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Last Mile, High Speed Help for Upper Michigan?
toaztke asks: "I've been charged with a quest by one of my employers. I am to sit on a regional committee and figure out how we can get high speed internet access all across Michigan's Upper Peninsula. For those of you not too familiar with the far north of this state one word can describe it all: 'rural'. So what I would like to know is if any Slashdot readers have any ideas/suggestions for me. Please send anything that crosses your mind my way. If you want more information on the project, just visit the Link UP website."
Ditch wired access: the labor costs are too high. Think more like a really big wifi network, trunked up to an even bigger distribution network. The community wireless paradigm is pretty good, and you might even find that someone has hacked up a wifi equivalent to a DSLAM - a nifty box that connects to an ATM fabric and shoots off wireless trunks to wireless distribution hubs, which in turn, feed wireless access points either in customer's homes or along public right of ways and in public spaces.
There are two key technologies that I think are needed; the wireless access module that interfaces with the fiber or pots backbone, and the box that is both a point-to-point trunk mux/demux/retransmitter and a wifi access point to hang on a telephone pole out in the middle of BFE. I think it should all fit into a box the size of the ones used by the cable company for their digital signal booting equipment (they look like a little beer fridge hanging on the pole).
The frequency spectrum for the trunks ought to be enough to get a five or six mile line of sight shot, even with the weather and the fog in the UP. Microwave is pretty power and infrastructure heavy, and the antennas aren't very discrete, but maybe a small SHF frequency radio with a good directional antenna.
Sure, using wireless forces you to actually use PKI and IPSEC, but everyone really ought to any way.
The business model could be one with a infrastructure owned and maintained as a utility, and the access and services provided in flat fee packages by ISP's that actually compete for customers. Perhaps there could be a minimal service, like an e-mail address with a small quota and a finite use account could be the right of taxpayers if the gov is footing the bill for install and maintenance of the infrastructure.
This company was mentioned on /. a while ago; I don't have THAT link, but here's a link to their home page at: Midcoast Internet Solutions (MIS). For more details, check out their about page which provides info on their dialup, ISDN. DSL, and wireless solutions.
MIS provides high-speed wireless internet access along the mid coast of Maine (USA). The up-front fee is kind of stiff, ($795; but there is a $300 discount with a one year commitment) but that gets you service at $50/month at speeds up to 20 times 56K dialup access. (Taken from their High Speed Wireless Internet Access page.
DISCLAIMER: I've not personally used this service, nor do I have any financial interest. But I did grow up in Maine and the thought of high-speed internet access in an area of breathtaking scenery (and much lower home prices than the Boston area where I am now) is VERY tempting.
If you go here, it's plain to see that this isn't a simple problem. Hell, I used to live in a rural suburb of Grand Rapids, and it's ridiculous hard to get decent dial-up service there.
Judging by the tele-comm infrastructure maps (off the link above), it looks like the best thing to do would be to tap off that fat pipe from Chicago to Houghton, and get a pipe running east-west accross the U.P.
Of course, I guess it depends on whether you're trying to bring service to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who lives up there, or if you're just trying to connect major cities and leave the plebes to the cable/telcos.
BTW, it'd be really tough for wireless to work up there; Not only is there still alot of Fe in the ground, but the U.P. isn't exactly flat. You'd have really short line of sight, unless you went satellite.
I've heard of a company that uses broadcasters based on top of grain silos around rural Illinois and Iowa. I'm not familiar with UP agriculture, but this might be an option. My uncle uses them in Illinois and has had excellent service.
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
As a former Yooper (U.P.er), I can vouch for the tough winter blizzard and bothersome rain storm as well as the VASTNESS of the pine forest with NO CIVILIZATION in between towns.
This is as rural as Virginia purported to be back in 1710.
Wireless is out. First snowstorm will not only knock the Pringle cans, but the sturdiest Yagi antenna also, unless you buy those "Octogonal Radar Dome" to protect the elements from the elements.
Cable is out. no cable company in their right business mind will touch such an incredible low-density of a rural area that even makes Montana rural community look like bustling cities.
DSL is out. More than 90% of the customer lives outside of the CO radii (and that is using the best SHDSL technology)
I wouldn't say S.O.L., yet.
This would be an excellent time for taking advantage of local railway's right-of-way for dropping fiber lines and setting up multiple Point of Access.
Marquette is a good starting place for OC-3 vector point.
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, via microwave, might get you a decent DS-3 link.
I don't think there is any decent speed left by going across the Mackinaw Bridge, unless someone lights a fiber up to Mackinaw City and then Microwave them over. Then, I was pretty sure they've laid fiber across the bridge but not sure if they are lit yet.