NH's Changing TELECOM Landscape

Business NH Magazine, Jun 2008 by Wailgum, Thomas

One of the main issues is the lack of a redundancy in Verizon's (now FairPoint's) North Country network. Ironically, the redundancy problem is, in part, due to one of the chief reasons people are so attracted to the North Country: the mountain scenery and breath-taking notches. "They're beautiful, but they're long, with no people living in the tough terrain," Francis says. "So to run fiber through those notches has just been too costly because there's no money to be made" The redundancy problem manifests itself in slower connection speeds for users as you head farther up into the northern parts of the state. "It's kind of like a one road in, one road out problem," he notes.

A spokesman for FairPoint acknowledges that "while the topography of certain areas in the North Country makes it difficult to create redundant paths for the interoffice network, FairPoint is committed to improving the network." Francis says that, from her point of view, FairPoint has been cooperative and engaged with North Country businesses and economic development groups so far. "They are researching and trying to explore and fill that redundancy gap," she says, "and it's a big deal."

Still, as Lucidus's Giarratana and others see it, even widespread broadband won't be enough to allow NH businesses to compete in the increasingly interconnected world as well as attract and retain the next-generation of workers. The real need, Giarratana says, is widespread affordable availability of fiberoptic cable to offices so that telephony, data and video services will become standard and affordable business offerings. "I am thrilled that FairPoint appears to be bringing the broadband issue forward and helping get everyone connected," Giarratana says. "The challenge, however, is making sure we're not catching up just in time to be surpassed."

Where's the Broadband At?

When it comes to Internet access and networking, one thing that all businesses need to know is that the term broadband can mean different things to different people in different industries. "You could drive a truck through the definition of broadband," Giarratana says. Connectivity terms that are often (and incorrectly) used interchangeably are: digital subscriber line (or DSL), cable modem, fiber, wireless and satellite. The speeds at which data flows through those types of connections can range from the slow (256 kilobits per second, or 256 Kbps) to the fast (50 megabits per second, or 50 Mbps). The Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., for example, defines broadband service as data transmission speeds of 200Kbps in one direction (either downstream, meaning from the Internet to the user's computer, or upstream, from the user's computer to the Internet).

"So when [the FCC] says that this many counties have broadband, you do have to take that with a grain of salt," Notchnet's Fran-cis says. To process large file transfers and video services, Internet connections need to reasonably deliver at least 1Mbps speeds and more realistically, speeds of 10 Mbps, Francis notes. "But what we really need is 10 to 20 Mbps," she says.