Gigabit Squared sees possibilities in Monticello’s fiber network

The Ohio-based company that Monticello is tapping to fix its troubled broadband network is a new player on the national scene that is trying to figure out a next-generation approach to bringing high-speed Internet to people's homes.

The Monticello city council last night voted to bring in Gigabit Squared to run its struggling, publicly-owned broadband network, as MPR News' Conrad Wilson reported here.

The company will conduct a 90-day study of the network and run it for at least six months. The move follows two recent developments related to Monticello's network, called FiberNet. First, the network's management company bowed out and then the city stopped making payments toward $26 million in revenue bonds used to build the network.

Gigabit Squared recently became involved in a high-profile, $200 million project to bring ultra-high-speed broadband to up to six college towns in conjunction with the Gig.U program. (A phone call this morning to company CEO Mark Ansboury wasn't returned.)

According to one story, on a San-Francisco-based website called GigaOM, Gigabit Squared has ambitious plans and aims to "change the economics of delivering fiber to the home for cities across the country... and bring gigabit speeds to as many places as possible."

The article's author, Stacey Higginbotham, interviewed Ansboury, who said his company finds investment money in a variety of places, public and private. For the Gig.U project, the money came from a range of companies including Alcatel-Lucent and a Chicago investment bank. Participating communities are expected to make deployment easier by minimizing logistical and political obstacles.

When it comes to municipal projects, it sounds like Ansboury's philosophy revolves around public/private partnerships and he doesn't mind if a city wants to own its network's infrastructure. "We think of ourselves like a developer," he said to GigaOM. "We have a road map we've created to help deploy these networks. We lay out a path for communities to follow."

Of course there are investors to consider and Ansboury said a return might come from selling unused network capacity to other ISPs or even companies like Netflix--perhaps reflecting a strategy for Monticello. "We realize that if we want to get high take rates and be hyperlocal, we have to think differently and part of that means you have to change that paradigm. You have to be a triple-play provider with broadband video and voice but that's not only it. With the emergence of over the top services and big bandwidth sucking applications we are creating an open access strategy that allows for a town to have something like a digital economic development service model."

The Monticello project is the first substantial effort in Minnesota for Gigabit Squared, although its website lists Ramsey County/City of St. Paul as clients as well.

Gigabit Squared technician Mark Pultusker told Wilson Monday night that the company is looking for a partnership and is viewing FiberNet through the lens of potential ownership. Pultusker said Gigabit Squared has financial resources to help grow FiberNet if necessary.

Chris Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who keeps close track of broadband matters in the state, wrote via email that he's "excited to see what they do... The thing that I think sets them apart is that they are not trying to just duplicate the triple play model of telephone, broadband, and television. They are trying to innovate and create what comes next using very high capacity networks."

If you want to hear Ansboury describe his ideas first hand, you can listen to this hour-long interview on Gigabit Nation: Broadband Talk Radio.

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