Important Economic Development Meeting (GigaPOP in Missoula) With Ronan Telephone Co. 3/20, 4 P.m.

Ronan Telephone Company http://www.ronantelco.com/ is building a network that would meet many of the needs hoping to fill with a GigaPOP.

The council’s Economic Development Subcommittee will meet this Wednesday, March 20, from 4 – 5 p.m. in Chambers, 140 W. Pine.

I hope everyone can be there as some new information has come to light in the past week that may alter the direction we head with the Big Sky Trust Fund Grant.

The application is on hold until this meeting. Jay Preston, head of Ronan Telephone Company, met with myself, Brigitta, Marcy Allen, Jason Weiner, and Paul DeWolfe late last week after hearing a news story about the project, and it seems their company is building a network that would meet many of the needs hoping to fill with a GigaPOP.

Mr. Preston will be presenting more fully what his company is working on at the meeting (which will replace our regularly scheduled meeting for 3/27), and you all will have a chance to ask questions and advise us on what to do about the grant.

Thank you for all your help on the subcommittee!

Caitlin

http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/grantee/ronan-telephone-company

PS – For those with more in-depth interest, I’ve cut and pasted some questions and responses from some of the back and forth we had with Mr. Preston last week, so you know a bit about what they are doing.

1) How far is the network loop from
completion? When is the completion date?

The main internet core is operational and
completed. Within Missoula, the nearest network
access is at The Missoula Fiber Hotel but using
our extensive metro area fiber, we can bring core
connectivity to the customer site on 100% fiber
with nearly immeasurable latency. As stated
previously, our current west/north bound high
fiber count backbone is in-place and we have some
southbound fiber under construction. This fiber
takes us to south Reserve as well as several
hospital facilities, The University of Montana
etc. We will come with a map to the meeting so
you can see our progress to date. We are working
with HIEM and thier contractor, G4S, to reach UM
and Community Medical Center, and we do not yet
have the exact route for these builds from G4S.

2) Will the system support synchronous
speeds beyond 10 GBPS? Is 10 the upper limit?

All of our products are full duplex
(simultaneous send and receive), are ultra-low
latency and can support circuits well in excess
of 10Gbps. Our main core can route/switch up to
9.6Tbps and of course, the platform can scale
even beyond there. In the longer term, we expect
to add a third router and route to the core and
as one could imagine, this will expand core
capacity. Initially, all we needed was 10Gbps of
transport to our Seattle peering/routing and
transit switch but expansion is very easy and expected.

3) Is this a wholesale or retail broadband
solution? What will the price be to the commercial door for 10 GBPS?

We have both general retail (best efforts) and
dedicated commercial services. Assuming we can
get our fiber to the location (highly likely),
within Missoula, for now, 100-300Mbps internet
costs $18/Mbps and private LAN/transport costs a
business $250/end for 100Mbps dedicated best
effort port and $750/end for 1Gbps dedicated best
effort port. We also have prices established for
guaranteed bandwidth service, which is primarily targeted to service providers.

For a 10Gbps private LAN, we would need the
actual A/Z locations as distance would effect the
optical SFP we would place (and yes, they can
have large swings in price for certain
distances). For 10Gbps of internet, we could
respond in a timely manner once advised of the
need. We have standardized on a price scheme for
100 Mbps and 1Gbps, and so far, none of the
larger networks we are currently talking to (like
the CSKT), have expressed a need for service
faster than 100 Mbps. We have decided that 100
Mbps will be our lowest speed offering, even
though many that might connect would likely use less than that speed.

4) What happens after the ten year lease expires with 360 Networks?

Although we have a firm plan to create an
alternate route away from 360 Networks, the long
term performance of 360 (now Zayo) is quite
strong and although our long term contract has
quite a bit of time until expiration, we will be
adding large connections with alternate providers
prior to the end of the current ten year
deal. While we expect to renew this lease when
it expires, it is also likely that it will be
expanded to a higher capacity in the
meantime. Based on current models, we would
expect future upstream links at 100Gbps minimum.
Our core router and core optical switching and
transport systems have been tested/readied for
100Gbps transport and all needed equipment can be
utilized today for 100Gbps. In summary, 10Gbps+ capacity is not an issue.

5) What does the switching equipment look
like in Missoula? Where does the Ronan system
connect into 360 Networks in Missoula – does it connect in Missoula?

The core and optical switching systems are quite
simple – high end Juniper MX and Cisco ONS or CPT
equipment connected to Zayo/360’s long-haul
network at Missoula. We connect to our ILEC/CLEC
partners at the Missoula Fiber hotel and the
owned Western Montana Fiber Network leaves the
same site, headed west then north for Ronan,
Pablo Polson and ultimately Kalispell/Whitefish.
Within Missoula, we have the strong beginnings of
a widespread metro area optical network – all
connected back to our core routers and switches.
The network hardware is highly redundant as is
the power, network management systems and
connectivity to Tier 1 internet providers (the
providers are located at The Seattle Westin Fiber
Hotel – aka Pacific Northwest TeraPOP). At our
Seattle facility, we utilize the same Juniper MX
platform and as stated, we have highly redundant
connectivity to a matrix of Tier 1 providers and peering systems.

6) Would Ronan Telco and/or its parent be
willing to negotiate with the City of Missoula
for volume discount prices for GBPS? How much
traffic are you planning on carrying – voice/data?

Yes. Our network is all-IP (no TDM without
conversion) but well suited for converged IP
voice, video, data. We are willing to provide
volume discounts and we have designed our network
to provide service in the 100Mbps-10Gbps levels –
easier for us to provision and manage. Our
network was built to enable large capacity and is
not really fixated on the traditional "fractional
broadband" model. It is better for us to look at
1Gbps links+ and our entire pricing model is set
up to empower customers to choose larger
links. We believe our internet costs will
continue to drop as we scale our direct links to
major content players (Google, Netflix,
Microsoft, Facebook etc). We are currently
peering with 19 major content providers at the
Westin. Once the city knows an idea of its
actual internet needs, we can discuss fixed costs
but the nice thing about our network is that we
can enable a fixed feed and then, scale as needed
to meet additional needs within hours. Though it
sounds small, the city may be just fine with a
300Mbps-500Mbps of internet whereas there may be
more of a benefit from a GigE private LAN between city facilities.

7) Would Ronan Telco and/or its parent be
able to provide details and specifics to the
party responsible for completion of an Extreme
Broadband Feasibility Study for the City of Missoula?

Yes. We are extremely interested in
participating in the process of your feasibility
study. Our grant program mandates that we
participate and meet the needs of anchor
institutions and community expressed needs, such
as what will result from your study.

—

Caitlin Copple
Alderwoman, Missoula City Council, Ward 4
(406) 493.4281, cell
http://www.coppleforcouncil.com