she had approached the city to dis-cuss creating a public‐private partnership that would allow her to resell services to end users using the city’s fiber optic net-work and that the city had rebuffed her.
The name for the model Mooring proposed is open access. Under open ac-cess, a local government builds a physi-cal network but does not offer services directly. Instead, multiple independent entities compete on the fiber optic net-work for customers. The open access model is tremendously appealing be-cause it creates the real competition that is all but impossible when each provider is expected to build its own capital‐ intensive network. However, it also re-sults in lower revenue for the network owner, making paying off the debt in-curred in building the network more dif-ficult. This approach has had some suc-cess where local governments have built incrementally without borrowing, but Wilson decided the most prudent course would be to build and offer services on the network.
Despite their earlier disagreements, Greenlight and Computer Central are now partners. Computer Central tran-sitioned its dial‐up customers to Green-light, and the business now focuses on value‐added services, including disaster recovery and video surveillance cameras for both residents and small businesses. Though it still offers wireless services in rural areas, Computer Central urged its Wilson customers to subscribe to Greenlight to take advantage of the fast
GreenliGht’s inspiration: optinet, a pioneer of Municipal BroadBand
Wilson’s immediate model for Greenlight came from Bristol, Va., which created the OptiNet FTTH network in 2003. Owned and operated by BVU Authority – originally a municipal electric utility and now an independent authority – OptiNet is credited with creating more than 1,000 private sector jobs and generating millions in public savings. The network was lauded in The Economist and the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. In 10 years of operation, OptiNet has not increased its rates for telephone or broadband services; its television rate increases have been below industry norms. Bristol was a particularly apt inspiration for Wilson because it faced the same economic pressures from the decline of the tobacco and manufacturing industries.
network. Reflecting on Greenlight’s ser-vice and the transition process, Mooring noted at a July 2012 City Council meet-ing, “I can’t say anything but good things about it – I have it at home, we have it at the office, we have it at our client loca-tions. It’s been very smooth.” Computer Central and Wilson comarket their ser-vices, a win-win for everyone involved.
Having its own network gives Wil-son more freedom to try innovative ap-proaches to solving problems. For in-stance, Wilson submitted a broadband stimulus application in 2009 for a grant and loan to expand the network with enhancements for public safety, educa-tion, health care and a smart grid. The grant was denied, but the city is seeking other mechanisms to achieve the out-comes of the award application. Because it operates its own network, it has greater flexibility to create programs connecting the disadvantaged, though funding such programs can be a challenge.
An ongoing marketing campaign promotes Greenlight as “Wilson’s Com-munity Network” and reminds con-sumers that money spent on Greenlight remains in the community. Providing lo-cal service was very important to Wilson Utilities. Its being rooted in the commu-nity gives subscribers greater access to Greenlight staff and creates a high level of organizational accountability. Some communities refer to this dynamic as the “strangle effect.” If something goes
wrong, the subscriber can find someone locally to strangle. By contrast, national providers typically prefer to centralize their support, making it more difficult to find local technicians to solve problems.
meetinG buSineSS needSGreenlight has had success in connect-ing local businesses, which have access to a network superior to those available in most other regional towns. Green-light’s former general manager, Dathan Shows, said that Greenlight’s adminis-trators were surprised by the network’s performance in the commercial sector. Customer growth exceeded forecasts, with small and large firms alike adopt-ing Greenlight. David Vinston, a man-ager at Voith IT Solutions, described Greenlight as “instrumental” in helping his local firm “establish a cost-effective network solution between our offices in Wilson and York, Pa.”
The network is extremely resistant to failure. For those that want maxi-mum protection, Greenlight offers a “protected ring” service that connects facilities with multiple paths – mean-ing that if one path is damaged, the service will continue to function. One of Greenlight’s customers has been us-ing this service for five years and has not had a single outage. Though individual network components have failed, the network has been fixed before custom-ers even realized anything was amiss be-cause their services were not impacted.
BB&T is the most prominent com-mercial Greenlight subscriber. The bank was founded in Wilson and continues to have strong ties with the commu-nity. Though the headquarters is no longer in Wilson, BB&T maintains a large branch downtown. Bank execu-tives publicly supported the venture at public hearings in 2006, and the bank provided underwriting for the initial debt issue. Additionally, BB&T op-posed state legislation that has made it all but impossible for other communi-ties to build networks.
Greenlight provides much-needed redundancy for businesses in the com-munity. Large institutions such as BB&T, whose productivity drops pre-cipitously when communications sys-tems go down, are so concerned about reliability that they typically contract with multiple providers to ensure physi-cally diverse fiber paths. Greenlight was engineered to meet these high specifications, not just for BB&T but for any business in the community.
Greenlight also serves the Upper Coastal Plain Business Development Center, a small-business incubator in downtown Wilson, with an affordable, high-quality connection. Housed in a former department store, the center of-fers business development assistance and below-market rents to small businesses, as well as business plan consulting and other technical assistance. WHIG‐TV, a local station that airs community pro-gramming, opened an office in the cen-ter and plans to hire staff to expand local coverage.
publiC SAFetyPublic safety is an important dimen-sion of Greenlight service. Greenlight connects police stations well as mobile surveillance cameras that are placed in areas difficult for police officers to reach quickly, allowing for more efficient use of police resources.
Firefighters are able to maximize idle time and save on travel expenses thanks to the ability to receive their continuing education training in firehouses via vid-eoconference over Greenlight. This saves tax dollars because training sessions can be conducted once for each shift; in the past, instructors had to visit multiple fire
Greenlight received crucial support from a local bank that was the network’s first customer.
Greenlight’s marketing campaign reminds residents that the service is community based.
stations to conduct classes. Greenlight also provides network connectivity to the city’s mobile command center. The center can be deployed anywhere in the community and have the capacity to ac-cess high‐bandwidth applications, such as geographic information systems, in the field.
Greenlight gives the city options; as new service delivery technologies that require advanced connectivity become available, Wilson will be able to exploit them. As an example, emerging fire monitoring technologies send first re-sponders real‐time data on temperature and barometric pressure in buildings that are on fire. In the future, citywide fiber will provide the communications backbone for advanced traffic manage-ment to give priority to first responders.
HeAltH CAreWilMed, the local hospital, subscribes to both Greenlight and cable. Having redundant providers ensures a connec-tion if one goes offline, though Green-light has not had any outages. Green-light provides data service to WilMed and fast-tracks data between the hospital and off‐site facilities on the network. For doctors who live in town and subscribe to Greenlight’s Internet service, this means that communications between their home offices and the hospital get the full capacity of the fiber network.
Even if a doctor subscribes to the basic 10 Mbps tier at home, his or her communications with the hospital are much faster. Higher-capacity connec-tions allow rapid transmission of hyper‐dense medical files, such as very high‐resolution diagnostic imaging scans, to be viewed immediately without life‐threatening delays.
publiC eduCAtionSince July 2010, Greenlight has been the sole provider of metronet (wide-area network) and Internet services for the public school system. The 28 school facilities are spread across Wilson and the small towns and rural areas of the county. The school system’s three high schools, six middle schools, 14 elemen-tary schools and a few additional fa-cilities are connected with a 100 Mbps metronet service. The data center has a 1 Gbps connection to the wider world
and purchases 100 Mbps of connectiv-ity to share among the schools. The price for a dedicated 100 Mbps Internet con-nection is lower than what nearby com-munities pay for 10 Mbps.
Greenlight allows for a number of distance learning possibilities, includ-ing videoconference tutoring for home-bound students and remote instruction of advanced science topics that require better-equipped labs than are available in the local schools.
librArieS And Free Wi‐Fi Libraries remain important community institutions – centers for public gather-ings, research and online connectivity. In the fall of 2011, Greenlight became the broadband data provider for pub-lic terminals and wireless access in the Wilson County Central Library. Wire-less connections powered by Greenlight are also freely available throughout the branch locations. The library uses the Greenlight connection to teach courses on Internet use and computer basics, and it provides a place for people to sub-mit online job applications.
In addition, Greenlight provides free wireless Internet throughout down-town Wilson. This public service allows a seamless communications experience for the growing number of mobile de-vice users who prefer to use faster Wi‐Fi connections rather than more expensive, limited 3G or 4G subscriptions. Patrons of local businesses, pedestrians and trav-elers waiting in the city’s rail station regularly take advantage of this service.
Free Wi‐Fi is also available at the
Gillette Athletic complex, which has helped the Parks & Recreation Depart-ment attract large soccer and baseball tournaments to the complex. Wi‐Fi is not an amenity only for spectators; ref-erees depend on it, and tickets are sold at the gate using handheld devices that can process credit cards.
televiSionCommunity networks are often much more receptive than their commercial counterparts to carrying local program-ming. In fact, many try to maximize local programming as a competitive advantage over providers not rooted in the community. Unlike its video com-petitors, Greenlight’s television lineup includes WHIG-TV and WNCR‐TV, two low‐power stations based in nearby Rocky Mount. WHIG‐TV has aired baseball games in the area and recently opened a Wilson office.
Greenlight also carries the Green-light channel, which provides local, Wilson-focused programming, differen-tiating it from telecommunications pro-viders that offer a connection but not a platform for community expression. For example, the Greenlight channel broad-casts half‐hour pre- and postgame shows to discuss the local semipro baseball team during the summer playing sea-son. The Greenlight channel also aired the 2010 sheriff’s debate.
In conclusion, Wilson’s Greenlight shows how community investment in a universally available FTTH network can benefit businesses, schools, resi-dents, public safety and more. v
Residents, shoppers and visitors all enjoy the convenience of Greenlight’s free Wi-Fi service.
