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Self-Sustaining Communities: Broadband Services to Expand With Help From Private Sector and Local Businesses.

Picture this. The year is mid 2009. You have the choice of moving you and your family to either Atown, USA or Delray Beach, USA. Your demographic is mid-level income, married, 2 kids, Girl (7), Boy (15), and of course, the family dog. You are in retail and have a new shop in the local mall.

Atown, USA – Found your new home. 3/3 with a pool and need to settle in. From your cell phone you call your local phone company to get dial tone and DSL internet service. They can give you dial tone, but DSL is maxed out in your area. That’s OK, you call the local cable company and subscribe to enhanced TV and internet service. They will be there in three days, in the afternoon, between the hours of 12 noon and 4pm. Then you call the City to setup your water account. Then you call the local power Company and set up your account. Then you call the local Elementary School and local High School to get the kids enrolled.

Delray Beach, USA - Found your new home. 3/3 with a pool and need to settle in. You fire up your WiFi/WiMAX enabled laptop or handheld device, access the City-wide broadband network at 1MPS (available at fixed, nomadic, or mobile). You register your new account, login, and are taken to your personal home page on the City Portal. The database already recognizes your demographic information.

From there you upgrade your broadband wireless speed to 3MPS up/down. Upgrade to VoIP. You view your current electric and water meter settings/usage and enable account setup from pre-populated data.

Then you click over to your local schools and register the kids and yourself. A username and password is assigned so that you can access lesson plans, request a parent-teacher conference, or securely view live video/audio from your children’s classrooms.

You also register your daughter for after school program that combines indoor/outdoor activities and computer training.

Then you register your business on the local destination portal so that other businesses, residents and tourists can easily find information and the location of your new store. You are now a member of the Chamber. You also receive CPE voucher that can be used to offset the cost of network installation CPE for your new store.

You upload a “Grand Opening” certificate that provides 10% off any item purchased in your store and assign an expiry date of 2 weeks. This certificate will be listed on and accessible from the home page of the local destination portal so traffic on the site can download it, along with directions to your store, to their iPhone. You also have 24/7 access to your own Content Management System on the portal to upload additional coupons, events, sales or general information/pics, as well as a link to your store e-commerce website.

While you are there you download and print your “New Resident Welcome Pak” which contains information and coupons from local businesses. You notice a good deal on pool service, so you click through and send a pre-populated contact form to the pool company.

You also notice an auto-ship program from your local pet store that will deliver a 30lb. bag of dog food and 1 box of treats every month. You sign up.

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So far, Delray Beach, USA is looking pretty cool. The technology, speed, access, account setups, and school interface… all good. The one huge difference between Atown and Delray Beach is however that the monies you are spending for internet and phone in Atown are all leaving the Community in one form or the other.

The monies in Delray Beach are being used to provide the services you signed up for, helping to subsidize the Community Centers’ after school programs, helping to fund the equipment necessary for remote meter reading and reporting, better educational and distance learning technologies, and being used for increases in productivity or fund equipment necessary for improved Public Safety, Parks & Recreation, or other Municipal operations.

This is the advantage that should be available to all Cities or Counties; much like Cities provide water and garbage pickup, they should have the ability to operate and benefit from their own broadband wireless and local business portal initiatives.