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BROADBAND COMMUNITIES
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www.broadbandcommunities.com
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OCTOBER 2017
COMMUNITY BROADBAND
Why Municipal Networks
Should Be Disruptive
The traditional telecom model is not working. For a locality to succeed with a municipal
broadband alternative, it can't just duplicate the incumbent model.
By Jeff Christensen and Robert Peterson / EntryPoint
A
city considering a municipal broadband
project should start by thinking
about strategy, not feasibility. Today's
feasibility studies tend to be lopsidedly tactical.
Typically, studies start with handwaving toward
strategic issues and then dive into such tactical
matters as assessment of the local market,
network requirements, network design, cost
estimates and financial projections.
It is possible to do an excellent job building
a functional network (tactics) and still do the
wrong thing (strategy) by building a network
that never gets broad adoption. A feasibility
study that leads a city to do things the right
way but not to do the right things will result
in a network that cannot evolve in the rapidly
changing future.
A strategic mindset focuses on the future,
articulates a vision, embraces change, scans the
external environment, invites innovation and
creativity and wonders what can be. By contrast,
a tactical mindset focuses on immediate needs,
sets achievable goals and objectives, prefers
stability, focuses internally, has a bias toward
reliability and aims to improve the way things
currently work.
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE
OF DISRUPTION
Any industry that fails to build its strategies
around serving its customers' interests should be
disrupted. To disrupt means to redefine the way
things are done. Whether cities articulate this
or not, municipal broadband is about disrupting
the dominant telecommunications model.
Municipal broadband can – and should –
redefine the technologies and business models
used to deliver broadband.
Many cities that have pursued municipal
broadband projects have been weak on
strategic planning as they focused on tactical
Source:
Sales
Benchmark
Index
Table 1
