- What is an iTown Local Community Public-Use Network?
- Why build an iTown Local Community Public-Use Network?
- Why is iTown focusing on smaller communities in non-metropolitan areas?
- Why should a local government work in partnership with iTown to establish an LCPN?
- Is Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) a new technology? Is it being used in other communities now?
- Isn't FTTP too costly for use in non-metropolitan areas?
- Will users have to buy new equipment to use an iTown local community network?
- Whose services are available on a local community network?
- How are customers' service choices affected when they connect to a local community network?
- Why will service providers choose to connect to the LCPN?
- How long does it take to build out an iTown local community network?
- Will an iTown Local Community Public-Use Network be able to support future services?
- Will an iTown public-use community network be able to support future services?
- How can I learn more about i
Town Communications
Town Local Community Public-Use Network?
The iTown Local Community Public-Use Network is a community-wide,
ultra-high capacity broadband access infrastructure connecting
all homes, businesses, government offices, schools and other
community institutions to each other and to a variety of voice,
video, Internet, data and advanced application service providers.
The network is operated by a private company under non-profit
objectives in partnership with and for the benefit of the local
community.
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Town Local Community Public-Use
Network?
Communications infrastructure is essential to the economic well
being of a community, just like electricity and water. The
communications infrastructure must also be able to expand and adapt
to changing business, consumer and public needs. However, in many
non-metropolitan areas the existing infrastructure will not support
current needs let alone future demands for new services and
applications.
Incumbent service providers have limited capital to invest. They
make careful selections about where they upgrade or replace their
existing copper networks. Moreover, their networks are "closed".
They permit only their own services to be delivered over their
network. The iTown LCPN is an "open" network, available to any
service provider, including the incumbents. It encourages
competition, consumer choice, lower prices, better quality service
delivery and supports advanced applications.
Typical "high speed" Internet access offers bandwidth transmission
speeds of 256kbps to 1.5Mbps. Existing copper networks are
restricted in the speeds they can transmit by the laws of physics.
But already, experts are stating that broadband requirements are
nearing 6+Mbps and will soon reach 25Mbps or more. In other
countries, the typical capacity to the home is already 40-50Mbps.
The iTown LCPN is capable of delivering speeds of 100Mbps to the
home and can be retooled to deliver even faster connections.
Businesses need instantaneous communications capability to maintain
relationships with customers and suppliers. Residential users are
demanding more sources of video content for education and
entertainment. They are increasingly using the Internet to
download video content or create their own image, video or text
content and share it with the world. Schools are pursuing new
electronic curricular materials, including video programming,
collaborative learning applications and problem solving by enhanced
simulation applications. The healthcare system is evolving toward
increasing reliance on electronic processes for document
administration, professional training, consultation and diagnosis,
patient monitoring and even delivery of therapy. Critical to
satisfying these new uses is availability of increasing amounts of
bandwidth that iTown's LCPN provides.
An iTown LCPN is one network, serving all customers, capable of
providing bandwidth for all services and is available to all
service providers. It can provide all of today's services and adapt
to provide future applications.
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Town focusing on smaller communities in non-metropolitan areas?
These communities are watching as advanced technologies are being
deployed in major cities. The Internet has grown continually and
provides more advanced ways of accessing and delivering information. Video services have
broadened in metropolitan areas. These new capabilities are
generally not available in smaller communities because current
cable and telecommunications services providers are slow to
make the needed investments. As a result, an increasing number
of local governments are becoming more directly involved in
fostering the establishment of an advanced broadband infrastructure
for their communities. iTown is responding to that need and has
developed a business model specifically for that purpose.
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Town to establish an LCPN?
iTown is the one company that can design, build, operate and
enhance a Local Community Public-Use Network. Other companies
provide consulting services to city leaders and assist in the
design and selection of equipment and construction vendors.
iTown provides a complete solution to bringing the benefits of
modern networking to the community. It works with city leadership
in designing the network that is right for the community. Then it
does the heavy lifting associated with delivering new and improved
services to the community.
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FTTP networks are being
deployed around the country in big cities and small. As of May
2005, there are 398 communities in 43 states with FTTP networks
installed. Regional Bell Telephone Companies like Verizon are
deploying fiber optic networks in major metropolitan areas, but
will not likely be focused on replacing networks in many small
towns for years. The cost to deploy it has dropped substantially
over the last five years, making it economic for many smaller
communities.
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No. The technology and
construction costs have been dropping for the past several years.
Of the 398 current FTTP networks in place, nearly all are in small
communities. The iTown model will work provided there are no
unusual local factors that drive up typical construction costs.
With community support for a network, revenue generated from
existing video, Internet, voice and data services currently
purchased by residents and businesses are sufficient to justify
building a network.
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iTown recognizes the advantages
of wireless technologies and seeks to leverage them in its
engineering design. Wireless technologies are important for the
growth and development of broadband use. They are in increasing
demand largely because they have relatively low startup costs and
can be deployed in short intervals, but they also have some
important limitations. Primary among them is that the bandwidth of
wireless technology is, like that of copper networks, inherently
constrained by the laws of physics. There just is not sufficient
radio spectrum to effectively deliver important existing and
growing applications like video and very large file transfer using
wireless technology. A large portion of wireless technology is
based on use of unlicensed spectrum which makes it vulnerable to
security and interference problems. And wireless service does not
operate reliably in some physical environments. For these reasons,
iTown has designed its networks to employ wireless technology for
specific uses in a community, like extending the coverage area of
the LCPN to customers who are beyond the reach where fiber optic
cable can be economically justified or for use in "hot spots" in
important public locations. These uses enhance the utility of the
LCPN overall by increasing connectivity and availability of
broadband service.
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Town local community network?
No. The network will terminate
at each customer location with a Network Interface Device (NID).
The NID translates the optical signal on the fiber network to one
compatible with existing telephone, television, and computer
equipment.
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The Local Community Public-Use Network is designed and operated by
iTown as an "open" network. That means many types of providers -
video, telephone, Internet, security monitoring, energy monitoring
and management and other types of specialized service providers
have equal access to the network. Incumbent telephone and cable
companies may choose to use the LCPN to connect to some or all of
their customers for some or all of the services they provide.
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Residential and business
customers are free to choose any service provider connected to the
network. The iTown design allows one large digital pipe to
efficiently deliver services to each customer from many providers
so customer options are increased by connecting to the network.
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Many competitive service
providers are seeking new means of accessing customers without
having to incur the huge expense of building their own networks.
They are constrained by restrictive policies of the incumbent cable
and telephone companies which prohibit competitors from using the
incumbents' broadband networks. The advanced technology and open
network design of iTown's LCPN offer these providers a lower cost
and higher quality means of serving their customers. It can be used
to deliver services that existing broadband networks are incapable
of supporting. Existing service providers may choose to use the
network to deliver new services that their old, copper wire
networks cannot deliver. Furthermore, the neutral management of
the LCPN ensures that all service providers connected to the
network use it under equal terms and prices so no provider has an
advantage over the other by virtue of control of broadband access
facilities. This issue of control of "bottleneck access facilities"
has plagued the telecommunications industry since the inception of
telecommunications competition. iTown's open network design
resolves that problem for its LCPN communities.
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Town local community network?
Construction intervals will
obviously vary by size of the community and the final design of the
network. Typically, for communities the size with which iTown
prefers to work, initial services can be turned up within 12 months
of the community's decision to proceed to construction, and the
network build out throughout the community is completed in 18 to
24 months.
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Town Local Community Public-Use Network be able to support future services?
Yes. One of iTown's core
principles is to pursue financially efficient ways to deploy
broadband infrastructure that has unrestricted bandwidth. That is
why we have a bias toward the use of fiber optic technology
wherever it can be justified. Fiber optics has essentially
unlimited transmission capacity. It also is very long lived.
The relatively high cost of installing fiber optic cable need only
be incurred once. As the user applications require increased
bandwidth, the electronics attached to the fiber cables can be
easily replaced to deliver the increasing amounts of capacity that
will be demanded.
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Town Communications?
Please contact us via email: info@itowncom.net.
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