Picking the Right Platform to Launch Broadband Projects

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Broadband technology, like any other governmental project, must undergo scrutiny and compete for financial resources, as well as political attention and priority with many other projects. To initiate the discussion and position such a project in the context of an annual budget or capital program, the broadband advocate needs to consider its “packaging” as well as the substance. An upgrade to the bandwidth of a data communication network has a totally different ring to it than does the streamlining of construction permits in the field.

“Selling the sizzle” has long been understood by the vendor community. Yet, the wireless broadband community suffers from a major problem- the people who promote the technology are NOT the people who have the sizzle! And there lies the difficulty in marketing and having a broadband deployment project supported and approved by governments. With the exception of companies who push Internet access consumer models (where network and application do align), it is hard to find such needed alignment and single point of responsibility for the governmental official who expects it.

The dominance of Applications in customer selection is clear. Mark Myers from CISCO addressed the National Association of Counties annual conference in Richmond VA just last week and spoke directly on the topic of applications-driven deployments. Similarly Alan Shark of the Public Technology Institute spoke of the multiple technology platforms that are converging to empower a citizen centered approach to government. The response was predictably supportive when topics of water meter reading, police productivity or social networking applications for citizens were discussed, and trailed off into uncertain waters when the dialog focused on comparisons of technology options and new product offerings for signal processing or higher bandwidths… no wonder!

This dichotomy of product marketing between the network and applications providers is slowing down the local discussions and the launch of broadband projects. Lacking a single point of responsibility from the vendor side, government as a buyer is doing the responsible thing and waiting for the dust to settle.

So how can this situation be reversed, and how can we see more matches between technology capacity and government need? New and creative procurement approaches such as the “Call for Partnerships” used in Corpus Christi is one way- something I will discuss in a subsequent posting. Another is the generation of alternate business models beyond the current favorite “free Internet” which is being dismembered by the marketplace reality. I believe governmental service models are extremely attractive and “ready for prime time”. I hope that we can move off the current debate which uses an Internet consumer model, and begin to offer broadband network models based of their service impact to government. The winners will be the residents themselves, and the governments will move to accept them!

Costis Toregas is President Emeritus, Public Technology Institute, and a lecturer at George Washington University. He chairs the Business Processes reengineering Roundtable at the W2i Digital Cities Convention.