Dan Olsen, director of operations for Windomnet, a high-speed Internet-access fiber optic network in Windom, Minnesota, spoke to a packed house in the commissioners’ room at the Cook County Courthouse at a gathering in February. This was the second of two presentations that day – the other at Arrowhead Electric Cooperative in Lutsen – intended to help business owners and managers understand the opportunities that would come with the fiber optic network Arrowhead Electric Cooperative will be installing throughout the county thanks to a federal stimulus grant.
According to a news release sent out by Boreal Access, Windom was one of the first cities in the country to bring fiber optic cable to every building in the city. This was made possible by a grant and loan to Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services that brought fiber optic infrastructure to eight different communities.
Jim Boyd helped introduce the talk, stating that fiber optic technology is needed in order to create living wage jobs for our area’s youth and to keep Cook County’s “ma and pa” businesses alive. He said the owner of a well drilling company in the West End of Cook County told him that his business had lost about $60,000 within the last 10 days because his satellite Internet connection was out.
Benefits of high speed Internet
Olsen outlined a little of Windomnet’s history, saying that in 2002, Windom realized it needed to update its failing cable system. After one referendum authorizing fiber optic network funding failed, a second one passed with 87% approval, Olsen said. Every building in the city was wired, even the grain silos. “We have the most wired gas station in the country,” he quipped.
Now, grocery store owners can discuss their ads with graphic designers over the phone while viewing them online.
A trucking company that couldn’t get the Internet service it needed from the telephone company convinced the city to extend its fiber optic line outside the city limits, Olsen said. This kept the business from moving to Roswell, New Mexico.
Toro, maker of lawnmowers and snow blowers and employer of 600 workers in Windom, tracks its inventory with meticulous detail via the Internet, Olsen said.
Olsen’s family has come to rely on the Internet service they get in Windom. His mother has no Internet access, but when he brings his family to visit her, they drive to a friend’s house down the street and sit in the driveway gleaning off his wireless. Olsen checks his emails from work and his teenager checks her Facebook while his friend sits in the house and shakes his head.
Olsen sees the Internet playing a huge role in our future. He believes cell phones will eventually be replaced with Smart Phones using Internet Providers (IPs). He said he had a cabin in Wisconsin that he hooked up to DSL – phone line Internet access. Not only could he view his property in real time on a webcam, he could change the thermostat setting from his home.
When he worked in Harlan, Iowa, a company specializing in processing paperwork struggled with significant fluctuations in its workload, causing major staffing problems. It was able to vastly improve efficiency by hiring employees who could work from home using technology installed for them by the company. The employees spoke by phone with customers, who reported how much they appreciated talking with “grandmotherly types” who would ask them how their day was going.
Arrowhead Electric’s project
Joe Buttweiler of Arrowhead Electric said their grant requires that their fiber optic build-out be completed by the end of 2012. While they will not offer TV channels, he said, “we will be providing a service that’s larger, faster, and cheaper.” They do not have customer costs entirely determined yet.
Arrowhead Electric could make money from the fiber optic network, Buttweiler said, but they have chosen not to because they want to provide services inexpensively. The system will create jobs as well, he said.
Offering TV channels would cost an additional million dollars because it’s not included in the grant. To make TV channels financially viable, seven-tenths of the population would need to subscribe, Buttweiler said, and getting seven out of 10 people in Cook County to agree on anything is difficult! This brought a laugh from the crowd. A lot of TV is moving to the Internet anyway, he added.
Howard Abrahamson said that because this will be an “open-access” system, any company that thinks it could make money off this system has a right to use it, although they would have to pay to be on it.
Buttweiler said that because a lot of stimulus grants are funding fiber optic projects right now, contractors are expected to become quite busy, and their prices might start going up. Arrowhead Electric is determined not to use its electrical assets as collateral or to risk them in any way. This project will involve a $4 million loan that they have 24 years to pay off, he said.
The success of Cadillac service
Olsen indicated that the price of Windomnet’s service is not rock bottom. It’s not a Walmart-priced system because it’s not a Walmart-type of product, he said – it’s a Cadillac-type of product. Businesses and residences are charged the same rate in Windom. “That’s a good plan!” a local business owner called out.
Olsen said he has heard stories claiming that Windomnet has not been a success, but these have been rumored by their competitors, large companies like Qwest, who have not reflected an accurate picture of Windomnet’s operation. While the system may have replaced some business from outside Windom, it has created local jobs.
Olsen has over 30 years experience in the telecommunications field and has overseen systems in Iowa, California, and Illinois. According to Boreal Access, he launched Chicago’s first residential broadband service. He has been with Windomnet since 2005. Olsen’s visit was sponsored by Cook County Higher Education and the University of Minnesota-Extension’s Center for Community Vitality.
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