by Matthew Renda, The Union, March 22, 2013 (reprinted)
Photos added by NevadaCountyConnected.com

Project managers tasked with installing 44 miles of fiberoptic cable to enhance Internet infrastructure in Nevada County have completed about 18 miles of the project, officials said Thursday.

The Central Valley Next-Generation Broadband Infrastructure Project, which includes Nevada County and 17 other counties spanning south from Colusa to Bakersfield and Nevada City to Mariposa, began installing miles of fiberoptic cable throughout Nevada County about two months ago.

The project, which is being administered by Minnesota-based MPnexlevel, is scheduled to be completed in late June or early July, said Jim Warren of Vali Cooper & Associates, a Sacramento-based construction consultant company. The companies have encountered numerous delays in construction due to impediments, such as rock formations along county roads that have proved unyielding to conventional equipment, Warren said.

“We’ve had to bore through rock in some instances,” Warren said, adding similar projects in the Central Valley were not accompanied by such impediments.

The network is scheduled to be operational in the autumn, Warren said.

However, John Paul of Spiral Internet, a Nevada City-based independent Internet service provider, said the four entities that are guaranteed immediate access to the high-speed network include Pleasant Valley School, Nevada Union High School, Bear River High School and Madelyn Helling Library.

Individual residents or business owners desirous of hooking up to the network may have to wait longer, Paul said.

Spiral Internet is in the process of finalizing plans to utilize the open-access network to begin providing service to commercial and residential properties, but it will be a two- to seven-year process to get Nevada County hooked up, he said.

Paul said his small company will provide a detailed plan before the network is completed in early summer, replete with maps and explicit blueprints regarding how the network will be built.

“It will be phased in,” Paul said of the plans. “It will start in a specific geographic area and move from that.”

A lack of high-speed Internet has dogged the economic vitality of the region for the past decade, officials have said. A survey of business owners in western Nevada County conducted by the Economic Resource Council in 2011 demonstrated that the paucity of Internet coverage was the single largest issue, according to previous reports.

“High-speed Internet is essentially like having running water to many businesses,” said Economic Resource Council Executive Director Robert Trent.

“Getting more access to broadband in Nevada County is an essential component to business growth and economic growth.”

Trent said Nevada County’s relative proximity to Silicon Valley makes it an ideal location for Internet start-ups. Adding to the area’s attractiveness, Nevada County has long hosted technology-centric enterprises, meaning a substantial amount of intellectual capital exists in the area.

Work on laying fiberoptic wire began Jan. 15 on Mooney Flat Road with wire being strung underground along Pleasant Valley Road and Bitney Springs Road.

From there, the company proceeded to Empress Road, Newtown Road and installations near the Eric Rood Administrative Center, where the company is currently stationed performing work.

The rest of the project will proceed through Nevada City and Grass Valley, passing by Nevada Union High School and down McCourtney Road to Wolf and Combie roads connecting to Bear River High School, Warren said.

Work performed on the shoulder will require traffic control, and the construction continues to attempt to mitigate impacts to residential properties, roads and driveways, Warren said.

In early 2010, two broadband projects were funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will have impact in Nevada County.

This $66M project provides a redundant fiber-optic backbone that goes through 18 counties including western Nevada County. 80% of the project is funded by ARRA via the Department of Commerce ($46.6M), 10% by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) via the California Public Utilities Commission, and 10% privately by the 8 rural telephone companies that comprise the Central Valley Independent Network (now operating as Vast Networks). The project is currently in construction within Nevada County (February 2013).

The project is providing “last-mile” 1 Gbps (Gigabit per second) symmetrical speed connections for Bear River High School, Nevada Union High School, Madelyn Helling Library, and Pleasant Valley School. It will also provide open access “backhaul” to local ISPs, so they can provide ultra high speed “last-mile” service to homes and businesses.

Expected completion date: Summer 2013 . Website . ARRA project progress link

This fixed wireless project was funded by ARRA via the Department of Agriculture in the amount of a $1.87M grant and a $625k loan. The project will upgrade SmarterBroadband’s existing wireless network and expand their service with new towers in the Tyler Foote Road (“Ridge”) area, and in parts of south county.

Expected completion date: Fall 2015 . Website . ARRA project progress link

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New California Public Utilities Commission Funding for Broadband
Once the ARRA funding ended, and many other California-submitted projects were not funded by the Federal stimulus program, those California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) matching monies were returned to that “pot”. In 2011, The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) enacted two resolutions to help bring broadband into needed areas in the state using these monies.

CASF is funded by each household/business that has telephone service. If you look on your phone bill, you’ll currently see about 14¢ per month for CASF;  that will be raised to a little over 16¢ per month this summer.

(1) The CPUC provided funding for Regional Consortia to be formed to “aggregate broadband need, educate the populace, and help launch broadband projects”, and (2) they raised the amount of CASF monies for broadband projects to 70% of a project budget for “unserved” areas, and 60% of a project budget for “underserved” areas. The CPUC cites that if an area has access to less than 6 Mbps download speeds and 1.5 Mbps upload speeds, then it is considered “underserved”.

Overview about Regional Consortia (provided by Tellus Venture Associates)

Locally, Brent Smith of the Sierra Economic Development Corporation (SEDCorp) proposed that his organization would be the “lead agency” of a Gold Country Broadband Consortium that would cover Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, and eastern Alpine counties. Nevada County was integral in soliciting local letters of support for the Consortium’s funding. There was a “competing” application in El Dorado county, but that was declined. In March 2012, SED Corp was funded in the amount of $150k annually for up to a 3-year period (to be reviewed annually).

Each of the consortia operates differently depending on the needs of its location. The Gold Country Broadband Consortium has hosted a number of public quarterly meetings, and some neighborhood meetings with local Internet Service Providers. A Nevada County event was hosted by and in conjunction with the Nevada County Broadband Advisory Group (see below). The Consortium has not had an organizational meeting of its membership to date, and has not requested input on its plan or operation from its membership. The CPUC cites consortia members as those organizations that appear on the Consortium’s grant application. In Nevada County, those members include the following:

Acton Arboriculture

City of Nevada City

Nevada City School District

Nevada County Board of Supervisors

Nevada County Economic Resource Council

Nevada County Superintendent of Schools

North San Juan Fire Protection

One Stop Business and Career Center

Skywest Broadband

Spiral Internet

Telestream
Truckee Donner Recreations and Park District

Expected completion date: March 2015 . CPUC Resolution (PDF) . Action Plan (PDF) . Website

This 100% fiber to the home project applied for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) monies during the current round of that program’s “underserved” areas funding, submitting on Feb 1, 2013. The project will encompass 26 square miles, connecting 3,214 premises, and consist of 150 miles of construction. Each premise passed will have the capacity for symmetrical 1 Gbps (Gigabit per second) Internet access speeds. The project will utilize the middle-mile infrastructure and help fulfill the last-mile connection goals of the ARRA and CASF-funded Central Valley Next-Generation Broadband Infrastructure Project. The project is requesting a $16.6M grant / $500k loan.

Expected completion date, if funded: Summer 2015 . Website . CASF Proposed Project List

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Nevada County Broadband Advisory Group

The Nevada County Economic Resource Council had acted as an umbrella for a Telecommunications Committee for over 9 years until it dissolved in 2008, with only Chip Carman (Spiral Internet) and Steve Monaghan (Nevada County CIO) comprising its final membership. In July of 2011, Spiral Internet initiated the restart of this group in Nevada County by meeting with Supervisor Terry Lamphier and County CIO Steve Monaghan. Out of this initial meeting sprung the Nevada County Broadband Advisory Group with the following active members:

GOVERNMENT

• Steve Monaghan, CIO, Nevada County

• Terry Lamphier, District 3 Supervisor, Nevada County

• Lisa Swarthout, Council Member, City of Grass Valley

• Robert Bergman, Council Member, City of Nevada City

EDUCATION

• Curtis Smith, Director of Technology & Information Systems, Nevada Joint Union High School District

• Michael Kane, Associate Dean, Sciences and Mathematics, Sierra College

COMMUNITY

• Rorie Lin Gotham, Community Representative, Town of Washington

BUSINESS

• Robert Bergman, Chair, Nevada County Economic Resource Council

• Steve Frisch, President, Sierra Business Council

• Michael Anderson, President, Clientworks

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

• John Paul, CEO, Spiral Internet

• Chip Carman, CTO, Spiral Internet

• Adam Brodel, President & CEO, SmarterBroadband

• Devin Koch, CEO, exWire

The immediate focus of the group is to compile a “Nevada County Broadband Plan” based on the “National Broadband Plan” with a completion set for Summer 2013. The group is also planning to make recommendations for revisions/additions to county and city code to help facilitate construction of faster broadband Internet access.