— by Terry O’Sullivan —
As a resident of the San Juan Islands I am voicing my support for the OPALCO/Rock Island broadband initiative, and offering a perspective on ‘technology’ and local businesses which seemingly has been lost in an increasingly angry dialog complaining about that initiative. OPALCO/Rock Island is a local business that provides local jobs to hard-working people and provides competitively priced, high quality, much needed services for myself, fellow islanders and visitors.
‘Technology’ has permeated human society for tens of thousands of years (i.e. the ‘discovery’ of fire and the ‘invention’ of the wheel), and time passes by all ‘technology’. More recent examples of this progression include electricity and the lightbulb replacing candles and oil/gas lanterns, the assembly line replacing the craft shop, the farm tractor replacing oxen, the automobile replacing the horse/buggy, airplanes replacing blimps, the telephone replacing the telegraph, telephone switches replacing operators with patch panels, the internet replacing government/private networks, dial-up access replacing leased lines, DSL replacing dial-up access, fiber/wireless LTE broadband replacing DSL, etc, etc, etc…..I could go on and on, it’s all ‘technology’, even the old stuff.
I am sure when all ‘technology’ has come about, there were numerous nay-sayers spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt), which is the basis of the arguments against the OPALCO/Rock Island initiative. History has proved the nay-sayers wrong before, and it will again (remember when the world was flat, not round).
So ‘technology’ is actually the application of knowledge for practical purposes. This results in changes that improve the overall quality of life and standard of living for society, including our island communities.
Living in island communities provides benefits, but also, disadvantages …..balancing them out is key. Benefits are that we have a rural, beautiful environment, with a relatively safe, peaceful pace of living. Disadvantages are that we are a geographically isolated, relatively small community, with fewer options for many services and products. This is because off-island providers are not willing to make the investments necessary to serve a small market like us…..they cannot make the profit their owners and shareholders desire. So we have to look to ourselves for key services which improve the quality of life and standard of living for our residents and visitors. We do that with local businesses which we support, often by paying a premium over what we would pay if we didn’t live here. It is worth it to us. OPALCO/Rock Island is a local business which has stepped up to provide us with improved key products/services comparable to those available off-island, at very comparable, competitive prices.
The reality is that the ‘technology’ of DSL does not work for me and many other residents and visitors, because the provider is not willing to invest money to improve infrastructure. However, Rock Island’s LTE service works wonderfully for me and many other customers, building on the already existing OPALCO fiber backbone. Using the LTE service, I am able to get approximately 10 times the speed I was getting through DSL, my cellphone now works at home through my AT&T microcell, and I can keep my local number with national long distance at 1/5th the cost I was paying – what is not to like about that?
It is interesting that the nay-sayers to the OPALCO/Rock Island fiber & wireless/LTE broadband initiative have no problem using technology that was unavailable 20 years ago to complain about newer technology that will help us maintain and improve our quality of life. Perhaps they would like to stop the quick clearing of checks, quit using credit cards and use only cash, slow down almost-instant medication delivery, stop emailing, stop all use of the internet, including complaining via the internet, not use cheap long distance calling, not use a cordless phone, get rid of cell phones, etc, and go back to the pre-1970 methods of communication and conducting personal and commercial business. I doubt that this non-use of technology will happen, and I wonder if the nay-sayers would have supported that older technology when it was new.
Therefore, the reasonable alternative is to support the OPALCO/Rock Island broadband alternative by signing up for and using their high quality and competitively priced service, as we would support any other local business by buying from them.
OPALCO and Rock Island should be commended for making the difficult but wise decision to provide fiber and wireless/LTE internet access to our community. This important capability greatly improves our quality of life, including safety, healthcare, education, employment, economic potential, and just about every other measurement that can be made, for all current and future residents of and visitors to our beautiful islands.
I agree and am impressed with your well-reasoned arguments. Better communication between first responders will also help save lives on our beloved island.
What form will this “better communication between first responders” take, what will be the coverage area (a map would be helpful), and when will this new solution be in their hands?
Brian, let’s sit down next week and I can walk you through the first responder road map we have laid out that the entire community can take advantage of. The first key step is getting Spilman (primary 911 interface) into every first responders hand. So any call you would be engaged in can be visible on a smart phone. We are also working with Lopez FD to extend low band coverage over IP in the south part of Lopez on our poles. This is just the first of many steps we are looking at. The simple reality is having a pager as a volunteer to engage emergency events will be a thing of the past. Communicating on both voice and data streams is critical. I will also show you an in vehicle command center that allows multiple responders engage collectively when on scene.
Brian, I notice that Foster Hildreth, the General Manager of OPALCO, talks about first responder communications in his Rock Island update video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3uH9Gvr49c
There are a couple maps/diagrams, in the “Details” section, that show first responder communications dead zones in the county and Radio over IP systems that aim to fill in the dead zones.
In addition, I imagine that the much improved cellular voice and data service, coming from the collaboration with T-Mobile, will provide a second layer of improved coverage for both first responders and the public.
Mr. O’Sullivan has a very good point. These new service are very good for some people. OPALCO/RockIsland broadband and internet services are here to stay. The horse is out of the barn. The decisions have been made by OPALCO’s current seven board members. The money (about $20 million) has been spent. The key question is, will OPALCO fairly distribute the costs to the broadband users or will the electric side keep paying to provide these services to those that can hook up to, and pay something for fiber, communications and LTE?
You might ask why are “off island” providers unwilling to make the investment necessary to provide these services. Could it be that these providers cannot do this economically? If they cannot provide these services, can OPALCO somehow beat the economics that the “off island” providers faced? I sure hope they can, because the electric customers are holding the bag.
Mr. O’Sullivan points out that OPALCO/RockIsland is using the ”already” existing fiber optic backbone to provide broadband and communication services. The question here is, was the fiber backbone really necessary for the electric side, or was it for the future broadband internet business? OPALCO seems to think it has “one of the most complex distribution systems in the country”. With 15 substations compared to our neighbor utility, Puget Sound Energy, with around 1000 substation, how can you say OPALCO has a complex system? How did OPALCO manage to operate this same system before the smart grid?
Another writer seems to be convinced that since all private utilities have smart grid technology, OPALCO also needs this technology. Private utility profits are driven by the amount of money they can invest in their systems. So they have every incentive to invest more in smart grids or any other project, just so long as their regulators (PUC’s) buy off on the need for the investment. They are profit drive, not cost drive. OPALCO, on the other hand, should be driven by costs to their customer/owners. A better question would be, why have some public utilities NOT invested in smart grid technology? Are there lots of public utilities out there that have entered the broadband business and been successful economically in the business?
There are other options for high speed (perhaps not as high speed as fiber) internet. Orcas OnLine offers fast service. Satellite internet is available and fast, if you have a southern exposure. I wonder how competitive OPALCO/RockIsland will be compared to these options?
Communications for OPALCO and emergency services providers is very important and OPALCO’s investment and “no net revenue” deal with T-Mobil will improve these communications. But for $20 million dollars, could we have purchased satellite phones for all OPALCO, sheriff, fire and EMT personnel?
As Mr. O’Sullivan says, OPALCO/RockIsland broadband and communication services are going to improve quality of life. This will be for some, but not all, residents and visitors. Can OPALCO find ways to fairly charge for each of its service; electric, broadband and communication?
Thanks Jay and Gerry,
Sorry for speaking up.
I’m just a poor dumb schmuck first responder for OIFR, doing fire and technical rescue and SAR. And somehow I ended up VP of the OIFR Firefighter/EMT Association. And accidentally seem to have an EE/CS/Statistics major from Princeton. And hold an FCC Extra Class license, and have one of those silly FCC Unrestricted Radiotelephone Operators Permits. Oh, and I invented and implemented a bit more of the Internet than Al Gore before I moved up here….
So I’ll be quite interested in hearing the details and reporting back.
I’d sure love a timely and reliable solution, that is funded.
The video referenced is quite short on specifics. When can I stop carrying a fire/police radio, a ham radio, a cell phone, a sat phone, and flares , and a whistle on S&R calls? And what will I be carrying instead? Simple question…
One that was never answered in the Planning Commission hearings I pariticipated in… As The Chairperson and/or Orcas East rep..
Let’s see some details of this First Responder plan released to the community…..
Mr Terry O’Sullivan, I am so happy that your $$$ helps you believe that OPALCO “provides competitively priced, high quality, much needed services for myself, fellow islanders and visitors.” First, I truly believe that we MUST enable the tourists who MUST carry his/her cell phone on the hike up Mt. Constitution! Then, we don’t really NEED those Island residents who can’t afford the “competitively priced” new OPALCO rates. Let them move somewhere they CAN afford. Thank you so much for your concern, Mr. O’Sullivan.