As Traditional Services Decline, Cooperative Says Broadband is THE Future

As our Richelle Elberg reported last week, telcos providing broadband serve about half of all broadband connections in the U.S.—numbers that, so far, are holding steady against cable-provided broadband connections. In the same study, Richelle predicted that ILEC broadband connections would overtake the number of access lines as early as 2015, as ILECs increasingly are deploying fiber and upgrading their broadband offerings.

As a case in point, Paul Bunyan Communications in Minnesota has aggressively incorporated broadband into its business strategy and is about to complete its final year of a fiber-to-the-home upgrade for its entire 4,500-square-mile service area. The cooperative's broadband initiative has been well-received, too, with take-rates at 60%, representing some 17k subscribers.

But Paul Bunyan isn't just a small company benefiting from a forward-thinking business plan; it's an ILEC that attests to the collective power of a cooperative to implement broadband buildouts and forge strategic partnerships with local electric co-ops.

In fact, the Minnesota cooperative has made broadband a focus of service for many years, according to Brian Bissonette, marketing supervisor for the company. Paul Bunyan first started offering broadband in its service areas in 1999, and now Bissonette says that 100% of its service area has broadband access. In the majority of its service area, Paul Bunyan is the only provider of high-speed Internet. “In rural areas [of the state], there are no real competitors. Wireless and satellite service is available, but it's much more expensive, with slower speeds, and less reliability,” Bissonette said.

Paul Bunyan's service packs a good punch too, with speeds up to 10Mbps for both upload and download, and up to 25Mbps service and higher available. The co-op's extensive fiber build has allowed it to offer digital and high-definition television services to all its customers as well, complete with DVR and On Demand. According to Bissonette, these television services have about a 50% take-rate so far. The company now uses vendors like Calix, Minerva, ADB, and Clearfield, but Bissonette said television services will be transitioning to offer the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform.

Last month, Minnesota received some press for the release of Connect Minnesota's Consumer Broadband Adoption Survey, which reported that “only” 28% of Minnesota's consumers do not subscribe to a broadband service. Among those who don't subscribe, the majority said they don't need broadband or that there isn't content relevant to them on the internet; the second reason was that it was too cost-prohibitive. But while that 28% figure is lower than the national average of 35% non-subscribers, once again there was a marked gap in broadband availability in rural communities versus more populated areas. In rural parts of the state, 39% of Minnesotans do not have broadband, usually due to lack of availability, not lack of desire.

Because Paul Bunyan's service area is primarily rural, Bissonette said its diverse services and broadband deployment are even more dependent on federal stimulus monies. Just this year, the cooperative was awarded a $19.7m Rural Utility Service (RUS) grant through the USDA, and will use the funding to expand broadband FTH service into two more underserved areas—rural areas of Park Rapids and Trout Lake.

Overall Paul Bunyan has seen a steady increase in broadband subscribers and revenue, something Bissonette credits to the “millions of dollars” the company has invested in “upgrading and expanding our network to offer broadband services. And they have been well received.” He says that back in 1998, the company had just 8k access lines and no broadband Internet customers. “Today we have more than 28k access lines and more than 17k broadband subs,” Bissonette said. But even while noting these gains, he added, “This could be radically affected by access and universal service reforms if they are unfavorable to high-cost-to-serve rural areas.”

According to Bissonette, service availability is overwhelmingly contingent on sustained FCC funding. “The biggest challenge we face is intercarrier compensation and universal service reform,” he said. “The majority of our service area is rural and high-cost to serve. If these mechanisms are eliminated or drastically reduced, the result would be much higher costs for the services to consumers. That would create a significant barrier to receive the services that most [of our customers] consider essential. We'd also be unable to continue to expand our broadband services to those rural areas, and that includes our planned expansion with the recent $19.7m RUS loan.”

As a cooperative, Paul Bunyan has also realized the advantages that come from local and regional partnerships. Bissonette cited one such example in Paul Bunyan's alliance with Beltrami Electric Cooperative. Together, the two formed Cooperative Development, “a construction company that serves both cooperative's network expansion and replacement needs,” Bissonette said. “This greatly reduces the need for both cooperatives to outsource this work and provides dozens of full-time local jobs during the construction season.”

Paul Bunyan has also partnered with seven regional electric co-ops to form Northern Safety and Security—an entity that provides security systems, smoke and carbon monoxide sensors, a latch-key feature, gas leak monitoring, agricultural environment sensors, camera systems, and more, along with a 24/7 response center. Together, Bissonette said the group “shares investment costs and a resource base providing a variety of services to 52k co-op members and 150k households throughout Minnesota and eastern North Dakota."

Going forward, the cooperative is planning on taking advantage of cloud services for its data hosting and online backups, which it already provides for some of its larger customers. Ultimately, Bissonette said it all returns to broadband and its potential—be it for cloud services, high-speed internet, or IPTV. Facing the current reality for telecommunications providers, Bissonette stated, “We anticipate that wrapping more service around our broadband will be important in the future, as our traditional services decline.”

Wireless Provider Taps Vertical Markets

As a wireless communications company boasting a 212% YoY growth in revenue, ERF Wireless stands out as a success story in today's difficult and competitive market. The key to the company's business plan lies in something we've been highlighting for a while: the power of vertical markets. According to ERF founder and ceo Dr. Dean Cubley, the company's strength is its diversified business, which supplies high-capacity wireless services to three main sectors—WISP services for rural business and residential customers, secure wireless communications services for the banking industry, and “nomadic communications solutions” for the energy industry. With this model, Cubley says growth in one sector can counter stagnation in another sector. Right now, ERF's sustained commitment to providing wireless communications services for the energy industry has allowed ERF to be profitable over the last two to three years. When so many other companies are reporting losses and laying off employees, Cubley says ERF is “just having a hard time keeping up with all of the business.”

Cubley founded ERF back in 2004, after decades in the wireless industry. Since then ERF has acquired 16 companies—mostly wireless companies in rural areas and, most recently, in oil and gas producing regions. Now, Cubley says, “anywhere there's oil and gas, we're interested in networks there.” Not only can ERF supply wireless to the energy companies, but as people come into the regions, rural banks and rural customers also look for services, which ERF can supply off of the same networks. “We use a little bit of everything: licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, and what we use depends where we are,” Cubley said. The company uses 6 GHz licensed spectrum on the backbone, typically, but also uses 3.65 GHz in rural areas if there is interference on unlicensed spectrum.

Based in League City, Texas, ERF is well-positioned, geographically, to grow alongside the booming oil and natural gas industry. The nearby Permian Basin spans from west Texas into New Mexico and represents one of the largest oil and natural gas fields in the country. It's a 55-county area where the number of oil rigs has tripled in the last two years, where oil companies have rented hotel rooms a year in advance for their employees, and where the need for manpower seems insatiable. This surge in production and influx of people brings with it the need for wireless connectivity, both for day-to-day business operations and for personal communications. “Our customers operate in very remote areas,” Cubley says, “where it can be a hundred miles or more to the nearest landline, with no towers for wireless connections.” This is where ERF comes in, as a close partner supplying communications services to the oil and gas companies.

ERF operates about 150-200 mobile broadband trailers, each equipped with a 50-foot tower that can be erected by a technician. The trailers can be driven to any remote drilling site and, by connecting back to the company's network, enable powerful high-bandwidth, low-latency wireless broadband in any location. In the past, Cubley says that communications “had been provided by VSATs (satellite), but software designers have developed programs that will not run over VSAT. They [the programs used by oil and gas companies] need high capacity and low latency, and we can provide that kind of system at the same cost as a VSAT.”

Right now, ERF provides this “nomadic solution” in the Southwest and southern Midwest, but Cubley says ERF is opening an office in North Dakota next month. The Williston Basin region of the Dakotas is enjoying a similar (but more recent) energy industry boom, and Cubley said ERF's plan there is to build their own network. “We will be one of the first WISP networks in the area,” Cubley said, “and we chose to build our own network since there are none in the area to buy.”

Cubley said that ERF's business strategy has been to buy and then improve small wireless networks in rural areas—tapping into new sectors of business that can make the networks profitable again. “We can buy a company that is unprofitable and make it profitable almost overnight,” Cubley said. “One of our company's original goals was to set out to acquire wireless in rural areas and use it in ways it hasn't been used before,” with a prime example being wireless networks in oil and gas producing areas.

“We operate as a WISP and have thousands of residential customers scattered throughout the U.S., but that is only 50% of our revenue. For a lot of companies, that is the only thing they're doing. If that is your only service, you have to have extremely large networks, because the margins are so thin. If a company can improve its economies of scale, those margins are much better,” Cubley said. “We're not trying to be the largest network, but use the networks for different purposes to generate more revenue.” According to Cubley, “the margins are 80-90% for the energy industry” and a bit less for the supplying communications services to the banking industry, which ERF also does through its wireless CryptoVue network security system.

Although ERF is sometimes in direct competition with local ILECs and RLECs, Cubley said they do often partner with traditional telcos and small wireless companies. “If we can't buy it or build it, we'll contract for it,” he said. In most cases, ERF will buy wholesale broadband bandwidth and re-sell it to the energy industry. “The problem is,” Cubley said, “sometimes the energy industry has higher standards for capacity and latency, so in some cases we have to pay to upgrade existing carriers' networks.” Right now, ERF has 14 such contracts in the U.S. and Canada, with more likely in the future.

Last week, Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) made headlines when it boasted that its Google Apps customers achieved 99.984% uptime last year, equating to less than 5 minutes of downtime per month and making it more reliable than Microsoft for cloud-hosted services. But more than just competing with Microsoft, Google's reliability is also attractive to rural telcos as they consider converting to Google Apps in order to boost their value and service to customers. With Google Apps, rural telcos are able to offer their customers email through their own telco-branded domain, and provide access to other cloud services like Google's website hosting and document sharing software, as well as Postini virus protection. And some telcos are converting, thanks to NeoNova Network Services, which acts as an authorized reseller of Google Apps to independent and rural telcos and ISPs. Thirteen of NeoNova's independent telco customers have migratied to Google Apps this year, with 27 in total since NeoNova became a Google reseller in 2010.

As Tom Dominico, business manager for Sebastian Corp., says, “It’s hard for companies our size to work directly with Google.” Sebastian Corp. is a rural telco in California, and it operates an ISP business that recently turned to NeoNova Network Services to convert to Google Apps. Based in Morrisville, N.C., NeoNova has been making headlines this year for its role in bringing cloud services to rural telcos and their customers. According to Jane Foreman, “Customers come to NeoNova because we have integrated Google Apps with our subscriber management tool, NovaSubscriber. This tool enables ISPs and service providers to add value to the Google suite of products.” NovaSubscriber allows the telco to have “multi-tier administration support, parent/child relationships with email, archive, account deletion and suspension capabilities, password management, Single Sign On (SSO) management and a suite of customized data migration tools,” Foreman said.

One of NeoNova's most attractive selling points, for ILECs and RLECs alike, is its 24-hour, 7-days-a-week call center, trained specifically to help Google customers with their services. To help telcos transition to Google more smoothly, NeoNova also provides staff training, marketing programs, network design and implementation and project management. The company bills on a per-subscriber basis.

When asked how it benefits telcos to go through NeoNova, Foreman said that “converting end user customers to Google is more than flipping a switch and giving them an email address. When a user is converted by the telco, they open more than a new email address, they open a whole new set of tools that can help them manage their online life.” In the case of Google Apps, customers have access to what Google deems a “suite” of “communications and collaboration,” including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk (IM), Google Docs, Google Sites, and Postini (spam and virus filtering, offered as a separate service).

In addition to Google Apps for residential customers, Foreman said that many of its telco customers are also planning on converting to Google Apps for their business operations as well. As a result, NeoNova will soon offer Google Apps for Business so that small-to-medium companies can enjoy fully managed cloud services.

Of course, migration to the cloud, in general, or to Google Apps, specifically, is nothing new. One of Google's most attractive features is that it offers integrated cloud services that work with a large variety of wired and mobile devices—something that has been useful to state and city governments especially. Back in July I profiled Wyoming's decision to adopt Google Apps for Government for its executive branch; Wyoming was the first, but soon other states followed suit. We've also profiled colleges and universities that have turned to the cloud for data storage, web hosting, file sharing, email, and so on.

But NeoNova's work with rural and independent communications providers brings Google's cloud services to telcos in a way we haven't seen before. Foreman agreed it's a pivotal time for rural telcos, as they look to retain customers and promote additional “value-added” services for their subscribers. Foreman said these independent providers “must now deliver not only high-speed access to broadband, but also the same level of high quality services as the larger Tier I Telcos.” Google Apps is now being used by more than 40m people worldwide, so Foreman believes that adoption of its platform allows rural and small town communities to access the same high-level services as urban users, and to do so without extra investment in hardware or infrastructure on the part of the telco.

For Cass Communications, which deployed Google Apps through NeoNova in February, the need to improve service without a large investment was crucial. It was also important to retain the company's local branding, and Google allowed the Illinois-based telco to do just that. Cass ceo Gerald Gill said that, “To expand our in-house solution would require a large investment in both manpower and hardware... [But] by working with NeoNova to roll out Google with our branding, we will save time, money, and offer the powerful services of Google to our customers.” Telcos who roll out Google Apps are also able to retain their domain branding (for example: [email protected]), something that Foreman says keeps the “local touch” while providing excellent service.

While quality residential email service is certainly a key part of any ISP, the question remains whether it is enough to keep customers. And even if it does retain them, do services like Google Apps bring in additional revenue or just help the company stave off losses? Foreman replied that, “We believe a solid email platform does increase retention. Holding on to recurring revenue customers for longer is the key to profitability for telcos. Even more importantly, the solid platform is the basis for driving new revenue from additional services to the customer. Whether it is computer security, back up, gaming or other products, the stronger the base relationship with the customer, the more comfortable they will be in buying additional services from the telco.”

To date, NeoNova has converted independent telco customers in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Ohio.

USDA Report Details Internet Use and Availability on America's Farms

With so much attention focused on rural broadband these last few months, it's difficult to imagine why last month's “Farm Computer Usage and Ownership” report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture went virtually unacknowledged among rural telecommunications analysts. And yet, the USDA's detailed findings reveal an as-yet unsaturated sector in wireless and broadband technology: the American farm. In the last decade, the number of farms with an internet connection rose by 20%, and more than half of American farms now have access to the internet. But a closer look at the numbers reveals that, of those connected farms, only 11% connect through cable, 38% use DSL, 15% use satellite, 20% use wireless, and 11% still turn to dial-up. Availability is not equal regionally, either, with the West and Northeast enjoying the best coverage and the South suffering from the least opportunity to connect (a little more than half of farms there have computers with internet access).

For the communications provider industry, these farms represent an important “vertical” market, where clever partnerships, federal funding, and local investment can come together to meet sector-specific needs. In the next few months, I'll be taking a closer look at the ways precision agricultural and farming communications technologies are affecting the telecommunications provider industry. I'll also profile companies who are servicing these farms or expanding to provide service there, as well as farmers and other industry insiders who understand the promise of a technologically-connected agriculture sector. Then there's also the recent battle between the widespread use of GPS technology on farms and the potential interruptions from cellular service—as evidenced by the recent Lightsquared uproar we've been following.

The bottom line is that, in communities where internet connections are possible and have even become essential for agriculture, farmers are prepared to make good use of fast, reliable broadband, and they are often frustrated when DSL or dial-up are their only options. In July, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein acknowledged the need to connect rural areas—farms among them—and even gave his rousing speech from a family farm in rural Iowa. Our Cassandra Heyne remarked that Adelstein's sentiments were part of a growing chorus of governmental leaders who hailed broadband as beneficial and even necessary to what I call the Rural Triumvirate: Education, Health Care, and yes, Agriculture. But too few of us in the telecom industry understand how farming communities represent an important vertical market, what they do with internet connectivity, and how investments (public and private alike) are revolutionizing an industry that's as old as this nation.

According to Mike Smith, a farmer who operates a small 40-acre farm in California, “The internet means survival to a lot of small farmers.” Smith says that he and other farmers in his area sell crops directly to customers online, adding “If you don't have a Web site, nobody's going to know about you.” Similarly, Alec Smith (no relation) says that pest control is one of the most important uses for the internet on his farm. He's able to upload pictures of diseased plants to plant specialists across the country, who email him back with suggestions on how to combat the disease or pests. In recent weeks other farmers in Oregon, Iowa, and South Carolina have attested to seemingly immeasurable uses for wireless and broadband on their farms—everything from measuring rainfall and crop fertilizer needs, to checking crop prices and trading agricultural commodity futures.

In fact, the USDA's report underscores what many in the agricultural community take for granted: that one of the keys to more productive and more profitable farming (along with successful farming communities, more broadly) is better Web access. About 40% of smaller U.S. farms are online, with 72% of the largest farms using the internet for farming technologies and farm-related business. The gap in service is a telling one, as precision agriculture technologies—many of which use internet connectivity to store and access data—are becoming the new norm and even proving essential to maintaining profitability and viability. Just this month Purdue University and Crop Life magazine published a survey of 2,500 agricultural dealerships, concluding that precision agriculture is on the rise on United States farms and stating that, in some cases, precision ag resources are now “so common place that they aren't thought of as unique anymore.” As precision technologies become more advanced, better connectivity is crucial.

When it comes to wireless, farmers are beginning to turn to their smart phones and similar mobile devices to check weather forecasts, research farm equipment before buying, get advice on pest control, and communicate with other agriculture specialists. According to PrecisionAg Editor Eric Sfiligoj, “the increasing use of iPhones and Blackberries among agricultural experts [is] one of the up-and-coming trends.” He writes that, “Based upon the evidence, the popularity of smart phones and tablets has grown substantially during the past 12 months, with multiple apps now available covering everything from commodity prices to weather reports. And more are on the way.”

Technology specialist for Crop IMS Jeremy Wilson states that “One of the most significant trends I have seen in the precision ag industry is the increased use of tablets or mobile tools.” These mobile tools allow farmers to be connected globally, even while in the cab of their tractors, so that information can be communicated in a much more timely manner. According to Wilson, “Once the equipment is connected, the sky is the limit to the new functionality that a precision ag manufacturer can design to improve the user experience for the operators.” In other words, precision ag allows the farmer to take to the field what “was once limited to the office where he had an Internet connection.”

The question that remains is what platform will farmers rely on for internet connectivity and when will these services expand to cover underserved areas? The answer likely depends on the region, the cost, the available funding, and the infrastructure already in place, which is why it will be useful to look at examples from across the country and investigate Adelstein's claim that, in rural areas, “recovery is underway.”

Public/Private Partnerships Spur Ultra-High-Speed Internet

When Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) announced in early 2010 that it would build a 1GB fiber network in one lucky city, the company received more than 1,100 applications. Eager citizens and local organizations made the case (sometimes in outlandish ways) for why their cities needed ultra-high-speed networks for their businesses, schools, hospitals, local government, and homes. Elise Kohn, program director for University Community Next Generation Innovation Project (a.k.a., Gig.U), says the Google experiment demonstrated an unprecedented desire for ultra-high-speed networks across the country, making a strong case for why ultra-high-speed networks were essential to U.S. growth. But, as a national investment, who would be willing to pay for such extensive infrastructure? And what sectors would make immediate use of such robust connectivity? According to Kohn and Blair Levin, who is heading up the Gig.U project, research universities and their surrounding communities will be the foundation of the 1GB revolution. These communities conduct top-notch research, scientific innovation, medical advances, and so on, which makes them a vital test-bed for ultra-high-speed capabilities. In short, research universities both “consume and create,” in Kohn's words, and will allow us to see what's capable in the future with 1GB.

“We're not saying everyone in America needs a gig—that's why this is a targeted investment where there's highest demand and highest yield,” Kohn says. At research universities, innovation and development would benefit from faster broadband speeds and even allow new advances in science, engineering, and medicine—key fields to U.S. global competitiveness. “If you look internationally or at what's happening at research universities,” according to Kohn, “there are important reasons that, if you want to be ahead, [1GB] is where it's going.” Not only would an ultra-high-speed network allow for smooth videoconferencing and webcasting, but the improved capabilities and data transfer rates would encourage the development of new applications, research opportunities, and learning tools. As just one example, Kohn sites current innovations in medical technology that, with advanced network capabilities, allow surgeons to practice on life-like 3D projections when training for open-heart surgery.

Kohn also highlights technologies already implemented at Case Western Reserve, a school that she calls “a great champion of Gig.U's plan.” Case Western is one of Gig.U's 30 members and last year set up a pilot program connecting a several block area surrounding campus. The Case Connection Zone now provides 1GB fiber-optic networking to more than 100 homes and has been a test bed for what Gig.U plans to do across the nation. “A number of our members [universities] are very well connected on campus,” Kohn says, “so that's not necessarily where we need to fill a need. But staff, faculty, and researchers go home at night, students live off-campus... and the research and development—the advanced work that they're doing—continues there.”

These dynamic research communities can also attract new businesses to a town or city, according to Lev Gonick, chief information officer at Case Western. Gonick said that within three months of implementing Case Connection Zone, three startups moved to the neighborhood. “Gig.U members came together to address our unique connectivity gap. We intimately understand that for American research institutions to continue to provide leadership in areas important to U.S. competitiveness, we have to act to improve the market opportunity for upgrading the networks in our university communities. We believe a small amount of investment can yield big returns for the American economy and our society,” says Gonick.

And Gig.U agrees with Gonick's more national focus. Its entire leadership team has direct experience with America's broadband needs (and lack) from working in various capacities at the FCC. Levin served as director of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, where he asserted that broadband was essential to American growth and competitiveness and that ultra-high-speed would be key to cutting edge research and development. Kohn says the National Broadband Plan also revealed that ultra-high-speed was not something the federal government would be able to invest in, at least in the short term. So early this year, Levin contacted CIOs at several universities to get the conversation going, and at the end of July Gig.U's project was announced publicly.

Gig.U's member universities come from nearly every region of the country—from the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico to the mountains of Colorado, and from the heartland states of Nebraska and Illinois, to coastal communities in Maine, Florida, and Hawaii. Most importantly, the research universities of Gig.U represent midsized communities which could potentially benefit from advanced connectivity, according to Kohn. “The universities in Gig.U have strong relationships with the communities around them,” Kohn says, “so we're allowing the universities to do the outreach to communities and surrounding areas [to explain the Gig.U initiative].”

Karl Kowalski, chief information technology officer for the University of Alaska System, says he thinks Gig.U's public/private partnership will bring value for the community surrounding University of Alaska. “While much has been done to connect the University of Alaska Fairbanks to major research networks,” he says, “our communities, our partners and our state could advance this research through innovative testbeds and community involvement if ultra-high speed networks were available to all.”

At West Virginia University, another of Gig.U's member companies, Chief Information Officer Rehan Khan says that the group is looking for proposals in order "to deploy networks not in decades but rather within the next several years." The school, along with Gig.U's other members, hopes that new networks will spur local economies and job opportunities in their regions. Jay Cole, WVU chief of staff who initiated the University’s involvement in Gig.U said, "It is the general population we are seeking to serve and encourage to use University innovation to create new jobs and improve the economy."

On Aug. 18, Gig.U issued a Request for Information in the form of an open letter, saying the group will “consider ways in which multiple Project communities can work together... to improve the private sector business case for next-generation networks.” Kohn says the group has sought input from a variety of communications providers—from national providers like AT&T (NYSE:T), Comcast (Nasdaq:CMCSA), Frontier (NYSE:FTR), Windstream (Nasdaq:WIN), and Verizon (NYSE:VZ), to regional providers like Blackfoot Telecommunications Group in Montana and Smithville Communications in Indiana. “We are doing direct outreach to them,” Kohn says, “and they are also coming to member companies and expressing interest. We've also talked with Google, Lucent (NYSE:ALU), Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO), and anyone involved in the ecosystem. If providers in the vicinity of one of our members have an idea for how to meet the needs of that community, together, they should definitely respond. It's a learning exercise.” The Request for Information period will end in November.

It's still hard to tell what Gig.U will look like when implemented, but Kohn says much of that will depend on the specific needs and the network configuration of each member university and its community. The group is not seeking federal funding, however, and new network build outs would be funded by Gig.U members as well as private-sector companies and non-profits who join the project.

When asked about the precariousness of a “build-it-and-they-will-come” approach, Kohn said that scenario isn't really a concern in Gig.U's case. “Research universities and the communities around them already have a history of development, and this really creates a cycle of opportunity.” Kohn says this is not unlike the progression to high-speed from dial-up, in the way that high-speed has become a new standard, while creating new applications and advancements. “The risk/return profile for a private company to help build out these networks is better because of the universities,” according to Kohn. “They're more tech-savvy communities. Give them access now and they'll understand what they can do, and with those advances, more and more will start to need it."