If telecommunications is the central nervous system of the modern economy, some remote parts of the region are still playing with skeletons.
But a plan to use state technology grants to expand the ubiquity of broadband connections across a five-county Central Sierra region could reverse that trend.
"At heart, it's an economic development program," said Michelle Shelton, the information and assistance projects manager for the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency, of a proposal to seek state funds and unite the counties of Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa.
In a short presentation before the board of supervisors in February, Shelton explained that not keeping apace with a quickly evolving global market could leave the rural county lost in a digital divide.
For communities left behind, she said, theirs will be a fate of limited participation in global market opportunities. The rural and urban economic gap will only grow.
Patterned after similar projects in Redwood City and Kentucky, the long term goal of the Central Sierra Connect project, as it's being called, is about more than making the requisite infrastructure for broadband connections available. Currently, the region has about 45 percent coverage, Shelton explained, with "large, deep pockets of low income and disabled folks where there's no coverage." Roughly 25 percent of Amador County has no broadband access.
"There's a sharp disparity between urban communities and rural communities" when it comes to high-speed Internet access, Shelton said.
In a unanimous vote, the board of supervisors made Amador County the fifth county to sign on to the project.
In March, A-TCAA received word that its investment proposal had been approved by the California Emerging Technology Fund board for one year. The project was scheduled to kick off this week with the start of an aggregate of demand study, which would gauge the needs of the region and possible applications.
In an interview with the Ledger Dispatch, Shelton explained the origins of the project and its potential benefits. Originally planned as a three-county computer literacy project, Shelton said the CETF board counter offered $10,000 for the five-county needs study. Even before it starts, though, ideas for possible applications have surfaced. Distance learning opportunities, telemedicine, 211, Web tourism and online legal services are all possibilities.
Telemedicine can offer access to high quality health care information from any location. Shelton was able to get a diagnosis for her daughter that had eluded local doctors from the University of California, Davis Medical Center. The 211 application acts as an information and screening service for people trying to navigate health and human services, explained Liz Gamble, a Valley Springs resident who helped launch Stanislaus 211. It also carries a homeland security aspect that can take spillover calls and provide evacuation information during emergency situations and natural disasters.
But the economic development aspect may hold the strongest appeal. Shelton said she knows of a business owner who telecommutes from the Bay Area and France, but can't oversee operations from her Tuolumne County home because of the patchy broadband coverage. "People like her, who would bring a lot of money to the area, can't because there's no broadband in the area," Shelton said.
Ben Hewlett of Mother Lode Internet and one of the project stakeholders, agreed. "We firmly believe that Internet infrastructure ... is vitally important to the economic viability of this region," he told the board of supervisors in February.
Locally, the 25 percent broadband abyss manifests itself in different ways.
Duke Milunovich, director of sales and marketing for Volcano Communications Group, an Internet service provider in Pine Grove, said his company is able to provide broadband to roughly 99 percent of its service area, which travels about 5 miles west of Pine Grove and up Highway 88 to Kirkwood. The company also serves West Point, Rail Road Flat and Glencoe, all in Calaveras County.
"We don't really have a big issue up here," Milunovich said. "Most of our subscribers are pretty well covered."
But there remains a quarter of Amador County residents in remote areas who are cut off from high speed Internet. Some are customers of Dan Porter, owner of Twin Wolf Technology Group in Ione.
Porter delved briefly into the ISP business until a big shakeup years ago chased many small providers out of the market. Porter, too, chose to back out because of market pressures from the larger providers, known as telcos. They were swooping in on the smaller ISP's customers and offering them rates the ISP's couldn't afford, he said. Now Porter's the "computer guy" who offers tech support for whatever problems people encounter.
Though companies like AT&T, SBC and Volcano have largely taken over the Internet provider game in Amador County, their solutions only reach as far as their individual service areas allow. In areas like Camanche, the only way to get broadband service is through a satellite, which is expensive to install, is vulnerable to weather and doesn't offer true broadband speed, Porter said.
One way to expand broadband access locally may be something Porter notices in Sacramento and down the Interstate 5 corridor. Cellular phone companies are making broadband access available through their data towers for customers who couldn't get wireless Internet otherwise. Customers plug an air card into their laptops or desktop computers and are able to pick up the cell phone signal, which is comparable to the broadband speed.
So far, data towers up here aren't as reliable. Milunovich said it's a line of sight issue. The signal is disrupted by obstructions, like mountains and trees.
"And we kind of have a lot of those things," he added.
As many natural wonders as there are in the Central Sierra Foothills, project stakeholders think they also have local ingenuity and entrepreneurship to match. It helps that Gov. Arnold Shwarzenegger has made universal broadband coverage one of his priorities. As a result, Shelton said there will be money available for the applications the regional partnership wants to pursue. But first, it needs to put its plan together.
"There's a ton of applications that can be utilized," Shelton said. "(This project) can potentially change how we live up here."
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Raheem Hosseini
Quelle/Source: Amador Ledger-Dispatch, 04.04.2008
