Montana Telecom Association Annual MeetingAugust 5, 2014

Heather Burnett Gold, President Fiber to the Home Council Americas

Fiber to the Home Council Americas, est. 2001

To accelerate the deployment of all-fiber access networks by demonstrating how fiber-enabled applications and solutions create value for network operators and their customers, promote economic development and enhance quality of life.

Mission

About the FTTH Council

32881

Members

Vendors

200

Operators

The Council is agnostic as to ownership type; we support all entries into the FTTH market

47 Professionals

70%

ILECs

25%

Munis, utilities, elec. Co-ops, ISPs5% Competitors

What the Council does

Provides resources for existing and potential network operators Educational tracks at conferences Webinars Publications

Offers essential networking opportunities Meetings and conferences

Supports all regulatory efforts to expand fiber to the home

Council regulatory positions

Open Internet Bandwidth abundance through all fiber networks is

a solution to net neutrality IP Transition and copper decommissioning

Fiber is better, faster and stronger—running two networks doesn’t make sense

Barriers to broadband deployment We advocate for the removal of ownership and

building restrictions at state level Statewide cable franchising

Simplified franchising applications promote network deployments

Rural broadband experiments Let communities work together to build networks

that work for them

2014: FCC seeking proposals for rural broadband experiments In 2013, FTTH Council petitioned the

Federal Communications Commission with an idea: incentivize ways to build ultra-high bandwidth to rural communities

Commission will provide up to $100 million to eligible areas

Fiber is strong in rural areas: over 500 FTTH providers in Tier 2 / 3 markets

Tier 3s

Verizon

Munis

~28,900 homes connected to FTTH OR 7% of all households in Montana

Who is providing FTTH?•9 smaller ILECs•1 small CLEC•1 real estate development

Fairly low percentage of households with speeds above 50 Mbps

The market in rural areas is ripe According to RVA, LLC 73.7 million

homes in suburban and rural areas are not yet passed by FTTH But people like fiber: take rates in Tier 2

and 3 markets are around 50 percent And FTTH results in higher ARPU over other

types of broadband builds

Verizon Build Starts

Source: RVA annual Provider & Consumer Studies

FTTH take rates reach 45.8%

12

Source: RVA 2013 Provider Study

FTTH take-rates vary from 25% to 81%

13

Source: RVA 2013 Provider & Consumer Studies

U.S. FTTH connections by provider type

There are 3 typical FTTH drivers

Rural areas are often far from the resources available in urban areas, so FTTH drivers are actually more manifold

What drives FTTH in rural areas?

Fiber enables world-class education, regardless of the distance A network in northwest Minnesota

connects 126 schools and 43 libraries in the state

Connects learners to courses otherwise unavailable

Fiber drives agricultural production and increases efficiencies Swanberg Farms in Lyford, Texas

uses fiber broadband to monitor commodity prices and weather forecasts

John Deere’s line of connected equipment combined with robust broadband infrastructure makes precision agriculture possible

FTTH networks enable economic development

55%

38%

32%

Broadband is essential to remaining in a communityWould relocate if broadband were not availableOperate a home-based business

Survey says…

FTTH improves home values between $5-6k.

FTTH communities confront health care challenges head on Smith County Memorial Hospital in Smith

Center, KS uses fiber to consult with specialists at large hospitals

In Minnesota, Hiawatha Broadband is participating in a project that uses fiber as a platform for home monitoring of patients with dementia

Fiber can improve civic engagement, administration and public safety Montana lets livestock owners record

branding information online – more than 60% of owners are taking advantage of it

Using remote monitoring sensors and increased computing power public safety officers can deploy personnel and resources more effectively.

Becoming fiber friendly

Challenge

Population is lower, density is lower and risk may be greater

Solution FTTH Council Community Toolkit•Get Started•Organizing Your Community•Creating the Business Case•Building a Network

Getting Started: Why does FTTH matter for rural residents? Make clear the value of fiber for a

community: Can erase educational inequities Reduce health care challenges like declining

physician numbers, access problems Can turn rural America into a “middle shore”

for high-tech job opportunities Research success stories like Wilson, NC,

GVTC, Co-Mo Electric Check out the information the federal

government and states have ready to hep

Organizing your community

Identify championsForming partnershipsBuilding consensus

Creating the business case

Identifying assetsEstimating demandBuilding the financial modelFunding

Building a network

Developing a Request for Proposals

Finding a providerManaging the deployment