Officials look to fill telecommunication gaps
JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Company officials who receive assistance and advice at a new business incubator at the University of Wyoming will have a super state-of-the-art information technology center at their disposal.
The business incubator, set to open in the fall, has high-speed broadnet and redundant backups to ensure that the computer server always is up, said Jonathan Benson, the chief executive officer of the Wyoming Technology Business Center. For example, the incubator will have two air conditioning units and two generators. If one fails, the second unit kicks in automatically to keep the data center humming.
No stunning crashes here in high-tech nirvana.
It's possible that a business owner, having received services from the center, including a plan to expand the business, will leave the security of the center for the wide, sometimes empty world of Wyoming telecommunications.
There is no Wyoming telecommunications map to identify areas that are and are not "wired."
If a company moves into an area without broadband, it will need connectivity back to the data center, Benson said.
"I don't think you can underestimate the importance of good broadband connectivity to the economic development of high-growth companies," Benson said.
As state leaders work to diversify Wyoming's economy, experts say access to top-flight telecommunications infrastructure is vital. The issue is the topic of a Wyoming Telecommunications Forum Thursday and Friday in Casper. Legislators, regulators, industry stakeholders and consumer advocacy groups are slated to discuss how to fill gaps in service in the state and to encourage expansion of broadband into those areas.
The gaps are significant, said Nina Cornell of Meeteetse, chairwoman of the Wyoming Telecommunications Council.
She said the state has "pockets" that are well-wired and other areas that are not.
"There are firms coming in and looking at little pieces, not the whole state," Cornell said. "It's being done, frankly, by a large number of companies. This isn't something that's going to be done by government. This is going to be done by private enterprise."
At this rate, she said, it's going to take a while before the entire state is wired.
Others say Wyoming is remarkably well-wired, considering its size and small population.
Getting started
The UW center will be a mixed-function incubator for technology-related business start-ups.
According to the UW Web site, the mission of the Wyoming Technology Business Center Corp. is to manage a general purpose, not-for-profit incubator that provides business development assistance to entrepreneurs in Wyoming.
This includes educational programs, mentoring programs, business services, and appropriate space and infrastructure so that a fertile environment is created that enhances the development of new businesses and furthers the evolution of new ideas into the greater community through the channels of commercial activity.
Medicine Bow Technologies Inc. will be one of the anchor clients in the center, said Roy Crookshanks, chief information officer of Ivinson Memorial Hospital.
The Wyoming Technology Business Center, he said, offers big-time infrastructure to companies such as his that cannot put together such systems by themselves. Medicine Bow will act as host to other hospitals to transmit patient and other information.
Bandwidth is all-important for Medicine Bow Technologies, he said, because this operation will be transmitting not only word text among hospitals but also images of patient X-rays.
Another client for the center is Thought Equity Management Inc., an emerging company with an office in Laramie that provides motion stock footage for television, motion pictures and companies that produce videos, said Holly Hamann, vice president for marketing.
Thought Equity wanted a slot in the center, Hamann said, because Wyoming is "one of the most highly educated and technologically advanced communications states in the country."
It also is in an ideal region to serve the company's international customers, she added.
Government's role
Some fear that the UW center will start businesses that will have to leave the state to find the technology they need.
But Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said he believes Wyoming is in good shape when it comes to telecommunications, given the state's low population density.
"I think where there's a demand, and people are willing to pay for it, we are incredibly well wired," Case said.
Although there are areas we are not doing well in telecommunications, overall the picture is good, Case said.
Telemarkets are best worked in the private sector, he said, not the government sector.
"I think government and telecom is kind of a bad mix, but I don't believe the telecom council looks at it that way," Case added.
Cornell said the Telecommunications Council is gathering information about state policies that may be hindering the expansion of broadband.
"What we're trying to do as a council is to encourage people to keep looking," she said.
She noted that a private firm is looking at putting fiber optics in Powell. If that's successful, it might be a model for other places in the state, she said.
Sweetwater County and the city of Rock Springs have been exploring a publicly owned fiber-optic system.
Cornell said companies install networks in locations where they can do so fairly easily. If they get enough people taking services from the network, that gives them the capital to expand into other places.
Some of the applications that use broadband can be provided by satellite, but not all.
Terrestrial wireless, like cell phone towers, she said, has gone into some locations around the state, and various firms are looking at expanding the wireless applications.
Sean Mills, director of marketing for wyoming.com, said the state is getting closer to being covered by broadband. The only towns without access now are those with fewer than 200 residents, he said. Even communities in the middle of nowhere can get satellite service.
If 10 people are willing to sign up for the Internet service, his company will send out an engineer, he said.
Tucker Fagan, director of the Wyoming Business Council, said the market will drive companies that provide broadband services. The state is much better off when it comes to telecommunications than it was five years ago, although there still are missed areas, he said.
The Business Ready Communities state grant program allows grants for telecommunications infrastructure, although no public entity has yet to apply for one, Fagan said.
"I'm not sure it's the right thing for the cities, towns and counties to own the black boxes," Fagan said. "To me they're like computers. In two, four or six years, you know the black box is not going to be viable."
Fagan said he would rather see local governments contract for services they need, but he couldn't predict what the 15 Business Council members would do if they get a grant application.
Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.