WiredWest has procured the services of Dr. Andrew Cohill, of Design Nine, to work on the first phase of broadband planning. It’s estimated the work will take six months to complete.
Cohill is a broadband architect with an international reputation for his work advising large and small communities on technology and broadband issues. In the United States, he has worked with communities across the country, with recent work in New Hampshire, Virginia, Illinois, New Mexico, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Cohill is an expert in the design and management of community-owned and open access networks.
Founded in 1987, Design Nine offers a comprehensive array of technology advisory services, telecommunications project management, and network design assistance, and is one of a very few firms in the United States with experience in open access broadband networks.
The scope of work entails:
1. Needs assessment, review of related experience, bandwidth projections and demographic analysis for the region.
2. Governance and ownership recommendations
3. Broadband survey development and support
4. Pro forma business plan, recommendations for a specific business model, and a then year pro forma financial analysis that includes estimates for a full build out.
5. Funding strategies for financing the network
6. Service provider strategy
7. An analysis of the value of pilot project study areas and accompanying costs
8. An Executive Summary of recommendations for leaders and decision makers and an extensive set of handouts and broadband education materials
Cohill’s services were made available to WiredWest by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), whose mission is to bring broadband access to unserved citizens in the Commonwealth.
Grants to WiredWest Towns to Provide Legal Assistance and Pre-Network Planning
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) and the Franklin County Council of Governments (FRCOG) are providing support through their 2010 District Local Technical Assistance Grants to further the pre-network planning for WiredWest.
A feature of the 2010 grants is access to a municipal lawyer on staff at BRPC. Expertise in municipal law is critical to evaluation of potential governance structures for WiredWest, and having access to BRPC’s counsel expedites the governance work and provides considerable cost savings to the WiredWest project.
In 2009, BRPC provided similar grants to some WiredWest towns to assess any regulatory impediments to broadband technologies, in addition to mapping every utility pole in those towns, and structures where available, into GIS maps. Those maps will be used for network engineering and by having that information early, it will save considerable time and resources in the network planning process. As part of the 2010 grant, BRPC will use pictometry to overlay missing structures onto the existing GIS maps as well.
WiredWest is appreciative of the support of our regional planning agencies and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.