S3GC ICI™ Affordable Broadband

• S3GC ICI™ Affordable Broadband addresses the needs of the residential population of rural communities.  In its first project, S3GC plans to use its Interoperable Communications Infrastructure (ICI™) to make Broadband Internet and Voice available to all of the residents of Ontario County, New York.  Current projections indicate that broadband is available to only 54% of New York Households.

More than any other service, the quest for affordable broadband led to the creation of S3G Corporation.  The notion that every household in a rural community could be connected to the Internet and receive telephone service on the same network became possible in 2007.  Once the possible is defined, the focus became the specific means by which the previously impossible could be achieved.  Last, the previously impossible must be stated as a business case, including the creation of new infrastructure.

We distinguish rural communities and urban communities for two reasons.  Urban communities are more likely to have a greater number of commercial broadband choices available in which affordable broadband can be delivered.  Urban communities are also more densely populated than rural communities.   In many cases, the lower density of the rural communities has resulted in a much different digital divide than the kind experienced in urban communities.  In both cases, the lack of household income may be a factor.  In the case of rural communities, the lack of infrastructure must be addressed in addition to the lack of household income.  Traditional services available to urban communities via copper, fiber, co-axial and even cellular are simply not at the disposal of some rural communities.

Rather than develop a single technology, S3GC developed a method called Interoperable Communications Infrastructure (ICI™).  In that way, broadband communications standards could be developed in anticipation of modern telecommunications products.  While the equipment of the current network is selected from "best in class" suppliers, the future of the  ICI™ can be driven from research within universities and emerging companies.

We can posit that future networks will be native Internet Protocol (IP) and that the demand for quality of service (QoS) will be greater than that which can be obtained from today's commercial Internet.  We also recognize that customers will seek that QoS at affordable prices.  Urban choices for broadband and voice are driven by elastic prices and a range of choices.  Rural communities may lack a range of choices, but may be sufficiently familiar with services in urban areas to expect elastic prices and better service (even before the services are available).  While the connections (if any) in a rural are are dial-up and voice over traditional copper telephone systems, a new service will only be attractive if the broadband is faster and the voice quality of the new alternative is perceived as better than the traditional service.  Elasticity in service and pricing is necessary to encourage rural users to try a new system.

What made Ontario County (NY) ideal for ICI™ was the development of a county fiber initiative and the geographic makeup of the Finger Lakes Region.  A series of ridged glacial valleys with long, narrow lakes has resulted in an unusual mix of suburban and rural communities.  In addition, the attractiveness of the Finger Lakes for year round tourism creates an additional class of user for people visiting the region.  The imbalance of Ontario County with respect to broadband services is extremely pronounced.  Some residents are able to choose from a variety of providers in the northern part of the county, while residents to the south have limited choices for broadband.  Cellular coverage in Ontario County ranges from high speed data in the north and voice or no service in the south.

Ontario County borders poorer communities to its south.  Those communities are more densely rural than Ontario County.  The second phase of the S3GC ICI™ will be to extend services into the more rural communities based on the foundation built in Ontario County.  The availability of services in the northern part of Ontario County can be extended more efficiently by the methodology of S3GC ICI™ than by more traditional means (copper, fiber, co-axial, cellular, etc.).  However, the availability of the more modern of traditional services at some points of S3GC's system are necessary for S3GC ICI™ to best function.  For example, where S3GC uses a tower system to transmit services, the system works better if those towers are connected to a fiber network.

Traditional carriers forecast customer demand based on usage statistics.  Rural communities have been historically underserved, largely because of population density.  The problem with usage statistics in an underserved community is that usage demand does not reflect actual demand.  Broadband usage in rural communities is low, because broadband is not available, unreliable, or too expensive.  Usage statistics will not reflect desire or price sensitivity for services that are not available.

S3GC's competition will come from less traditional sources.  When S3GC enters a specific market with a stated solution, potential competitors are less likely to choose to compete in the same region, than they are to attempt to reach another rural community and get to market more quickly.  The benefit of  rapid access to market is the potential to be identified as "first"  by the media.