Rural Broadband Service--Extending Openness to Rural Access

Is expecting traditional telecommunication and network providers to provide internet access to rural areas the wrong approach?

It seems with billions of federal dollars in play with the ARRA and broadband initiatives to bring high speed internet access the solution is still elusive. Given the new company Open Range with their partner GlobalStar last week stand in jeopardy of loosing millions in loans being unable to provide sufficient network resources to penetrate and connect subscribers with the rest of the world, I tend to think it will or could be utility providers that could be the solution to rural broadband access over typical communication providers.

Why? Name a rural community in the United States that doesn't have electrical power? I possibly haven't researched enough and I know I haven't visited every nook and cranny in the US but I am certain from working with utilities and traveling the country that the electrical grid reaches place broadband has never penetrated.

Why haven't utilities stepped up and proposed to extended broadband access to their rural clients and increased their revenue streams? Truthfully some have attempted to add internet services and lost economically not having the technical expertise and management knowledge the traditional telecommunication carriers possess. I expect others in rural areas maybe succeeding at this time with providing telecommunication services but knowing the way government draws interest and publication of winners, I haven't easily learned who the successful utilities are.

The difficulty within utilities is the primary focus on electrical distribution of power and communications technology and management have commonly been less than a secondary focus. Utilities are grappling with their own network technology needs presently with the emergence of intelligent utility initiatives presently trying to figure out how to meet NIST priorities.

I would suggest that "Smart Grid" and "Rural Broadband" are actually a marriage made in heaven but not for merely carrying meter traffic or consumer traffic riding the same fibers as utility traffic but utilizing existing over build and new optical ground wire fibers to penetrate the rural areas using the same right of ways and structures the utilities have been using for decades to move power. The issue then becomes developing the network data center and equipment rooms at the utilities command center for connection to the traditional Service Providers to the public packet data network and working out the details of the subscriber area interface or distribution each of which is an area of unfamiliarity to the utility. Yet, through partnerships and collaborations the utility could learn what it needs to add a broadband network architecture overlay to its existing electrical distribution and plan when making upgrades to electrical transmission services to add OPGW to the list and access points at remote substations and switchyards that can serve as points of presence in the rural community.

Is it regulation, money or executive ease with such new ventures that keep these possibilities from being pursued?
to be continued...