Broadband by the bootstraps - How a group of neighbors built their own high-speed network
msnbc.com
Residents of this rural neighborhood didn't have access to 56k dial-up service because there's no copper connection to the central phone office.
By Lisa Napoli
MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR
June 5 — If you’ve ever dreamt about wresting control of your lousy Internet Service Provider, or wished you could give the phone or cable companies a giant piece of your addled-by-crappy-customer-service-mind, you will love the following story about some kindred spirits in the mountains of Summit County, Colo.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD is called Ruby Ranch, and just weeks ago, the people who live in these homes built on a former cattle ranch — where moose roam amid picture postcard mountain views — got their very own DSL service up and running. That’s because the phone company, Qwest, had no intention of providing it to the remote community.
Exasperated by their snail-like 26K dial-up connections (there’s no copper connection to the central phone office) residents decided the only way they’d get high-speed access was to start a service themselves.
“After ten months of frustration, including litigation, we got them to allow us to use unused wires in our neighborhood,” said Carl Oppedahl, a patent attorney by day and one of the masterminds behind the service.
By law, phone companies are not allowed to say no to such an arrangement, but they don’t exactly make it easy for those who ask.
“How jerk-like can they be,” Oppedahl said, characterizing it as an ingrained corporate culture defined by the maxim, “never do something fast if there’s a way to drag it out.” Since he’d successfully fought the phone company back when he lived in New York, Oppedahl was undaunted by this battle.
HIGH-TECH IN A HORSE BARN
all the fighting is water under the proverbial bridge now, though, as the Ruby Ranch Internet Cooperative Association is online with a vengeance. It has but 12 subscribers, just about what the group needed to break-even at the start. (There are 40 homes in the neighborhood, some only occupied part-time as vacation places.)
Residents ponied up the $12,000 to purchase the necessary equipment, which Oppedahl points out has already come down in price. (Thanks, in part, to all those third-party DSL providers that have gone belly-up, the necessary parts to build a system are plentiful on eBay.)
Each subscribing home paid an upfront charge of $300, plus $60 a month, a fee which Oppedahl says will eventually drop as costs get paid down. The non-profit cooperative isn’t about making money; it’s about providing a service.
The main equipment that operates the system is housed in a horse barn in the neighborhood, Oppedahl said. The first thing he did on the day the service launched was to send an e-mail announcing to Ruby Ranch subscribers, “You are now connected.” Then, he walked the ten minutes from his home over to the horse barn to peer at the blinking green lights on the DSLAM.
“Each green light means a happy subscriber,” he said.
Users of the DSL service in Ruby Ranch range, as they do elsewhere in America, from casual Net surfers to those who work from home. Though a report released this week by Pricewaterhouse Coopers says that adoption of broadband has been slower in this country than predicted, anyone who has used a fast connection knows it changes the online experience forever from one of frustration and drudge to zippiness and fun. It makes the Internet more of a real medium, and less of a chore.
RURAL FRUSTRATION
It doesn’t, however, erase the inevitable frustrations one has with utility companies — and particularly as hellish stories of the Adelphia bankruptcies of the world fill the headlines, it makes sense why consumers might not be clambering to sign up.
Another problem, as Oppedahl puts it: If you throw a dart at a map of the United States, much of the nation can’t access broadband even if they wanted to.
Technology and Society
Though availability and use are greatest in the most populated areas, that is not the case in rural America. A report in February from the Federal Communications Commission found, “High-speed subscribers were reported in 97% of the most densely populated zip codes and in 49% of zip codes with the lowest population densities.”
Though he helps to protect people’s intellectual property for a living, Oppedahl said nothing would make him happier than if frustrated others in low-bandwidth communities ripped off the Ruby Ranch cooperative idea. To make it easier to do that, he’s built a Web site that details how he and his neighbors did it: rric.net.
He also poses and answers the questions true gear-heads will inevitably have about why Ruby Ranch chose to go the DSL route, and not use wireless, broadband satellite, or burying their own cable. Once the neighborhood decided to investigate starting their own service, they methodically studied and then discarded those ideas.
“There’s a great feeling of satisfaction, on an emotional level,” Oppedahl said, as he was getting ready to help plan a celebratory party this weekend at the home of a neighbor and fellow subscriber. “Everybody would like to put one over on the phone company.” Kudos to Ruby Ranch residents for taking matters into their own hands. |
