On Sunday I enjoyed a ride thorugh mostly sunny weather across the Upper Peninsula and back downstate.
Along the way, in Gaylord, I met with Ron Siegel, general manager of the Curran-based Allband Communications Cooperative.
You may remember Allband from a few Tech Tours ago, when I stopped in on them on the way up to the UP. Allband was created by John M. Riegle, who moved to the remote area between Alpena and Gaylord 12 years ago, only to discover that not only could he not get high-speed Internet access -- he couldn't even get BASIC PHONE SERVICE.
It seems there's this 177-sqaure-mile area, a patchwork of rectangles around the four-corners intersection of Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency and Oscoda counties, populated by only a few hundred people, where a local phone provider has never been designated. It's surrounded by Verizon territory but not part of it. The Michigan Public Service Commission told Riegle that if he wanted phone service he'd better start his own company -- and that's what he did. State officials gave him money to start the nonprofit Allband, and Clark Hill attorney Don Kesky helped steer him to a United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan of $8 million to launch the system, which hooked up its first customer in 2005.
Allband is now an official ILEC, or Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier, for what's called the Robbs Creek Exchange -- in other words, the basic local phone company, like AT&T or Verizon for its area.
Siegel said the cooperative now has 98 active customers and hopes to hit 175 by this summer toward an ultimate goal of 250 to 300. Thanks to subsidies from the federal Universal Service Fund, the cooperative is now cash flow positive. It has also created four jobs in an area known for persistent high unemployment.
Its customers get state-of-the-art fiber-to-the-home service -- quality voice service as well as Internet service of 3 megabytes per second download (soon to be expanded to 6 megabytes).
The system could also handle cable TV, but Siegel said it's hard to justify half a million dollars for a TV head end system for only 100 customers (cable TV isn't federally subsidized as basic phone service is).
Allband currently has two new proposals before state and federal regulators. It wants to be allowed to serve areas adjacent to its ILEC service area -- areas supposedly in the Verizon footprint, but where Verizon has never built trunklines, and where customers are supposedly told by Verizon that they'll have to pay $20,000 to get phone service.
Allband is also seeking permission to provide service in another crazy-quilt of currently unserved land, totaling perhaps 300 houses, in Alcona, Gladwin, Iosco, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda and Presque Isle counties.
Siegel also said Allband provides computer installation and education on how to use the Internet to its customers, including elderly residents who formerly lived in isolation.
"It's fun seeing that -- it makes your job worthwhile, making their lives better," Siegel said.
More at www.allband.org.
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