Your Challenge

• The organization has many of the disparate parts of constructing a fiber network, but no understanding as to where and how to start making one a reality.
• There is community/political pressure to address the digital divide through community-controlled solutions.
• Municipal fiber networks could mean anything from an internal fiber network to a comprehensive broadband solution. Where and how might such a network fit into your overall strategy?

Common Obstacles

• Building and maintaining a large-scale fiber network is not necessarily a core competency.
• The money to deploy fiber with a “big bang” approach is not readily available.
• The municipality doesn’t realize all the options that they have to participate in the traditionally telco-led, broader-connectivity landscape.

Info-Tech’s Approach

• Understand your drivers and target market in order to build a network vision.
• Define a high-level operating model for how a fiber network can be deployed and governed.
• Understand your current assets and how they could be leveraged to aid in the initiative.
• Map a path forward in achievable and realistic “work packages.”

What purpose does it serve?

• Connectivity among municipal buildings/office space.
• Connectivity for important anchor institutions/agencies such as education or health care facilities.
• Broadband internet access provided to the local community and businesses.

Challenges

• Funding the build and operations of a fiber network can be costly. Funding through grants is generally a one-time lift in money and may leave financial gaps later.
• Most municipalities are not structured or staffed to be internet service providers. (Sales, Marketing, Provisioning, Service Desk, etc.).

Benefits

• When a municipality directs the building of a local fiber project, it can ensure that factors other than profitability can play a part in decisions as to where to deploy.
• Municipalities are already experienced at funding and executing on large infrastructure projects (transit, roads, water, etc.). This experience can be translated to a fiber infrastructure build.

Why Do It?

• Addressing the digital divide
• Better connectivity/control for municipal offices
• Attracting business/economic benefit

Potential Project Triggers

Common reasons that may align with initiating a municipal fiber network project:

Grants
External money sources are currently available to initiate a broadband network build.

Large capital project initiating
A large portion of the cost of installing fiber is in opening and closing the ground. If this is already being done by a large infrastructure project like roads or water works, installing the fiber assets can be comparable to a rounding error.

Public demand
Frustration with the status quo in local broadband can cause the public to demand a municipal-led solution.

Long-term cost savings
Owning a municipal fiber network designed for internal use can potentially achieve cost savings over leasing the required connectivity.

Network Terminology

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Internet Exchange (IXP)
An Internet Exchange is a generally neutral common location where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other internet infrastructure companies exchange internet data.

Regional Point of Presence (PoP)
A Regional PoP is a location that a larger provider uses to aggregate data connections.

Backbone
A large connection used to connect core network components.

Middle Mile
The connection between the Last Mile and internet connectivity.

Last Mile
The connection from a local network to the end user’s location.

CREATE A VISION

• What are the reasons for building municipal fiber?
• Who are the intended end users?
• What areas of a solution can be best addressed by the municipality?

DEFINE A HIGH-LEVEL OPERATING MODEL

An operating model bridges vision/strategy and execution. A minimum viable product high-level operating model for a municipal fiber network must at least define the deployment model to be used and structure of governance.

UNDERSTAND YOUR CURRENT STATE

Most municipal fiber networks will not be built completely from scratch. Each municipality will bring a different mix of assets to the table in these projects. Relationships: Private partners/agencies Assets: Technology/facilities based Skills: In-house knowledge

MAP A PATH FORWARD

• Tactics: Ways to improve the chances of success
• Financials: Funding/Sustainability
• Milestones: Realistic work packages

Almost one third (28%) of respondents to the Project Managements Institute’s “Pulse of the Profession” survey highlight “Inadequate vision/goal for the project” as the primary reason for project failures. (Source: PMI)

What problem(s) are we looking to address? Is there local context to the problem(s) that must be understood?

Who are we looking to solve the problem(s) for? Where are they and how do we reach them?

What areas of a network can a municipality participate in to address the challenges of the target market?

• Use cases for the potential fiber network
• Need(s)/want(s) that the network could address
• Problems that the network would be solving

This can be approached with a team through brainstorming, or external to a team through surveys/interviews, etc.

Info-Tech Insight

An affinity diagram (also called the KJ Method) is an activity used to organize large amounts of data into meaningful categories based on themes or natural relationships while reducing social biases.

The 5 Whys explores cause and effect relationships by asking the question “Why” five times in order to discover the “root cause” of a problem.

• Better access for digital healthcare (Telehealth)
• Better access for digital education (distance learning)
• Addressing the digital divide
• Driving economic benefits (local business)