Regional Meeting Preview:
Fiber to the Home Leaders
Having trouble figuring out where to even start? How about starting with the end in mind? We’re lucky to be joined at our upcoming meeting in Chicago by FTTH leaders who have “made it happen” and they’ve agreed to share their lessons learned, pitfalls to avoid and how to get started.
Moderated by longtime friend of the FTTH Council, Tom Cohen of Kelley Drye & Warren, this panel is sure to inspire.
Edi Demaj is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Rocket Fiber, whose tagline is “Internet Made in Detroit.” The network, conceived inside of the company Quicken Loans, lit up their first homes this November and has plans to deliver 10 Gbps (that’s not a typo) to residents of downtown Detroit.
Mark Latham, the City Manager of Highland, Illinois will tell the story of how residents of his community made the decision and raised the money to build a municipal network to serve their roughly 10,000 residents. In early 2009, the City Council voted 3–2 to go ahead with the fiber project, awarding bids for construction, supplies and issuing bonds. And in March of 2010, construction began on Highland’s fiber-to-the-premises system. Currently, HCS passes over 600 commercial buildings and over 3,000 homes.
And rounding out the panel is Darby McCarty, President and CEO of Indiana’s Smithville Communications. The company is considered by many to be the “state champion” of rural broadband, having built out fiber throughout southern Indiana, particularly in the rural areas.
Each of these FTTH Council members has a different set of challenges, assets and opportunities — come hear how they made it happen!
