Air space as a Commons to extend Broadband Internet
There's an easy way to lower the cost of living by around $100 a month in Ann Arbor, so let's make sure we are not giving away that benefit to developers.
Here in Ann Arbor, when people talk about the Commons, they have been focused on the physical space next to the Ann Arbor District Library between Fifth Avenue and South Division. Supporting a Commons means defending a public space from encroachment by private spaces. Usually, when people talk about a Commons they are referring to a town Plaza or some other physical shared space. Let's examine another kind of Commons, the air space above buildings in our town. When developers put up a new building, they frequently sell the rights to connect a particular building to whatever Internet provider has a monopoly-like hold on that neighborhood. This arrangement will usually result in a kick back to the property developer or landlord. Many new buildings are deciding to wire each apartment with ethernet. This, of course, sounds like a good thing, until you find out that there is only one choice of Internet provider. But, it does not have to be that way. Around the country, from the east to the west coast, people are creating Community Owned Internet Networks (COINs). With all the talk of affordable housing, people too often fail to factor in the total cost of living. That includes utilities, and in a post pandemic world, we have come to realize that the Internet is a necessary utility. The graphic below is from Althea. The diagram helps the reader to visualize how each node can purchase bandwidth from upstream and sell band to downstream members. Their software is Open Source, which means that anyone can use it without charge.
Fiber-optic is best, but not always affordable for a given household. Antennas on the top of buildings with line of sight is a reasonable alternative. The incremental cost of connecting an individual home to Broadband can be less than $200. Of course, that assumes that somewhere they connect to a physical wire (fiber) via an antenna on top of a tower or tall building. Someone does have to pay for the cost of achieving a certain height for your antenna. But often, locations for antennas can be used on existing infrastructure, which of course lowers that cost to effectively zero. Thus, it is the topology of the network being built and the mix of wireless versus wired that determines the ultimate average cost per household. In your municipality, who owns the right of way on top of tall buildings? Tall buildings, that are already there, and paid for. Should municipalities make ownership of rights of way on proposed new building construction a condition of being able to construct a building over a certain height? During a pandemic, should the government create a state of emergency that would provide rights of way to organizations wishing to operate Community Owned Internet Networks? It is important to note that the community owned network is not necessarily a government agency. Each household may own their own equipment with an antenna on the roof and a router inside the home. Each household is a member of that community, which might be a nonprofit or a volunteer organization. And do not be fooled by 5G promises to solve our problems, from businesses who are more into creating new “marketecture” than engineering architecture. They are much more interested in new business models for how they can set up tollbooths on what should be a public highway. Watch for an upcoming article by Bob Frankston in the March 2021 issue of IEEE. Those of you who are old enough will remember the days when the telephone company was the owner of the phone within your house. Monopolistic companies want to stop you from owning the soft and hardware needed to maintain communications. Open source software and open protocols for communications have shown themselves to be much more resilient than proprietary protocols owned by monopolistic corporations. In addition, decentralized and mesh networks are much more resilient and able to withstand an attack on the network. Witness the the disruption we observed in communication networks going down in communities hundreds of miles away and across state lines after the Christmas bombing in Nashville, in front of an AT&T building.
Non-profits should compete for government funding to extend Broadband
It will be easy to compete with greedy providers. Different approaches to community owned Internet networks fall along the spectrum of volunteer organizations, cooperative, nonprofits and for profit groups. Think about which approaches would work in your neighborhood.
Government grants per household for monopolistic corporations to connect broadband average between $7K and $8k.
US relief package provides $7 billion for broadband
And nearly $2 billion to remove Huawei and ZTE equipment
By Makena Kelly, The Verge, Dec 21, 2020, 9:44am EST
After months of deliberation, congressional leaders reached a $900 billion coronavirus relief deal on Sunday, including billions in funding for broadband internet access.
Congress’ latest relief measure provides $7 billion in funding for broadband connectivity and infrastructure. That figure includes $3.2 billion for a $50-per-month emergency broadband benefit for people who are laid off or furloughed during the pandemic, according to a press release from Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) office.
Based on an article published in MichiganInter.net on December 27, 2020
Want to do something about it?
Contact us to get involved with forming a Michigan Chapter of the Internet Society.
Let's learn together
The Internet Society already has online courses that we can review together. We will be offering our own courses in our soon to launch
BROADBAND INSTITUTE: https://broadband.institute/
A community learning platform cooperative
- Learn about Internet network engineering
- See from others how to build a Community Owned Internet Network
- Get a job and create jobs
- Keep money circulating in your local community
A version of this article appeared on page 10 of the spring issue of the Old Fourth Ward Neighborhood Association in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
