morgan county broadband studymorgancountywv.gov/index_870_3703952069.pdf · do the math for morgan...

Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.President

Design Nine, Inc.

Morgan County Broadband Study

Copyright © 2010-2018 Design Nine, Inc. All rights reserved

Survey ResultsResidential Survey: 814 responses—about 15% response rate where 3% considered good

Business Survey: 43 responses—very good for size of the county

94% of respondents want better Internet service.

87% of residents are “not satisfied” or “only somewhat

satisfied” with current Internet service.

Only 13% of respondents are satisfied with their current Internet provider.

35% of residents have 7 or more Internet-connected

devices in their home.

40% indicate that availability of broadband Internet is affecting

where they choose to live.

100% indicated that the Internet is important to the

success of their business over the next five years.

100% of businesses indicated that the Internet is essential to

their business.

86% of business respondents want better Internet access.

Only 4% of businesses are “very satisfied” with their current Internet service.

42% of the Morgan County businesses that responded are

home-based

65% of businesses that responded need employees to be

able to work from home

Esri, HERE, DeLorme, MapmyIndia, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GISuser community

0 84Miles

²12/7/18Credits: Esri, State of West Virginia

Morgan County, WV - Survey ResponsesResidentialCustomer satisfaction of internet service

! Very satisfied! Satisfied! Somewhat satisfied! Not at all satisfied


Twenty Pages of CommentsI work from home 2 days a week and use video conferencing several times a day to attend/run meetings. High speed and dependable network access is a must, and my current provider has good days and bad days at the moment.

I am seriously considering moving. I think I made a BIG mistake when I retired, and my wife and I moved here to WV. Home camera monitoring, work, smart home, Netflix and Hulu. Frontier is not able to provide a reliable level of service.

Very frustrated with Frontier’s promises of faster speeds, we pay for far faster than we have ever received.

We need better internet in the Cherry Run area. Half the time our internet is down and we don't have it at all for a few days sometimes weeks. Frontier is the worst internet provider and we do not have any other option out that way.

Frontier DSL is a HORRIBLE service (always up and down) and the download speed, in this day and age, is deplorable (< 3 mb download)! More and more people are starting to work from home (like I do) so if Morgan county wants this demographic to move to this county then they need to make a BIG CHANGE to internet availability within the county. If something doesn't happen in my area in the near future with the availability of BROADBAND I just may have to move, I work from home and need a REAL, repeat, REAL, internet connection.

We are forced to connect through Frontier and on average the maximum speed we get is 1.40 mbps download and 0.44 upload. In order to work from home I am forced to connect via an AT&T hotspot. Because of the expense, I can not use the hot spot for other devices.

Overpriced and very slow speed. We have two connections, one for the business and one for the residence. Every time we see adds on TV for Internet connections in nearby cities we feel like crying. One hour away and they get 500 Mbits for $50 while we pay $100 for 2.5! That is almost criminal.

I am in IT professional who works from home 3-4 days a week. As such, I require dependable, high-speed internet to do my job. I use Frontier DSL as my primary internet service provider because Frontier does not limit my data. I pay for Excede satellite as my 'back-up". Both services are slow and often unreliable. Obviously, it is every expensive to maintain 2 services - but I don't have any options.


Communities a modern digital road system that will deliver many kinds of services, not just Internet

$648,506,760 available for broadband in the county

...that’s over half a BILLION dollars!!!

Broadband is the road, not one of the trucks

Broadband is NOT a number. It means that your businesses have as much

bandwidth as they need to compete in the global economy.

Do the math for Morgan County

Households on dial-up Households with some broadband No Internet

3% 95% 2%Number of households 216 6,847 144

Typical monthly telecom cost

Phone service: $80TV $75

Dial up Internet: $20


Broadband Internet: $55


Total monthly cost $175 $220 $155

Total annual cost $2,100.00 $2,640.00 $1,860.00

30 year residential cost $13,621,230 $542,254,680 $8,043,012

Total 30 year telecom cost $648,506,760


FindingsMany residents and businesses lack even minimally adequate broadband

Fixed point wireless broadband important to improving access, creating competition

County should not be in the Internet business, should not compete with the private sector

There are six candidate towers where WISPs may be able to co-locate and offer much broader coverage

County role should be limited to providing basic infrastructure for private sector providers

What is the role of government?

Do nothing (accept status

quo)Remove barriers Invest in

infrastructure

Compete directly with

private sector

Reduce red tape, provide incentives for investment

Lease basic infrastructure to the private sector


How to Improve Access and Affordability

What business model?

Public Sector Retail

Wholesale Infrastructure

Direct competition with the private sector. Increased

staffing and operational costs, somewhat higher revenue.

Partnership with private sector ISPs, reduced

operational costs and responsibilities

Make existing tower space improvements to attract more WISPs

Adjust price structure for access to towers

Evaluate need for new towers in areas of high need and no existing towers

Evaluate creating shared backhaul network between towers

Lower WISP capital costs

Create redundant ring for more redundancy and reliability

Could support improved K12 school reliability

Could support public safety voice/data uses

####

####

####

####

####

####

################

########

####

####

####

####

####

########

####

####

####

####

####

####

####

####

####

########

####

########

####

####

########

####

#### ########

####

########

####

########

####

####

£¤522

£¤522

¬«9

¬«9

¬«9

Win

ches

ter G

rade

Rd.

Paw Paw Tower

Purslane Tower

Kessel Site

Cacapon Mountain Tower

Berkeley Springs TowerHedgesville Tower

0 105Miles

²12/10/18Credits: Esri, Morgan County

Fiber RoutesMorgan County, WV

Interstate

Primary Highway

Secondary Highway

Local Road

FCC Registered Wireless Facility

Tower Study Locations####

Windstream/PaetecFiber Network

Shentel Fiber Network

####

Drawing: Morgan County Wireless DiagramClient: Morgan CountyDate:11-DEC-2018Designer: Matt BussingContact: [email protected]

WideOpen NetworksThe Gigabit Solution

Paw PawSelf-supporting tower

PurslaneSelf SupportingOwned by Morgan County

Cacapon MountainGuyed Tower southern Morgan County

Short MtnNE Morgan CountyISP/Other LOS

Point to Point Radio

Service Provider Equipment - WISP owned, serves end users

Tower - Various Ownership Models

Berkeley SpringsLarge Self-supporting tower

KesselCentral Morgan County Community Poles - Tall

Utility Poles are one way that communities are lowering infrastructure costs, and avoiding lengthy permitting processes involved in installing a tower.

Tower Site Cabinet - Insteadof a small shelter, Morgan County should use small telecom cabinets to support the infrastructure.

Internet

Co-location and Core Network: Service Providers can connect anywhere on the system and utilize the point to point connections to connect their customers to their core network and the Internet.

Service Provider Backhaul Connections

AP2AP3

AP1

Top view of an access point (AP)


Getting StartedFocus on improved wireless broadband access

Fund for success

County should not be in the Internet business, should not compete with the private sector

Manage expectations

Get started with what is possible now

Don’t wait

Develop public/private partnerships with service providers

Look for opportunities to leverage public safety opportunities

Andrew [email protected]

540-951-4400

Design Nine, Inc.www.designnine.com

Community technology news and informationwww.designnine.com/news/

Updated daily and weekly

Contact information

http://www.designnine.com/news/

morgan county broadband studymorgancountywv.gov/index_870_3703952069.pdf · do the math for morgan...

Documents