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Community Network System
What are your needs? Telecommuting ? Distance Learning ? Video Conferencing ? Health Care Services ? Access to Worldwide Markets. The Community Network System will provide all of these and more. Bring the world to your doorstep! In 1996, the District began developing a sophisticated communications system to keep our electric system safe, reliable, and cost effective. We currently own approximately 125 miles of Fiber Optic Backbone, stretching from Spokane to near the Canadian border. The excess system capacity has been made available to our community. The formation of the Community Network System is the District's successful strategy to bridge the Digital Divide for our communities. For More Information Contact: Joe Onley, Community Network System Manager Pend Oreille PUD would like to thank everyone who spent valuable time completing the recent Broadband Survey commissioned in September of 2004. The number of responses was phenomenal, with over 1,000 returned from the 7,000 that were mailed. This response ratio is considered quite respectable statistically, and it ensures that the results are a good representation of our county. The purpose of the survey was to answer the following questions:
The following links will take you to the various portions of the survey and analysis:
Broad Success With Broadband In Pend Oreille County - Here are our beginning stories... Seattle City Light Partnerships are the name of the game. Seattle City Light's (SCL) most productive generation facility, the Boundary Project, is in Pend Oreille County. To enable reliable, high-speed connectivity to Seattle, SCL joined with the District to construct fiber optics to an Internet tier-connected city, Spokane. SCL is now able to use the NoaNet infrastructure to feed broadband information and control the Boundary Project from its operations center in Seattle. Selkirk School District This is one of the more poignant stories of a remote school district paralyzed when it came to having teaching tools such as the Internet. Yes, the K20 Program provided robust connectivity to the high school; however, the elementary and middle schools were each located six miles away, in opposite directions, and could not e connected affordably. Each school possessed a single, dial-up modem. This meant that a classroom had a half-hour time slot each day to use the modem, and then thirty or so students had to alternate to share that allocation. Connecting to the District's CNS System allowed both schools to have the same connection privileges as the high school. Literally, all students could be on the Internet simultaneously. Surf One & Ione Met The entrepreneurial spirit is amazing. Ione, Metaline, and Metaline Falls residents were a far reach for any ISP to have much interest in. Two of the most unlikely gentlemen, who literally walked out of the woods with chainsaws on their shoulders, started a great service in these communities: IoneMet, the local Internet Service Provider. On March 20, 2001, the District received a call telling us the owners would lose their business if we could not give them broadband connectivity to Surf 1, a Newport based ISP, by April 1. The District built fiber to both ISPs and completed the circuit in less than 5 working days, an incredible feat by any telecom standards. The District carried data packets for both businesses to their upstream Internet provider in Spokane for several years until the merger with POVN in 2004. Newport Community Hospital The Newport hospital is a relatively new and modern facility. Our community is very proud of this facility, which has developed a reputation as one of the most successful rural hospitals in the state. The hospital operates Long-Term Care and Assisted Living facilities, as well as provides services such as MRI and CT scans. The connection to the hospital enables cost-saving measures for patient billing, accounting, and tele-medical services that can be provided through ultra-fast connectivity utilizing high-speed gigabit Ethernet. The hospital now receives seven times the capacity of their old T1 circuit at a fraction of the cost. Community Health Associates of Spokane (Rx in a Box) Quite honestly, this was one of the favorite success stories of the District as well as for rural health care. Irreverently, we nicknamed this connection as the Pharmacist in the Box. It is more formally termed Remote Pharmaceutical Dispensing. In essence, a patient can communicate with a pharmacist, via broadband video and voice, then receive the appropriate prescription drug from a vending machine. The Selkirk clinic is located in northern Pend Oreille County, more than an hour's drive, one-way from the nearest pharmacy. The program is developed through Community Health Associates of Spokane (CHAS). To date, this was the farthest remote site served anywhere in our entire country. Without broadband availability, this project would not have come to our community. Regrettably, grant funding ran out for this tremendous asset. Spokane Teachers Credit Union The connection with STCU further illustrates the importance of the public/private partnership we maintain with Retail Service Providers. The credit union's central office and data center is located in Liberty Lake, Washington, near the Idaho border and on the outskirts of Spokane, Washington. The need for broadband connectivity to its satellite office sites, such as Newport, is imperative for reliable and efficient customer service. Oneeighty (180) Networks, in partnership with the District, was able to provision a 10 Mb Ethernet circuit between STCU's headquarters and the Newport branch office. A broadband circuit this robust is unprecedented in rural communities, and often in many areas of the urban landscape. Inland Northwest Health Services The Selkirk Medical Clinic, mentioned earlier in the CHAS pharmaceutical story, has been starving for connectivity. The clinic's needs for connectivity are great. Many services can be provided to the community to avoid an extended drive to Colville, Newport, or Spokane. Counseling Services The counseling needs in this community, like many other communities were high unemployment and poverty levels, can be great. Unfortunately, community resources are not sufficient to support local medical professionals necessary to help those in need. However, through high-quality videoconferencing, which broadband facilitates, the patient and doctor can exchange thoughts, concerns, and diagnosis without leaving their respective communities. Infrasound Array Working with the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, a fiber optic extension was constructed to facilitate their contracted task chartered by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization. UCSD selected a site in Pend Oreille County to establish a monitoring station so sensitive it can play a role detecting nuclear explosion activity around the world. The sensitivity of the listening array extends to the atmosphere. Data from the site was also used in the analysis of the 2002 space shuttle tragedy. The fiber connectivity and the retail service provider allow UCSD real time monitoring and access to these listening arrays. Cellular Tower This project really embodies the “think outside the box” philosophy. This combination of want, need, and cooperation resulted in a viable plan to provide a cellular deprived community a service. In 2004, the Community Network System was able to go from funding, to construction, to operation by year’s end. To learn more… North County Communications Tower (link) Retail Service Providers All of the Retail Service Providers (RSP) make the network a success. By the District’s commitment to keep the network as open access the competitive forces should keep consumer costs in check. The RSP will work in concert with the consumer to address their needs and develop products that add value to their service. The District is grateful to the RSPs who have been, are, and will be partners on our Community Network System. How can your public entity or business benefit by connecting to Community Network System?
Bandwidth Capacity: Retail Service Provider can obtain wholesale bandwidth in agreed upon increments, subject to District rate schedules, up to gigabit capacity. Dark Fiber Leasing: The District will enter into negotiations with interested parties for dark fiber leases. The cost for this service is a cost recovery, distance-based model where the fiber is leased on a per-mile, per-month basis. This is a limited offer, as the excess capacity may be quickly consumed. Infrastructure Leasing: The District offers communication tower leasing as well as co-location space in applicable locations. |
