{"id":798993,"date":"2019-08-29T15:19:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=370740"},"modified":"2019-08-29T15:19:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:19:35","slug":"opinion-susan-knopf-broadband-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/opinion-susan-knopf-broadband-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Susan Knopf: Broadband boom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you really want to grow the Summit County economy, or any of our mountain town economies, it\u2019s all about the broadband.<\/p>\n

I read Sawyer D\u2019Argonne\u2019s story regarding Frisco\u2019s community plan<\/a>. (\u201cFrisco adopts 2019 Community Plan with housing, environment and community character in mind<\/a>,\u201d published Aug. 23 in the Summit Daily News.) Great idea to improve public infrastructure. Economically speaking, the best performing infrastructure is broadband. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, broadband creates an ultimate economic growth rate<\/a> of 4% to more than 5%. That\u2019s more than double the second quarter growth rate reported<\/a> by the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding this is no different than building a highway or a school,\u201d said Nate Walowitz, regional broadband director for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an essential service for life; as much as satellite can provide, it just doesn\u2019t cut it,\u201d Walowitz said.<\/p>\n

Amen to that. I live in rural Summit County. Satellite service \u2014 or more specifically the snail-like upload and download internet speed \u2014 is our No. 1 complaint. It\u2019s the No. 1 complaint of visiting family and friends. More importantly, it\u2019s hurting business.<\/p>\n

Good news: Thor is coming to the rescue, or almost. Thor \u2014 not to be confused with the Norse God of thunder of Marvel comic book fame \u2014 is a cooperative middle mile \u201cbackbone\u201d broadband support network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walowitz said it will be up in November, just a few months away. According to the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments website, it\u2019s \u201ca carrier grade 100 gigabyte 178 mile fiber\u201d loop.<\/p>\n

To get on the loop, we still need smaller companies to step up and hook up businesses and individuals. The loop will connect 10 towns and counties from Denver, to Georgetown, Frisco, Vail, Eagle, Glenwood Springs, Craig, Steamboat Springs and back to Denver. Other Summit County towns will be connected by other carriers.<\/p>\n

This middle mile backbone enables the towns to work with local service providers to develop \u201caffordable local broadband improvements.\u201d Walowitz said more than one company already is negotiating with local Summit County governments to provide us the long awaited service upgrade.<\/p>\n

The town of Breckenridge already is partnering with Allo Communications to build its own hard wired local fiber optic network to connect to Thor. Breck\u2019s website says its Fiber 9600<\/a> project will take residents from the \u201ccommunications ice age\u201d and propel businesses and individuals \u201clight years ahead.\u201d The site touts, \u201cFiber is far more reliable, easier to maintain, and has significant longevity. A fiber network is flexible and robust to handle future technology changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breck assistant town manager Shannon Haynes said Fiber 9600 will take four to five years to complete. She explains it takes time to connect underground to end users. She\u2019s hopeful technological advancement could produce a wireless broadband access for end users and thus speed up access to this vital resource.<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about it check out the Fiber Forum at Breck Town Center, Thursday, Sept. 12 5:30 \u2013 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Fun fact: This most anticipated improvement in internet and cell service is coming soon from an unexpected source \u2014 the Colorado Department of Transportation. According to Walowitz, autonomous (self-driving) vehicles are rapidly driving efforts to put broadband along all highway corridors.  Autonomous vehicles require broadband support. Cool. I live in a corridor that lacks sufficient density to attract commercial interest. But it is a frequented trucking route, so I\u2019m feeling optimistic.<\/p>\n

Also Walowitz said as soon as Thor is launched, the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments is looking to expand the loop to other underserved areas. Walowitz gives credit to Summit County Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier for keeping my neighborhood high on his radar. That\u2019ll be good news to for my rural neighbors who are dubious about government.<\/p>\n

The Council of Governments is an Economic Development District<\/a> created under the umbrella of the U.S. Economic Development Administration. It\u2019s one of six in the state and one of 384 across the country. The broadband project is an interesting intergovernmental partnership. For the record, it\u2019s funded 50% by the Colorado State Department of Local Affairs and 50% by our local towns and counties. That seems like a good use of my tax dollars, though I have a ranch neighbor who doesn\u2019t have an email address, so she might not agree.<\/p>\n

All we need now is a deceleration lane to make a turn into the neighborhood, and I think we\u2019ll all be happy.<\/p>\n

Susan Knopf\u2019s column \u201cFor The Record\u201d publishes Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Knopf has worn many hats in her career, including working as an award-winning journalist and certified ski instructor. She moved to Silverthorne in 2013 after vacationing in Summit County since the 1970s. Contact her at sdnknopf@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you really want to grow the Summit County economy, or any of our mountain town economies, it\u2019s all about the broadband. I read Sawyer D\u2019Argonne\u2019s story regarding Frisco\u2019s community plan. (\u201cFrisco adopts 2019 Community Plan with housing, environment and community character in mind,\u201d published Aug. 23 in the Summit Daily News.) Great idea to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 17:41:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}