During much of the last decade, public-private partnerships have gained popularity as a vehicle for helping municipal governments successfully improve local broadband infrastructure and related services to customers while reducing financial and operational risk to the municipality. Various business models and forms of broadband partnerships have evolved during this time to leverage existing local resources and address needs represented by different partnership structures.
The most common partnership model involves public financing of fiber-optic infrastructure through grants and tax dollars coming from the municipality. The municipality, as the public partner, becomes the owner of the core broadband infrastructure, with one or more private sector service providers then partnering to build, own, and operate the last-mile broadband infrastructure and manage customers. The model has been revered because it brings low risk and high reward to a community while incentivizing the private sector to deliver high-quality, affordable broadband services.
The fundamental understanding behind these partnerships is that community-owned broadband infrastructure will continue functioning with the public interest at the forefront. This local control ensures that broadband services remain competitive and affordable, that service levels meet the demands of local customers, and that operations and growth are addressed with the community’s best interests in mind. The risk with today’s most common partnerships is that once the private partner owns the last mile, the municipality loses control. The question then becomes, will community broadband infrastructure be supported equitably in the community, the same as any other public utility, and the focus remains on delivering affordable service, with customer satisfaction and community needs taking precedence over services from providers motivated purely by profit?
Enable the Business of Broadband Without Getting into the Broadband Business
The perceived risk of a municipality supporting broadband services has discouraged many municipalities from the role they know best – owning and managing shared public infrastructure. In fact, municipalities are capable of owning and managing miles of water line and miles of roads, so owning and managing the “poles and wires” aspect of the fiber-optic infrastructure is a familiar municipal strength. While many municipalities understandably don’t have the funds, staff, or political will to risk starting up and operating a competitive retail broadband service provider, municipalities must realize that they can be important enablers of broadband in their jurisdictions without operating the business side of broadband.
While municipalities are traditionally well-suited to own and maintain public infrastructure, many are uncomfortable with the unfamiliar territory of marketing and operating broadband services, billing and supporting customers, and generally competing with the private sector in the broadband space. Therefore, the key to a municipal broadband partnership is simple: Bring together the existing regional broadband suppliers and retailers to operate on the municipally owned network infrastructure following a last-mile wholesale model – known as open access.
With an infrastructure-based approach and a wholesale operations model, municipalities own the assets and partner with one or more retail service providers to provide competitive services. The private partner would supply local staff, equipment and technical resources, and business processes required to provide broadband services to subscribers on the municipal network, while the municipality focuses on maintaining the more physical aspects of the poles and wires throughout the community.
Local Infrastructure Ownership is the Key to Your Community’s Economic Future
The national telecommunications market is evolving rapidly as record amounts of both public and private funding are helping municipalities build broadband infrastructure in their underserved areas. Along with the influx of public dollars, private capital investors have become bullish on infrastructure as long-term investments, often focusing on new deployments in more dense and profitable markets and even overbuilding existing service providers where attractive investment opportunities exist. Underserved areas that remain in communities are typically the most difficult and most costly locations to reach, creating the most challenging business cases.
Avoiding Potential Risks
Communities need to ensure that their private-sector partners, which are typically relatively small local or regional internet service providers, are best suited to address the digital divide in their communities. While such local service providers can be ideal broadband operations partners, they quickly gain customers and market share in newly available areas. Still, with limited economies of scale, smaller providers can grow ripe for becoming acquisition targets by larger service providers and capital investment firms over time. Plausible scenarios envision a wave of investment firms acquiring underperforming broadband service areas and undervalued broadband infrastructure in the next decade.
In this negative scenario, what began with the admirable goal of broadband being served to the municipality by local service providers can end with broadband services being controlled by an outside provider. Ultimately, the community could be left with one service provider, likely headquartered outside the region and supported by staff who live outside the community. Not only will this diminish broadband competition in the community, but it will also inevitably increase consumer costs while taking dollars out of the community. This scenario leaves communities with a broadband landscape void of consumer choice, reduced customer satisfaction, less local reinvestment, and fewer opportunities for smart city and community development.
However, the successful community-owned infrastructure model solution mitigates this risk, provides long-term community control, and partners with one or more private internet service providers to serve end users. It’s the only viable solution that ensures communities can meet the connectivity needs of all community members while providing a low capital expense opportunity for smaller service providers to compete for and serve customers they would not previously have been able to reach, all while relieving the burden of costly long-term infrastructure debt from the service provider.
With infrastructure ownership in the hands of a municipality, it frees up local ISP partners to focus on doing what they do best – operate networks and serve customers with local support. This model also allows communities to keep doing what they do best – be stewards of shared public infrastructure and allows them to stay out of the competitive business of operating broadband services. More importantly, for long-term partnership success, the community ownership of infrastructure removes a major element of risk for smaller ISPs that could otherwise easily become ridden with infrastructure-related debt and more easily be gobbled up in acquisition activities.
Fight to Maintain Broadband Infrastructure Ownership and Local Control
Many municipalities aim to deploy modern infrastructure that can deliver adequate broadband services to their currently underserved homes and businesses. These locations are often low-income or rural communities—typically the less attractive places for corporate investment to improve or build new infrastructure. So why, after years of tireless community-driven efforts to improve broadband, are communities willing to hand over the infrastructure assets to the same corporations that have failed for years to deliver services to their communities?
Once the infrastructure gets built with public dollars, communities cannot simply give ownership and control of that public infrastructure to a corporate service provider to reap the financial rewards for decades to come. This is essentially handing over control of local infrastructure and future service delivery to the same profit-minded companies that have left so many communities stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide for decades.
When a community owns shared public infrastructure assets, as they already do with other utilities and transportation, they don’t pick private sector winners and losers. Instead, the shared infrastructure provides an equal and consistent platform for all activities across that infrastructure. Communities maintain and grow such shared assets across the long term for the betterment of all community members – residents and businesses alike. So, for the historic levels of public funding available to help build network infrastructure today, communities must own the network infrastructure assets to provide the platform for local service providers to deliver the broadband services that will sustain and grow the digital economies of tomorrow.
Conclusion
In conclusion, public-private partnerships have proven to be a successful model for improving local broadband infrastructure while minimizing municipal financial risk. The key to success lies in selecting private-sector partners committed to addressing the digital divide and having a long-term vision for the community. Municipally owned infrastructure ensures that the focus remains on delivering affordable service that meets the needs of local customers. By enabling broadband as a public infrastructure, municipalities play a crucial role in improving access without taking on the risks associated with operating a retail service provider. This strategic approach fosters competition among service providers, supports local reinvestment, safeguards against corporate profit-driven motives, and provides opportunities for smart city development and socioeconomic growth, which benefits all community members and propels them forward in the digital society.
Ashley Poling, May 2024
Open Access Broadband – Bringing Choice and Connectivity to Your Community
Access to high-speed internet has become essential for individuals, businesses, and communities to thrive in today’s increasingly digital world. However, in many areas of the United States, private providers are not building fiber infrastructure at a pace that meets the growing demand for reliable broadband services. This gap in connectivity poses significant challenges, particularly in rural regions where low subscriber density makes it less economically viable for private providers to invest.
To address this issue, many local leaders are exploring alternative options to ensure their residents are not left behind in the digital age. One increasingly popular solution is the adoption of Open Access broadband networks. This model, which has gained traction globally and is now making its mark in the USA, aims to give communities greater control over their digital infrastructure while promoting competition and choice among service providers.
Understanding Open Access Broadband
At its core, the Open Access model is built on the principle of separating the various layers of a broadband network:
Common Models of Open Access Broadband
The Role of COS Business Engine
COS Business Engine is a software platform designed to support the operations of True Open Access Networks. Since its launch in 2008, it has been instrumental in automating network operations and enabling around 150 True Open Access Networks worldwide.
Learn More About Open Access Networks
To explore the concept of Open Access Networks and their benefits for your community, check out our resources:
What is a Lit Fiber Network ?
A lit fiber network refers to a fiber optic infrastructure that is already equipped with the necessary electronics to transmit data, making it “lit” as opposed to dark fiber, which is unlit and inactive. In a lit fiber network, data travels over optical fiber cables that are illuminated by light signals generated by the installed equipment. This type of network is ready for immediate use by service providers to deliver internet, television, phone services, and more to end-users.
Lit Open Access Models
There are two primary models for lit fiber networks in the context of open access: Single Provider and True Open Access (Multiple Providers).
Lit Open Access – Single Provider
In the Single Provider Lit Open Access model, the community builds and owns the entire fiber network, including all the necessary electronics that extend to the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) in customers’ homes. The community may operate or lease the network to a neutral operations company. Service providers then resell services on a wholesale basis, maintaining equal terms for all. Customers can choose between providers but can only use one provider at a time.
Pros of Single Provider Lit Open Access
Cons of Single Provider Lit Open Access
True Open Access (Lit Open Access – Multiple Providers)
In the True Open Access model, the community builds the fiber network and installs all necessary electronics, but customers can choose services from multiple providers simultaneously. This model offers maximum consumer choice, allowing users to customize their service bundles from various providers to best meet their needs.
Pros of True Open Access
Cons of True Open Access
How COS Business Engine Supports Lit Fiber Networks
Our COS Business Engine software enables communities to manage their lit fiber infrastructure efficiently. By providing a platform for leasing and managing access to lit fiber, it ensures that private providers can easily utilize this infrastructure to deliver high-quality services to end-users.
Learn More About Lit Fiber Networks
To explore the concept of lit fiber networks and their benefits for your community, check out our resources:
What is Dark Fiber Middle Mile?
Dark Fiber Middle Mile refers to the segment of fiber optic infrastructure that extends from the main backbone network into local neighborhoods and communities but stops short of the final connection to individual homes or businesses. This unused, unlit fiber provides a crucial link between major data highways (the backbone) and the final distribution networks (the last mile), allowing private service providers to lease this infrastructure and extend their services.
Dark Fiber in Network Infrastructure
In network terminology, there are three main segments:
Dark Fiber Middle Mile Open Access Model
In the Dark Fiber Middle Mile Open Access model, a community builds the fiber infrastructure in the streets (middle mile). It allows private providers to bring the necessary electronics to light up services and build the drops to individual homes and businesses. This model facilitates widespread access to high-speed internet and other services by leveraging existing dark fiber infrastructure.
Pros of Dark Fiber Middle Mile Open Access
Cons of Dark Fiber Middle Mile Open Access
The Road System Analogy
To better understand the Dark Fiber Middle Mile model, consider the following analogy:
Without the backbone, a city cannot effectively connect to the global network; without the middle mile, houses have nothing to connect to. In the Dark Fiber model, the community invests in the backbone and middle mile, enabling private providers to build out the last mile as needed.
How COS Business Engine Supports Dark Fiber Middle Mile
Our COS Business Engine software enables communities to efficiently manage their dark fiber infrastructure. By providing a BSS/OSS platform for leasing and managing access to dark fiber, it ensures that private providers can easily utilize this infrastructure to deliver high-quality services to their end-users.
Learn More About Dark Fiber Middle Mile
To explore the concept of dark fiber and its benefits for your community, check out our resources:
Dark Fiber: Why Communities Invest in Unused Fiber Optic Networks
Ever asked yourself: Why would anyone invest in fiber optic cables that aren’t even turned on? What’s the point of building something you don’t use right away? That’s exactly what Dark Fiber is all about. It’s fiber optic cable that’s already in the ground, but not yet “lit” with the electronics needed to carry data. Think of it like laying train tracks before you actually buy the trains. The infrastructure is there, waiting for the right moment.
What Is Dark Fiber in Network Infrastructure?
In broadband, there are three layers you need to understand:
Without the backbone, your community can’t connect to the global internet. Without the middle mile, neighborhoods stay stranded. And without the last mile, residents never get service.
The Dark Fiber Backbone Open Access Model
Here’s the common setup communities use: They invest in the backbone only. This means they cover the most expensive and long-term part of the network. Then they open it up for private providers to lease. The logic is simple: The community builds the road, and providers bring the cars.
Pros of Dark Fiber Backbone Open Access
Cons of Dark Fiber Backbone Open Access
But let’s be honest—this model isn’t perfect.
Super Search – Your New Go-To Tool for a Streamlined, Efficient Workflow
We are thrilled to present Super Search, our newly revamped search feature designed to make finding anything in the system easier than ever!
Here’s what makes Super Search exceptional:
Enhanced Precision: Quickly locate Service Locations, Orders, Customers, or Tickets with unparalleled accuracy.
Typo Tolerance: No more retyping due to pesky typos—Super Search understands and adjusts!
Intuitive Associations: Search for a customer’s name and easily access that customer’s orders and more.
Say goodbye to tedious searches and hello to Super Search, your new go-to tool for a streamlined, efficient workflow!
Open Access: Ensuring A Successful Public-Private Broadband Partnership
During much of the last decade, public-private partnerships have gained popularity as a vehicle for helping municipal governments successfully improve local broadband infrastructure and related services to customers while reducing financial and operational risk to the municipality. Various business models and forms of broadband partnerships have evolved during this time to leverage existing local resources and address needs represented by different partnership structures.
The most common partnership model involves public financing of fiber-optic infrastructure through grants and tax dollars coming from the municipality. The municipality, as the public partner, becomes the owner of the core broadband infrastructure, with one or more private sector service providers then partnering to build, own, and operate the last-mile broadband infrastructure and manage customers. The model has been revered because it brings low risk and high reward to a community while incentivizing the private sector to deliver high-quality, affordable broadband services.
The fundamental understanding behind these partnerships is that community-owned broadband infrastructure will continue functioning with the public interest at the forefront. This local control ensures that broadband services remain competitive and affordable, that service levels meet the demands of local customers, and that operations and growth are addressed with the community’s best interests in mind. The risk with today’s most common partnerships is that once the private partner owns the last mile, the municipality loses control. The question then becomes, will community broadband infrastructure be supported equitably in the community, the same as any other public utility, and the focus remains on delivering affordable service, with customer satisfaction and community needs taking precedence over services from providers motivated purely by profit?
Enable the Business of Broadband Without Getting into the Broadband Business
The perceived risk of a municipality supporting broadband services has discouraged many municipalities from the role they know best – owning and managing shared public infrastructure. In fact, municipalities are capable of owning and managing miles of water line and miles of roads, so owning and managing the “poles and wires” aspect of the fiber-optic infrastructure is a familiar municipal strength. While many municipalities understandably don’t have the funds, staff, or political will to risk starting up and operating a competitive retail broadband service provider, municipalities must realize that they can be important enablers of broadband in their jurisdictions without operating the business side of broadband.
While municipalities are traditionally well-suited to own and maintain public infrastructure, many are uncomfortable with the unfamiliar territory of marketing and operating broadband services, billing and supporting customers, and generally competing with the private sector in the broadband space. Therefore, the key to a municipal broadband partnership is simple: Bring together the existing regional broadband suppliers and retailers to operate on the municipally owned network infrastructure following a last-mile wholesale model – known as open access.
With an infrastructure-based approach and a wholesale operations model, municipalities own the assets and partner with one or more retail service providers to provide competitive services. The private partner would supply local staff, equipment and technical resources, and business processes required to provide broadband services to subscribers on the municipal network, while the municipality focuses on maintaining the more physical aspects of the poles and wires throughout the community.
Local Infrastructure Ownership is the Key to Your Community’s Economic Future
The national telecommunications market is evolving rapidly as record amounts of both public and private funding are helping municipalities build broadband infrastructure in their underserved areas. Along with the influx of public dollars, private capital investors have become bullish on infrastructure as long-term investments, often focusing on new deployments in more dense and profitable markets and even overbuilding existing service providers where attractive investment opportunities exist. Underserved areas that remain in communities are typically the most difficult and most costly locations to reach, creating the most challenging business cases.
Avoiding Potential Risks
Communities need to ensure that their private-sector partners, which are typically relatively small local or regional internet service providers, are best suited to address the digital divide in their communities. While such local service providers can be ideal broadband operations partners, they quickly gain customers and market share in newly available areas. Still, with limited economies of scale, smaller providers can grow ripe for becoming acquisition targets by larger service providers and capital investment firms over time. Plausible scenarios envision a wave of investment firms acquiring underperforming broadband service areas and undervalued broadband infrastructure in the next decade.
In this negative scenario, what began with the admirable goal of broadband being served to the municipality by local service providers can end with broadband services being controlled by an outside provider. Ultimately, the community could be left with one service provider, likely headquartered outside the region and supported by staff who live outside the community. Not only will this diminish broadband competition in the community, but it will also inevitably increase consumer costs while taking dollars out of the community. This scenario leaves communities with a broadband landscape void of consumer choice, reduced customer satisfaction, less local reinvestment, and fewer opportunities for smart city and community development.
However, the successful community-owned infrastructure model solution mitigates this risk, provides long-term community control, and partners with one or more private internet service providers to serve end users. It’s the only viable solution that ensures communities can meet the connectivity needs of all community members while providing a low capital expense opportunity for smaller service providers to compete for and serve customers they would not previously have been able to reach, all while relieving the burden of costly long-term infrastructure debt from the service provider.
With infrastructure ownership in the hands of a municipality, it frees up local ISP partners to focus on doing what they do best – operate networks and serve customers with local support. This model also allows communities to keep doing what they do best – be stewards of shared public infrastructure and allows them to stay out of the competitive business of operating broadband services. More importantly, for long-term partnership success, the community ownership of infrastructure removes a major element of risk for smaller ISPs that could otherwise easily become ridden with infrastructure-related debt and more easily be gobbled up in acquisition activities.
Fight to Maintain Broadband Infrastructure Ownership and Local Control
Many municipalities aim to deploy modern infrastructure that can deliver adequate broadband services to their currently underserved homes and businesses. These locations are often low-income or rural communities—typically the less attractive places for corporate investment to improve or build new infrastructure. So why, after years of tireless community-driven efforts to improve broadband, are communities willing to hand over the infrastructure assets to the same corporations that have failed for years to deliver services to their communities?
Once the infrastructure gets built with public dollars, communities cannot simply give ownership and control of that public infrastructure to a corporate service provider to reap the financial rewards for decades to come. This is essentially handing over control of local infrastructure and future service delivery to the same profit-minded companies that have left so many communities stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide for decades.
When a community owns shared public infrastructure assets, as they already do with other utilities and transportation, they don’t pick private sector winners and losers. Instead, the shared infrastructure provides an equal and consistent platform for all activities across that infrastructure. Communities maintain and grow such shared assets across the long term for the betterment of all community members – residents and businesses alike. So, for the historic levels of public funding available to help build network infrastructure today, communities must own the network infrastructure assets to provide the platform for local service providers to deliver the broadband services that will sustain and grow the digital economies of tomorrow.
Conclusion
In conclusion, public-private partnerships have proven to be a successful model for improving local broadband infrastructure while minimizing municipal financial risk. The key to success lies in selecting private-sector partners committed to addressing the digital divide and having a long-term vision for the community. Municipally owned infrastructure ensures that the focus remains on delivering affordable service that meets the needs of local customers. By enabling broadband as a public infrastructure, municipalities play a crucial role in improving access without taking on the risks associated with operating a retail service provider. This strategic approach fosters competition among service providers, supports local reinvestment, safeguards against corporate profit-driven motives, and provides opportunities for smart city development and socioeconomic growth, which benefits all community members and propels them forward in the digital society.
Ashley Poling, May 2024
COS IS CURIOUS – How do you prefer to buy or switch your internet service?
COS is curious! Great user experience is crucial; therefore, we’d like to know what’s important to you as an internet user.
This time, we wanted to know how you prefer to buy or switch your internet service.
93% of respondents favor purchasing their internet services online rather than via phone. This is no surprise to us, as we see similar numbers for the usage of our online marketplace. However, we believe it’s not a matter of choosing one over the other.
Consider these key factors:
Providing an online buying experience meets the demands of most customers.
By reducing the need for phone staff, significant cost savings can be achieved.
And with fewer calls to handle, your staff can dedicate more time to delivering great service to those who prefer talking to someone over the phone – after all, 7% of your customers do.
FTTH Fiber to the Home Automation Solutions
COS software solutions, tailored for Fiber-to-the-Home operators and Service Providers, offer a robust fiber network automation and management solution. At the heart of this is the COS Business Engine, a unified BSS OSS platform that efficiently enables the provision of multiple services over a single fiber connection. This empowers network operators to expand their service offerings and discover new revenue streams. Moreover, it allows them to streamline operations and customer support to effectively meet the growing demand for private networks. COS’ open-access capabilities provide you with:
Higher take-rates:
COS’ open-access capabilities result in significantly higher take rates than marketing a single service network. Consumers usually spend more when given various choices, with take rates often up to three times higher.
A More Profitable Business Model:
By accessing wholesale revenue streams, you can become a specialist in your field and create a more profitable business model. This approach allows you to leverage your expertise and offer a range of services to different market segments.
Improved public and private partnerships:
COS solutions promote better public-private partnerships. Municipalities can invest in infrastructure and provide enhanced digital services to their citizens without competing directly with commercial consumer services.
Contact us today to learn more about how COS can help you overcome the challenges of managing fiber infrastructure and providing reliable broadband connections.
Telecommunications billing software for Wireless ISPs & Fiber ISPs
COS System’s innovative platform offers a comprehensive billing and automation solution for wireless and fiber internet service providers (ISPs), streamlining the billing process and enhancing customer management and experience. The COS platform ensures timely payments and provides subscribers with a seamless online experience by automating tasks such as invoice creation, payment processing, and notifications. The self-management portal allows subscribers to update their personal details and access agreements, cancel or move services, and see the work status.
Why Choose COS Systems?
COS Systems’ platform is designed to meet wireless and fiber ISPs’ unique needs. Our solution is scalable and flexible and integrates seamlessly with your existing systems, ensuring a smooth transition and minimal disruption to your operations. By choosing COS Systems, you can streamline your billing process, reduce operational costs, and improve the overall customer experience.
Contact us today to learn more about how COS can help you meet your specific needs and drive success in today’s competitive market.
Choosing the Right OSS BSS Systems for Your Business
The Perfect Fiber Solution for Your Project
When it comes to selecting the right OSS BSS System (Operations Support System/Business Support System) for your fiber project, one of the most crucial decisions you’ll need to make is whether to opt for a custom solution or an off-the-shelf product-based system. This decision can significantly impact your business operations and costs, making it a choice that requires careful consideration.
While custom solutions may offer the flexibility to tailor your system to your specific needs, they can also lead to increased costs and complexity during development and maintenance. On the other hand, off-the-shelf products may be more affordable but may not meet all your business requirements.
To avoid over-customization and ensure a seamless implementation, it’s essential to understand the capabilities and limitations of the systems you’re considering. Here are some key guidelines to keep in mind:
At COS Systems, we truly understand the importance of choosing the right OSS BSS system for your fiber business! COS Business Engine offers a flexible product that can be adapted to meet your specific needs. With our extensive Fiber To The Home expertise, you can trust that you’re getting a solution that will meet your business goals and help you stay ahead of the competition.
Don’t settle for a subpar solution that won’t meet your needs. Take the time to choose the right OSS BSS system for YOUR business.