WEST FRANKFORT — The winds of change are blowing. Those individuals and communities that understand the age of technology in general and high-speed communication specifically will be ahead of the curve when it comes to success.

This principle applies equally to governmental agencies and the private sector.

A Benton man, Steven Mitchell, and a West Frankfort city official, Steve Cook, have taken the lead in forming a network that could be beneficial to anyone interested.

A group of such people recently held a meeting on the subject in the Old Firehouse at the Van Acker building in West Frankfort.

“People are really looking into this plan,” Cook said. “This project could serve as a model for others around the state.” It represents “the cutting edge of technology,” according to Cook.
The primary purpose of the project was to provide reliable and affordable business-class broadband Internet access to Benton and West Frankfort, while allowing for high-speed and secure data transfer between the participating entities. The need for affordable high-speed Internet access was already proven, but the opportunities that a secure data transfer method would afford are still in the early stages.

“This is a rare opportunity for Franklin County to be the leader in a project that has few comparisons in the state, let alone the rest of the nation,” Mitchell said. “This project really shows what can happen when communities work together. It’s good to see that we can leave the competition between us on the ball field Friday night and roll up our sleeves on Monday morning to work together on projects that really count.”

He added that “this project would not be where it is today without the support that our elected leaders in Benton, West Frankfort and Franklin County have given it.”

Brad Housewright of RidgeViewTel, who is chairman of ConnectSI’s Network Provider Community of Interest, provided details about the concept of a “community fiber optic ring” to Mitchell.

Mitchell is employed by ManTraCon and is also the coordinator for the Network Providers. When contacted by Mitchell, the mayors of both communities and the FREDCO board were very interested in moving forward with the project.

Mitchell acted as liaison for the city of Benton, FREDCO and ConnectSI, while Cook, the economic developer, worked on behalf of West Frankfort.

The project was originally conceived as a city-owned fiber-optic ring that would circle each community, linking all major entities in the two towns. Under that plan, the two rings would be joined by a stretch of cable running down Route 37.

The plan is comprehensive. The potential participants were to be the major businesses in both communities, business, industrial parks, the Franklin Hospital and other healthcare providers, as well as schools, other private businesses and government offices. A Delta Regional Authority grant was considered the ideal funding method.

To improve the likelihood of getting the DRA grant approved, the two rings were broken down into segments, with the hope of getting one segment in each community funded each year until they were both completed and joined.

The segments were then identified, quotes on installing the fiber-optic cable were obtained, and the grants were submitted in January 2008. In mid May, it was learned that both communities were to receive partial, but not complete, funding of the two projects. The city of Benton decided that it could not afford to finance the shortfall in funding, and opted not to proceed any further with the grant process. However, West Frankfort decided that it would move forward with the project.

In order to get the ring built as envisioned — one that included both Benton and West Frankfort — a new approach for ConnectSI and strategy for network design was formed with assistance from ViTAL Economy consultants. A Request for Proposal was assembled and released to the Internet Service Providers affiliated with ConnectSI.

Norlight Telecommunications, Inc., responded positively to the opportunity. Their proposal, simply stated, would be much smaller but would still include access to those participating businesses, and it would still connect the cities’ rings together. The project would not rely on grants or outside funding, but would be financed by the company and paid for through the monthly access fees of the participating entities.

The pricing on the original proposal was reasonable, according to Mitchell. For about the price of a 1.5 MB connection through the local phone company, those participating in the fiber project can attach to the ring with 100 MB of throughput to anywhere else on the ring and get 10 MB of Internet access.  There would be no installation fees, and the data transfer rates would be guaranteed, Mitchell said.

To make the project work for the communities and the carrier, there must be between 35 and 40 entities participating. If there are fewer than 35, the price could go up; if there are more than 40, the price could go down.

Considering the bandwidth (10 MB) and the monthly fee offered in the Norlight proposal, it was assumed that those interested in the project would be those that are currently using T1’s to provide site-to-site connectivity and Internet bandwidth.  A T1 is a traditional telecommunication method that costs in the range $450 to $700 per month and provides 1.5 MB of bandwidth. While this will be an open network, with anyone that is interested welcome to join, the types of customers originally envisioned include healthcare, law enforcement, emergency responders, education, business and government (local/county).

The benefits to the various groups really depend on their line of work but essentially come down to two things: affordable cost and increased capability. In the case of healthcare, diagnostic images, such as X-rays and MRI’s, are often produced in one facility and read/diagnosed in another. The electronic files that contain the images are often quite large and can take some time to download to the receiving location. In an emergency situation, time is of the essence, so reducing that time can have great impact on the health of a patient. If a healthcare facility is currently using 3 T1’s to access the data it needs, this Franklin County fiber ring could provide twice the download speed that they currently utilize.

According to Mitchell, another group that could stand to benefit from this proposal includes smaller Internet Service Providers and, in particular, wireless ISP’s (WISP’s).  WISP’s use T1’s to provide Internet access to their customers, often paying similar fees as other business customers. This project could open up the areas immediately outside Benton and West Frankfort that currently do not have access to high-speed Internet by allowing ISP’s and WISP’s to access the fiber ring as a replacement to comparatively slow and expensive T1’s.

ConnectSI is dedicated to economic development in the 20 southernmost counties of Illinois by using affordable high-speed Internet access and healthcare as vehicles that help drive development in our communities. A project that offers higher bandwidth at affordable prices, while expanding the availability and accessibility of high speed Internet access, fits right in to ConnectSI’s goals. 

“This Connect SI approach and its impact on Southern Illinois network can be profound.  There would be an ability to transfer diagnostic images between far-flung healthcare facilities at previously unimaginable speeds, saving time and saving lives,” Mitchell said. “Opportunities open up for schools to work together and share information.  Our business and industrial parks look much more inviting to outside businesses considering relocation. Existing businesses can find new ways to work with vendors and reduce costs. The possibilities are endless and limited only by our imaginations.”

Anyone with questions is invited to contact Mitchell with ConnectSI at (618) 998-0970, ext. 219.