Coastal Oregon Middle Mile (COMM) Broadband Partnership

A Public/Private Partnership between:
Tillamook Lightwave, CoastCom and LS Networks

Tillamook Lightwave (TLW), CoastCom, Inc. and LS Networks are submitting an application to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for a Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program grant. This application will be submitted as a Public/Private partnership, to fund a middle mile infrastructure project to bring an open access fiber network to the rural central Oregon Coast. These Oregon entities have made investments for the benefit of our fellow Oregonians as partners for over five years; we’ve had the vision and demonstrated capabilities to deliver these types of broadband services before stimulus funds were even an option. The availability of economic stimulus funds can provide the opportunity to accelerate our vision to the benefit of our fellow Oregonians. We are contacting you to ask for your support in our application and your endorsement of this worthy project.

Who are the Partners?

TLW is a public entity, authorized by an Oregon ORS Chapter 190 Intergovernmental Agreement between Tillamook People's Utility District, the Port of Tillamook Bay and Tillamook County. Their mission is to build fiber optic infrastructure in Tillamook County to promote economic development and bring Tillamook County across the digital divide. CoastCom and LS Networks are private entities, both Oregon corporations with Oregon PUC authority to operate as Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC), both in the business of providing high speed telecommunications to communities in Oregon. LS Networks is a statewide network provider and CoastCom provides services on the Oregon Coast, both companies specialize in providing services to key community anchor institutions such as local government, health care, educational, and business entities. All three of the entities have a long standing good relationship, having been partners for several years.

What is the Project?

In the summer of 2009, TLW and CoastCom purchased an existing 100 mile underground fiber route from Pacific City, a coastal community in south Tillamook County, to Beaverton near the Portland Metro Area from a bankrupt telecom company. When purchased, this 100 mile underground fiber route was known to have breaks in the fiber in five different areas, and ends in Beaverton with no connection to downtown Portland. Part of the grant funding would be used to repair this fiber route and to connect it to existing fiber in Beaverton that connects to the Pittock Building, the key Internet access on-ramp in Oregon. Also part of the funding requested would be for building new fiber routes from Tillamook to Beaver, and from Pacific City to Newport, and numerous lateral builds to connect key community anchor institutions along the way. These new fiber routes would connect to existing LS Networks fiber routes which would form a fiber ring to protect and serve the central Oregon Coast. The remainder of the requested funding would be for network equipment to make the fiber routes usable to the communities it passes through.

Why should I support the Project?

Fiber optics routes from the Oregon Coast to Portland are few and far in between, most routes being owned by submarine cable operators that will not break out services to the local rural coastal communities, and the remaining fiber routes are owned by telephone and cable companies that will not lease dark fiber in those routes to competitive carriers. Dark fiber is simply strands of fibers in a cable that are unused, as there are no active electronics on these fibers that would distinguish them as lit. Phone company policies on dark fiber leases only allow for competitive carriers that are collocated in their central offices to connect between their own central offices, so a fiber connection between the different phone company territories on their fiber is impossible. The cable company has a similar policy, but more restrictive, their policy is no dark fiber leases to competitive carriers. Thus the need for an open access, carrier neutral fiber optic routes along the Coast and to the Portland Metro area that allow for competition of broadband services, which in turn provides more cost effective services to all rural coastal communities. It also adds another route for protection of vital public services. Anyone living on the coast knows that widespread outages are all too common and this new route to Portland would be a cost effective way for existing carriers to back up their primary routes to protect these services. This project includes funding for numerous fiber optic builds to key community anchor institutions, including facilities that serve in the following sectors: public safety, law enforcement, emergency services, schools, community colleges, health care, local government, fire districts, critical electrical infrastructure substationsand smart grid, and one Native American Tribe. Without this grant these types of facilities would have to do without the benefits of improved broadband service for many years to come, if in fact, they would ever see it happen.

What can I do to help support your Project?

We are looking for letters that support our application from any organizations or individuals that are in the service areas of our proposed project. For those of you that are included in the proposed project where the plan includes building fiber into your facilities, we will be contacting you personally to get an idea of what services you would be interested in. Our application must include revenue projections that prove this project is viable and sustainable and we will need your help with those estimates. If you are interested, we have a few different templates of sample letters of support available below.

Sample letter - Anchor Institution
Sample letter - Community Member
Sample letter - Existing Public Partners
Key Points for COMM Broadband Project

Letters should be written attention:
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
1401 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20230

And scanned and emailed to info@coastcom.net or mailed to:
CoastCom, Inc.
151 E Olive St.
Newport, OR 97365

If you have any questions or need more information, please feel free to contact any of the Partners listed below. We sincerely appreciate your support.

Greg Palser President CoastCom, Inc. 541-574-4202 greg@coastcom.net	Paul Levesque President Tillamook Lightwave 503-842-1809 plevesqu@co.tillamook.or.us	Michele Bradley General Manager Port of Tillamook Bay 503-842-2413 mbradley@potb.org
Pat Ashby Tillamook PUD 503-815-8640 pashby@tpud.org	Michael Weidman President/CEO LS Networks 503-294-5300 mweidman@lsnetworks.net