Digital 395 shows more backbone

Praxis’ second application for federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funding of its $100 million-plus Digital 395 broadband infrastructure project has cleared its first review hurdle, and received the Governor’s recommendation.
The project is viewed by many as one of the most historical in recent times in the Eastern Sierra, ranking alongside construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the installation of the 395 roadway itself. D395, as it’s come to be known, was a natural extension of the California Emerging Technology Fund’s initiative to bring broadband to rural areas.
Just a couple of years ago, an early “guideline” report found there was no single group to spearhead the effort. The government, the report determined, was good at providing big-picture items — power, land, etc. — but bad at details, such as installation, billing and customer service. CETF reasoned that a private/public hybrid would make the most sense.
California was then divided up into 5 regions to streamline the typically time-consuming public processes involved. (The Eastern Sierra region is made up of Kern, Inyo and Mono counties. Alpine County was offered to be part of our region, but went with the Sacramento region instead.)
At last year’s second annual CETF conference, the regions were just getting organized. Our region’s “informal coalition,” including partners from Kern, Inyo supervisor Susan Cash and Mono supervisor Hap Hazard, put forth that we are collectively “population poor, but communication technology rich.” The Eastern Sierra has land, permits, power and lots of cell towers and so on … it just needs a private partner.
Enter Vallejo-based Praxis, which saw its principal market of outlying rural developments and subdivisions softening and decided it had the technical and know-how and financial standing to tackle stringing out cutting-edge broadband along a large, multi-county chunk of U.S. 395.
It was, in fact, Inyo County Information Services Director Brandon Shults who introduced Hazard to Praxis CEO Michael Ort in one of those casual hallway chats that often lead to bigger things.
Before long, the region was a fan, not only of Praxis, but of D395 in particular, a project its members determined was the “gold standard.” Anything less would amount to a far lesser piecemeal and patchwork substitute, they concluded. With a population of 14,000 and visitation of 4 million, it wasn’t long before numerous private businesses and at least 40 public agencies (including the U.S. Forest Service) expressed interested in getting on board.
ARRA stimulus dollars will make up $80 million of the project’s $100 million price tag. The California Public Utility Commission also saw the benefits early on and secured matching funds to make up the $20 million needed for the rest of the funding.
Now incorporating San Bernardino County and parts of Carson City, Nev., D395 has been through the entire state process, and state and federal legislators have jumped on the bandwagon. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gave it his “highest recommendation” and D395 has reportedly been discussed inside the Oval Office in Washington, D.C.
While Praxis waits for the fed’s decision, the California Broadband Cooperative (CBC) has been set up to administer the project, should funding be approved. (The application is currently in “due diligence” phase, as the ARRA committee verifies the application in terms of “can it be done” and if so “can Praxis execute?”)
Locally, the question is “are the counties willing to throw in whatever it takes — staff time, resources — to get the project off the ground?” Apparently yes, the are. According to Hazard, all four counties involved have each banked hundreds of hours in staff time and resource sharing in advance of the project’s approval. “All the counties know this is larger than any one of us,” Hazard said. “All the staffs have set it as a very high priority to make sure that anything additional the fed requires to make their decision will be expedited in a timely manner.”
D395 would “light up” 12% of California for what most consider a very modest amount of money, considering the geographic coverage involved.
Apart from the obvious medical (virtual medical technology), local government (teleconference and electronic record keeping) and standard economic applications (providing service to communities and campsites, etc.), one thing the project has going for it are military and defense applications that make it attractive to supporters inside the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security.
At least one of D395’s more than 200 strands could be dedicated as “dark fiber” (sounds like the title for a great thriller movie, eh?), dedicated for use by the north county’s Marine base for secure information and communication transmissions. (The rental fees on that strand alone could help offset a considerable amount of basic consumer operation and maintenance costs.)
Mono County would make a commitment to serve on the CBC’s Board of Directors, which would equate to 40 hours/week and roughly $65,000 in kind man hours per year. The County would also commit to purchase services, facilities to support construction phase, and provide property connection nodes along the route, among other things. Down the road, that would mean approximately $2.5 million across a 20-year window, but most of that amount would be made up of allocations of currently unused property.
The CBC is working with the state to fund a statewide environmental review, since the project crosses several counties.The cooperative also pledged to use local labor pools whenever and wherever possible.
According to CBC Chief Executive Officer Rob Volker, the second Praxis application focused a lot more on a public-private partnership model, which he indicated the fed is looking for when determining whether projects such as D395 meet ARRA yardsticks. Assistant County Counsel Allen Berry said the County can’t make formal financial commitments without going through various processes, but can “acknowledge” such commitments via a non-binding letter of intent.
Speaking to the Board in a conference call, Ort confirmed Mono County’s commitment is made up almost entirely of in-kind dollars, and no cash up front is required.
Last mile providers will be brought in to tie in to the edge outs, but the actual footprint of the backbone is “pretty well” fixed. Ort said some minor variations could be made, and some last-mile solutions could be worked out, but it’s going to be hard at this point to make any significant changes.
If a last-mile provider isn’t available, Ort said that once the network is in place, a Plan B has been formulated under which the CBC could act (with approval from all the partners and members) as a last-mile provider.
An award announcement is forecast for sometime in July. If approved, the project’s contracts are expected be finalized roughly 30 days thereafter.