Clare County, Michigan
Clare County has worked to create a coalition of local officials and businesses
to address the growing technological concerns of the county. Created under
funding from the Clare County Board of Commissioners, the coalition consists
of members from Mid Michigan
Community College, Michigan Works, Clare County Enterprise Community,
Middle Michigan Development Corporation, area libraries, public schools,
and others. The objective is to address the growing technological needs
of the county. Although it is in the earlier stages, this group of interested
citizens and organizations has begun to locate
and apply for potential federal and corporate grants to create an effective
telecommunications infrastructure.
Coldwater, Michigan
In an effort to bring the City of Coldwater into the information age,
the city created a municipally owned operating agency that provides electric,
water, wastewater, and communications services. The agency is the Coldwater
Board of Public Utilities (CBPU). The most recent service CBPU has begun
to offer is Internet services. It has become a full service Internet provider,
offering Internet access for both dial-up and highspeed cable, web hosting,
domain hosting, DNS service, and domain registration. For initial funding
of the project, CBPU borrowed from its existing services and went to the
people to issue a revenue bond.
Detroit, Michigan
The City of Detroit has completed a twelve-month telecommunications network
audit and strategy report which outlines recommendations to improve the
voice, data, and video transport facilities within the city. After a thorough
assessment of the costs and requirements, the city is evaluating their
options to pursue a public/private consortium
partnership which will serve as a catalyst for telecommunications infrastructure
investment. The city is interested in reviewing the development of a "carrier's
carrier" fiber network to be constructed throughout the city.
Frankenmuth, Michigan
The community of Frankenmuth developed a united effort to pursue a technology
upgrade. This effort is being developed through a cooperative effort between
the City of Frankenmuth and the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce and Convention
& Visitors
Bureau (Chamber and CVB). The city manager and the president of the Frankenmuth
Chamber and CVB have captured the attention of technology providers by
presenting the community as a "single customer". They gathered
interested stakeholders within the community and helped define and articulate
the vision of the community to take Frankenmuth's technology beyond the
current needs and create an environment that would accommodate "business
at the speed of thought". A technology team has been established
to build this technology backbone. This backbone will be a combined governmental/private
sectorpartnership.
Holland, Michigan
The Holland Board of Public Works (HBPW) has constructed a 17-mile fiber
optic backbone to support not only internal communication links between
all HBPW facilities, but the community's various public services such
as local hospitals, schools, and local government agencies. In addition,
the HBPW included additional capacity for other
services. The funding for the fiber optic ring was generated from revenues
earned from its existing services (electric, water, and wastewater services).
HBPW leases the available capacity to individuals or other companies who
want to establish fiber optic connections among their own locations. HBPW
provides its customers with access to the fiber-ring and the ability to
create and to be connected to a local-area-network (LAN). This would allow
the consumer to receive and send data from anyone connected to that LAN.
For a consumer to get connected to a wide-area-network
(WAN-Internet) the consumer would have to purchase those services from
a telecommunications vendor or an ISP. The intention of HBPW is not to
become an ISP, cable provider, or a telecom vendor, but to entice companies
to lease capacity from HBPW and offer those services.
Oakland County, Michigan
Oakland County has established itself as an ISP to its 61 municipal governments
under an $8 million, 380-mile fiber optic network called OAKnet. The Network
provides voice, data, and video communications throughout the county to
assist every municipality and constituent. OAKnet provides municipalities
free access to the Internet, which can save them roughly $10,000 - $12,000
a year in line and access charges and administration costs.
Clare County, Michigan