At the end of March, Laura Gonzales emailed me the following twenty documents concerning previous studies of the broadband issue in Los Alamos County since the 1990s. After reading most of them, I think it would be better for Council to direct staff to do in-house research rather than hire outside consultants again.
- 1996? A proposal from Los Alamos On-Line (Sidney Singer)
for a $71K broadband feasibility study for LAC. (2 pages) - July 1997. An invitation to a presentation by Frank Smith of Nortel proposing “a modern telecommunications system”. Letter signed by Barbara Yeamans (LAC), Bill Enloe (LANB) and Sidney Singer (Los Alamos On-Line). (2 pages)
- April 1998. A report Telecommunications Networks in N. Central NM by VisionArt, Inc with New Mexico TechNet and UNM Bureau of Business and Economic Research. (30 pages) This is a proposal for spending roughly $130K.
- October 1998. “Wideband Community Network Assesment Report, Business Survey” for Los Alamos County by Spivak Associates. (50 pages) Objective: Assess current and future telecommunication needs of the business community.
- October 1998. “Wideband Community Network Market Assessment Report, Residential Survey” by Spivak Associates. (20 pages) Objective: Assess current and future telecommunication needs of the residential community.
- October 1998. “Wideband Community Network Market Assessment Report, Regional Considerations” by Spivak Associates. (54 pages) I think the key quote is:
“Fiber-optic cables will be extended further and further into
residential neighborhoods and will terminate at neighborhood
nodes. Copper wire, coaxial cable, or wireless systems will be used to deliver WCN services from the node to the home. Within ten years fiber- optic cables will routinely go to the side of the home.” - 2003. “Municipal Broadband: Why & How Public Power Systems are Deploying Fiber-to-the-Home Networks” A Congressional Briefing by Desmarie Mosco of American Public Power Association. (11 slides) This is essentially a plea to not prohibit Public Electric Power Organizations from providing broadband connections to their communities. It has a nice collection of criticisms and responses.
- November 2003. “Wideband Community Network” by Jim Hall. (10 slides) A good overview at the time.
- December 2003. “LAC Business Case, Recommendations” by Uptown Services LLC. (7 pages) They say build FTTP (Fiber to the premises).
- December 2003. “LAC Business Case, Benchmark Analysis” by Uptown Services LLC. (7 pages) Here is a key quote: “This section presents Uptown’s quantitative analysis of the key operating metrics from other municipal broadband and cable systems. The objective of this analysis is to confirm the key assumptions within the business case.”
- December 2003. “Business Structure Analysis” by Uptown Services LLC. (7 pages)
- December 2003. LAC Business Case Financial Analysis” by Uptown Services LLC. (18 pages) They forecast a negative 10 Year Internal Rate of Return and a positive 15 Year Internal Rate of Return.
- December 2003. “LAC Business Case, Large Business Research Report” by Uptown Services LLC. (17 pages) This is a report on market research. The key business is LANL, and I think their experience with the pandemic has changed their view of what is important for LAC broadband.
- December 2003. “LAC Business Case, Market Assessment” by Uptown Services LLC. (19 pages) An analysis of Qwest, Comcast and Dish.
- December 2003. “LAC Business Case, Product Strategy” by Uptown Services LLC. (21 pages pages) This presents a strategy for lines of business (LOB) to be sold to customers. I believe that it is mostly out of date.
- January 2004. “Summary of ‘Los Alamos County Fiber Optic Business Case’ by Uptown Services LLC” by LAC DPU. Says LAC FTTP will beat Comcast, Qwest and Dish for Video/Internet/Telephone bundle. (3 pages) A good summary of more than 100 pages of reports from Uptown.
- May 2009. “A Conceptual Design Study for Fiber Optic Network Expansion” Draft Rev. 2. by Crestino Telecommunications Solutions. (58 Pages)
This is a preliminary design including the specification of Cisco
products. Step one cost: $9,694,855. Step two cost: $11,890,468. - August 3, 2010. “Extract of minutes of County Council meeting” Council direction to perform the Community Broadband Network study. (6 pages)
- Undated untitled unattributed presentation about a survey of 736 residential and 103 small business in Los Alamos County. (30 slides) The terminology here matches the Market Assessment by Uptown in 2003. I think this is a presentation of that report.
- Undated unattributed FAQ “Frequently Asked Questions and Answers About Community
Networks” unattributed document (3 pages)
On April first Counselor Williams emailed to me the following 3 reports from the study Crestino Telecommunications Solutions completed in 2013:
- September 2012. “Los Alamos County Community Broadband Network Design Report” by Crestino Telecommunications Solutions. (175 Pages) The CBN Design Report delivers the plan for building a 1 Gbps, openaccess, FTTH network. It defines CBN design, and describes how it will be built, operated and maintained. A separate document, CBN Business Plan describes funding mechanisms that provide the capital to construct the network, and the revenue to operate the network. This report builds on the 2009 County Fiber Optic Network Expansion study, which mainly addressed County facilities, extending coverage to all LAC residences and business.Page 50 lists cost $47M to $61M
- February 2013. “Los Alamos County Community Broadband Network Business Plan” by Crestino Telecommunications Solutions. (31 Pages)
This document is a condensed version of the Los Alamos County Community Broadband Network Business Plan, February 2013. It is intended for an audience looking to understand the main concepts and findings of the business plan in a quicker fashion.On page 8 they repeat the summary of costs in the design report. This is my summary of their summary:$23.2M for Electronics and switch facilities$16M for fiber to the curb (property edge)
$8.3M for drops (curb to closure)
$5.9M for customer premises
$3.5M for Buildings (NOC and POPs)
$2.0M for drop closures
$2.0M for project management
- February 2013. “Los Alamos County Community Broadband Network Business Plan” by Crestino Telecommunications Solutions. (104 Pages)A quote from the executive summary:The framework for CBN was provided by the County Council on April 19, 2011, with the following directives:
1. Develop a plan to build a fiber-to-the-premises network providing open and advanced broadband communications access to all Los Alamos citizens and institutions
2. The local network target speed will be a minimum of 1 gigabit per second
3. The County will not generally be an overall content provider or a Service Provider
4. County services may be provided through the new network
infrastructure The County Council’s directives drove the structure of the engineering design and the business model.