ON THE BRINK OF A WATERSHED
One gigabit broadband technology puts the U.S. on the brink of a watershed. The Google Broadband Initiative is exactly the catalyst to get the water flowing.
My name is Sheryll Bonilla and I am a mother of two young children. I humbly ask that Google select Hawaii as the test site for its Broadband Initiative. Hawaii is the optimal site for the demonstration because
• new projects are in the works with global partners that have the clout to exert influence within their industries, so that the Gigabit Broadband Initiative will have strong, broad impact;
• the infrastructure is already in place within many sectors where gigabit broadband will be the break-through in dealing with societal challenges; and
• deployment will be faster because the entire state is hooked up by cable, telephone, and electricity, our compact state has year-round summer conditions, and our convenient, highly centralized structure is unique among the 50 states.
This 14-page paper discusses Timing, Innovation, Deployment, Government Structure & Community, Applications, and Lessons of History.
Timing
Timing is a great reason for Google to select Hawaii as its test site. National and international partners with industry clout and resources are establishing themselves in Hawaii. These entities can influence their competitors to drive gigabit broadband availability across the country.
• Hawaii Animation Studios opened on February 11, 2010. It is a CGI studio begun with the vision of three professionals with a long history in the industry: John Morch, Jeff Bell, and Dan Krech. It is producing two new "VeggieTales" DVDs in partnership with Big Idea Entertainment, as well as a Discovery Channel special and IMAX space production.
• Disney's Aulani Resort & Spa is scheduled to open in 2011 with more than 800 units for the Disney Vacation Club. It will include a convention center, children's club and other resort amenities.
• The Ray and Joan Kroc (McDonald's) Community Center will be completed in late 2011. It is one of only six that the Kroc Foundation will build in the western U.S. The 120,000 square foot center is expected to serve 2,000+ individuals a day.
• Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Industries, noted in his Branson News Watch Hawaii's preparation for a spaceport license to host space tourism, which is a particular interest of Sir Richard's.
• The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be built atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island, with expected completion in 2018. The design development phase has been completed. The TMT is a collaborative effort of astronomers and research facilities of Japan, China, Canada, and the United States.
• A remake of the television series "Hawaii 5-0" will start soon in Hawaii. The original series was wildly popular internationally.
• Los Angeles-based SMH Partners plans to build a $109 million film studio in Kapolei. Oahu already has Diamond Head studios and Kaaawa Valley film sites.
• The University of Hawaii's West Oahu campus broke ground in 2009 and will open in 2011. One feature is its media focus, in conjunction with the film studio.
• The Honolulu Rail Transit is in the home stretch before construction begins.
Innovation
Hawaii is an innovative state. Its strong military presence has played a significant role in that. The military is characteristically open to technological advances and funds research projects for this. The state of Hawaii also encourages and funds technological innovation through its Hawaii Technology Development Venture and the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. This is a short, incomplete list of some of the technological advances that have been developed in Hawaii.
• Oceanit's LIDAR wind-sensing system with its 3D-scanning capabilities will make existing LIDAR systems and meterological towers obsolete. The system was designed for aviation weather safety and observations systems.
• Oceanit's Inspecta puts civil defense reporting in real time. Its iPhone-based system allows disaster inspectors to securely transmit photos, forms, and other data immediately to civil defense headquarters, bringing much needed speed and efficiency to the process. Automatically geotagged data allows forms and photos to be mapped so emergency systems responders at headquarters can see the extent of the damage at precise locations.
• Concentris's RapidLink MeshCore instantly forms wireless mesh networks to enable data, voice, and video applications with radio options. The networks instantly find each other and self-heal if any of them are disabled or destroyed. Among the uses are monitoring volcanic / seismic action and robots that disarm explosive devices.
• Williams Aerospace designs and builds unmanned aerial vehicles that can be equipped with cameras to see over hills or barriers. These can be used for military, agricultural, law enforcement, or security markets purposes.
• Islanda Tech has been developing cloud computing in 2006, and launched last year. Installation has been so brisk that it expects to have several hundred systems installed in Hawaii by 2011.
• Fatigue Science's ReadiBand is Bluetooth-enabled telemedicine device for home monitoring of patients.
• Terasys's Radio Frequency Co-Site Interference filter allows soldiers to prevent enemy bomb detonation while allowing ground troops to communicate.
• In the early 1990s in Hawaii, Dr. Brian Martin developed the virtual medical record with linkage to electronic claims processing. He then moved to the mainland to become one of the early product architects of WebMD.
• E-Bay founder Pierre Omidyar is from Hawaii. Mr. Omidyar and his family reside in Hawaii.
• AOL founder Steve Case is from Hawaii.
• The precursor to the Ethernet was developed at the University of Hawaii in the 1960s. In 1971 ALOHANET established a terrestrial data network in-state. By 1973, satellite hook-up connected it with NASA, Australia, Japan, and ARPANet in the continental U.S. Xerox's PARC researchers took interest in the ALOHANET and went on to create the Ethernet protocol. The ALOHA random access design was used in the 2G mobile networks of the 1990s.
• Lifebed technology, reminiscent of Dr. McCoy’s sickbay bed in “Star Trek,” was developed here by Hoana Medical, Inc., funded by military research dollars.
• The people of Hawaii have been consistent leaders in adoption of new technologies with the highest penetration of cellular telephones and the first phase of broadband internet in the 1990s.
• Hawaii was the 7th U.S. region to receive RoadRunner broadband internet in 1997 based on technology demographics and Hawaii's history of technical innovation.
• Free wi-fi was installed in the State Capitol in 2006. Free wi-fi was installed across downtown Honolulu in 2007.
Deployment
Hawaii is the optimal test site because the infrastructure already exists statewide. Although there is no FTTH, Hawaii has an abundance of fiber optic cables that are used for distance learning in the University of Hawaii and telemedicine in public hospitals.
All conduits for cable have already been laid throughout the state for both telephone (Hawaiian Telecom), and television (Oceanic Cable Time Warner), both of which offer DSL Broadband. Internet speeds run to 11 Mbps for Hawaiian Telcom and 8 Mbps for Time Warner. Hawaii's mountain ranges made antennas unfeasible, so cable was long ago the deployment means of choice, putting Hawaii ahead of the country.
Hawaiian Telcom (after Verizon) and Oceanic Cable (Time Warner) use copper twisted pair and coaxial cable, respectively, to deliver higher speed internet connectivity and better video services. Remote equipment is connected to their primary offices via fiber, and advanced electronic devices deliver broadband to home with existing cabling.
Major wireless internet companies have statewide presence: AT&T, Sprint Nextel (along with Boost), Mobi, Clear, and Verizon.
Hawaiian Electric Company, including its subsidiaries, provides electricity statewide, except for the island of Kauai. The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, provides electricity island-wide.
Government Structure & Community
Hawaii has the most centralized structure in the country, making it easier to deal with the regulatory aspects of deployment, engage in collaborations to demonstrate the benefits of one gigabit broadband, and have larger data collection pools for proof.
Tourism. Tourism is our top industry. Hawaii hosts an average 200,000 visitors a day, for an annual total of about 7.5 million visitors. Honolulu International Airport and our neighbor island airports see 25 million passengers passing through each year.
Government Structure. We have the easiest government structure in the entire country, only two layers - the state and four island counties. There are no townships, cities, municipalities, unincorporated areas, or watching the longitude and latitude for where a government’s authority ends. As the only island state in the union, our counties have the clearest, easy-to-see demarcations in the entire U.S. When your feet reach the end of the sand and step into the ocean, you’ve hit the county borders.
Creating hubs for a broadband-based community will be far easier because of the simplicity of our structure. The state has only one
• Department of Education (the only centralized one in the country), overseeing all 300 public and charter schools with its 170,000 students - 14 community schools for adults - and 51 public library branches statewide. The Hawaii Association of Independent Schools is the point of contact for our private schools. Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii is the point of contact for homeschoolers;
• Public Utilities Commission;
• Bureau of Conveyances for researching and recording land related transactions (other states use county recording systems);
• University of Hawaii system with ten campuses and 54,000 students;
• Judiciary, with all 13 courts throughout the state falling within its system, and mandatory bar membership of all attorneys in the state (roughly 8,000); and
• Hawaii Health Systems with its 14 public hospitals, already connected by a fiber optics-based telecommunications system (STAN). The Health Care Association of Hawaii is a point of contact for private sector providers.
Population & Size. The islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Kauai (total area, 2277 square miles) are home to 1.2 million Hawaii residents. The remaining 130,000 live on the 4000 square miles of the Big Island.
Film & TV. Thanks to our spectacular beauty and our helpful state film office, Hawaii has a thriving film and TV industry. "50 First Dates," "George of the Jungle," Janet Jackson's musical video, "Jurassic Park," "Godzilla," the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series, “Lost,” and the new “Hawaii 5-0” are among the many productions shot in Hawaii.
Military. The armed forces are our second most important industry. The military is characteristically open to technological advances – mobile phone technology, the precursor to the internet, the Lifebed, infrared and heat detecting technology – all of these developments and others came from military research. Approximately 81,610 troops and their family members are in Hawaii. Housing on military bases is in the early portions of their 50 year contracts, and are being built to LEED standards, complete with photovoltaic panels, proof of embracing technological advances.
Applications
The United States is at a point where our current use of technology has reached its limit in dealing with social issues, where break-through can only be achieved through new technology that expands our abilities. That technology is ultra-high speed internet. In our compact state are many sectors where Google can demonstrate the break-throughs that can be made in tackling many of the issues facing society today. The infrastructure is in place and only needs the catalyst that gigabit broadband provides.
Reducing State Budgets
The Hawaii State Senate is firm proof that going online can reduce state budgets, thanks to President Colleen Hanabusa, the first Asian-American woman to preside over a state legislative chamber in the U.S. In 2007, she directed the Senate to go paperless, and since 2009 the Senate has been fully on-line. The cost savings she achieved averted the 1,100 layoffs and 10% payroll cuts that befell every other state department.
In the Senate, all bills, testimonies, and hearing notices are now on the internet, making public access immediate and available statewide. On top of public convenience, the initiative prevented millions of pages of paper from entering our landfills and saved countless numbers of trees, proving that using technology is great for the environment.
Governments spend tremendous amounts across its many departments for IT hardware purchase, maintenance, upgrades, IT staff, as well as toner, paper, filing cabinets, file folders, labels, and space for storing all of these. Going online helps governments reduce these high on-going costs and greatly improve efficiency. Agency efficiency can be improved through consolidating IT among its different office sites offices. Trimming IT also cuts government electricity costs.
Revitalizing the Economy
Cloud Computing. Gigabit broadband-powered cloud computing can help businesses remain viable and spur entrepreneurship. Start-up costs for hardware and software can be prohibitive. The recovery period lessens a company's bottom line in its early stages. Cloud computing is hardware and software as a service. A company uses PCs to gain access to hardware and software, eliminating the need for physical purchase, installation and maintenance. Businesses gain reliability, redundancy, security, and disaster recovery by transferring hardware and software to an off-site service provider.
Businesses can cut 40%-50% of start-up costs, as well as the high costs of maintaining and updating the system, renting space for the system and IT staff, as well as the electricity to run both the IT system and the air conditioning to cool it. Lower initial capitalization means more entrepreneurs can afford to start a business. Lower operating expense helps businesses maintain their viability. Retailers, for example, save huge amounts by not having to put servers in every store then consolidate data in a central server, on top of conversions to Point Of Sale terminals.
Islanda Tech has been developing the cloud computing concept here in Hawaii since 2006 and launched in 2009. Installation has been so brisk that Islanda Tech projects that several hundred systems will be in operation in Hawaii by 2011. Among the companies for which cloud computing has already become the silver lining of their business are statewide retail chain stores, accounting firms, insurance companies, the YMCA, and KNG, which is the state’s third largest waste management company.
Online Marketing. As an island state, cloud computing using gigabit technology throws open the doors of economic opportunity for island farmers, artisans, musicians, and craftsmen. Gigabit broadband and its faster, clearer download, will give them the ability to take their goods beyond our shores. Hawaii dairy goods, wines, herbs, teas, coffees, fruits, nuts, vegetables, candies, clothing, and many other products, including our wonderful music, arts and crafts, can come to the attention of consumers everywhere as virtual catalogs can be attractively put on the internet marketplace.
Putting Energy Demands Within Alternative Capacities
Cloud computing powered by gigabit broadband can make a huge dent in Hawaii’s dependence on foreign oil. Hawaii is the most fossil fuel dependent state in the nation. Servers are the real power eaters in an IT infrastructure. They run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and generate a tremendous amount of wasted energy in the form of heat, which requires fans to cool, wasting even more energy. Cloud computing eliminates a company’s electricity for servers and air conditioning, which further reduces its operating costs and increases its profitability. Islanda Tech estimates that power reduction through virtualization and consolidation is about 30% to 40% for small businesses and even more for larger businesses.
Along with all the other benefits in security, data redundancy, and disaster recovery, the aggregated reduction in energy demand across each business that switches to cloud computing will significantly cut Hawaii’s dependence on fossil fuels. Taken together, much in the same way that diet and exercise function in weight loss, the drop in electricity utilization can put the system load demand within the capacity of a mixture of alternative energy sources such as biowaste anaerobic digesters, landfill methane capture, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind turbines, and photovoltaic panels.
Keeping the Non-profit Sector Operable
Alleviating Budget Strain. Cloud computing can have additional benefits for non-profit agencies. IT systems are capital investment which is not allowed in grant applications, requiring an agency to make a tremendous fundraising effort for purchase or upgrades. Non-profits can subscribe to cloud computing service, eliminating the need to raise funds to buy, maintain, or upgrade their IT systems. Subscriptions can be included as a budget line item in their grant proposals, similar to other utilities. This eases the financial strains that cash-strapped non-profits now bear.
Increasing Service Numbers. The internet can increase the number of persons an agency serves. Caseworkers can enter their notes online on an agency laptop, cutting the time and stress of keeping paper records. This frees non-profit staff to do what their hearts want to do – help clients. The stress reduction can enhance job satisfaction and reduce burnout, thereby improving staff retention.
Age-In-Place. Hawaii has long been at the top of the list when it comes to quality of life for senior citizens. Online, real-time video conversations via webcam enable the elderly to keep in contact with their family and friends. Whether at home or in a group care setting, live stream video powered by gigabit broadband allows the elderly to take tai chi or other classes via internet, giving them the chance to stay active and participate in activities they are interested in, without having to arrange for costly transportation or rely on the care home to bring those activities to elderly residents.
Improving Access to & Quality of Education
Student Assessments. The Hawaii Standards Assessments will be administered online beginning with the 2010-2011 school year. The computer tracks student responses, immediately adjusting the test to the student's ability, resulting in an accurate assessment of academic achievement. The student performance report will be available months quicker and at far less cost and burden than paper grading.
Distance Learning. The University of Hawaii used the abundance of fiber optic cables to make a college education available to those whose work schedules, residence, or other conditions pose an obstacle to traditional classroom instruction. Nearly 200 online courses are available through the distance learning program.
Professional Development. Hawaii's geographic isolation means that the Department of Education professional development budget for teachers includes a lot of expense for transportation and lodging. Gigabit broadband will make continuing education via live stream video as possible for teachers as it is for doctors. Lessening travel costs frees up continuing education dollars so that more teachers can register for courses to improve their instructional skills. This can boost morale as teachers appreciate the investment that schools make in them.
Classroom Internet Access. For more than a decade, every classroom in Hawaii's public schools has been equipped with a computer to enable teachers to communicate with the administrative office quickly. Students in many classrooms are permitted to use the computer for internet research.
Academic Research. The University of Hawaii received more than $161 million in research grants from more than a dozen federal agencies and other sources. Webcam discussions can remove the high cost of conference calls among colleagues. This frees up grant funds for larger sample sizes, more staff, upgraded equipment, or other research needs. Ultra-high speed internet gives colleagues reliable transmission for exchanging data and manuscript drafts, as well as filing of lengthy grant applications.
Early Childhood Literacy. Attending library story time facilitates language development in very young children and correlates with higher rates of literacy that helps children succeed in school. Live stream video can bring library story time into the homes of children who may not be able to attend in person, especially in rural areas or even in urban areas where the child's caregiver is unable to take them to the library. Hawaii's 51-branch state library system is under the Department of Education.
Transportation
Telework & Traffic Congestion. The INRIX National Traffic Scorecard Annual Report ranked Honolulu #1 in 2007 and 2008 for the worst traffic in the U.S. Its #2 rank in 2009 was due to unemployed workers not being on the road. Our island geography limits the land available for widening roads to handle increased traffic. Ultra-high speed internet allows businesses to choose telework to reduce its operating costs, taking drivers off the road. Managers can log in from wherever they are, even overseas. It can also increase productivity by reducing downtime due to slow download and upload.
Rail Transit. Honolulu is now in the home stretch of its rail transit project. Fiber optic technology can relay telemetry data faster for better coordination of the movement, number, and safety of trains running on the system. With faster availability of data and supervisory control, train controllers can respond to delays or changes to service to minimize the impact on commuters. Ultra-high speed internet will also provide more reliable up-to-the-minute timetable information for passengers.
Revolutionizing Health Care
Ultra-high speed internet can increase access to medical care in rural areas. A doctor can view and write notes in a patient’s virtual medical record on her laptop, alleviating the need for facilities and staff to keep paper versions. Linking the records to an off-site, centralized billing office further reduces facility and operating expense. Eliminating these start-up and maintenance costs will make it feasible for Oahu medical groups or centers to establish satellite care offices in underserved areas.
Telemedicine increases access, lessens cost, and improves quality of care. Clear images, medical charts, vital signs, and video feed can be transmitted from areas where there are few doctors to specialists in urban areas. Ultra-high speed internet will greatly improve the quality and continuity of the transmission for doctors to discuss treatment plans, as well as provide online care for patients with providers who are somewhere else.
Continuing medical education improves as well. Through digital video transfer, doctors anywhere can learn new procedures in their entirety without taking off from work and traveling to an education site, which may not be feasible. Pre-operative diagnostic images and surgical images can be transmitted in a high quality, practical teleconference for clinical practice and remote education. Live video streaming allows up-close imagery to be seen by many people simultaneously. High definition images can fully follow communication without noise or time delay and with visual clarity of quality moving images. This helps doctors improve their skills and keep updated.
Online Care. Last year HMSA, the state's largest health plan, began offering Online Care, which gives patients internet access to doctors 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ninety per cent of patients report high satisfaction with their online doctor visit.
Telemedicine – TAMC & Pacific Rim. The Army's Pacific Island Health Care Project ("Akamai") is based out of Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) on Oahu. It crosses five time zones, from Yap island in the east to the Republic of Palau in the west. By 2001, more than 1,850 patients were treated. Local medical officers and doctors send pictures or upload their cases for review by TAMC telemedicine doctors. Specialists advise and educate local doctors, giving them collegial support and medical updates in knowledge and techniques. The cost savings is incredible. In its first three years, Akamai saved up to $8 million due to patients being able to receive treatment in-place.
TAMC is also involved in futuristic high-tech projects like long-distance radiation treatments using satellites that connect distant hospitals with Maui's supercomputer center. TAMC is researching technology-enabled learning and intervention systems for virtual triage training, motor skills training, and others. Its ICU Multipoint Telehealth project provides intensive care expertise via telecommunication.
Telemedicine – Fetal Diagnostic Clinic. Kapiolani Medical Center's Fetal Diagnostic Clinic in Honolulu employs telemedicine to spare patients the burdensome expense of flying to Oahu for specialist care. As the Pacific Rim's premier children's hospital, patients from the neighbor islands and as far as Guam come for treatment. Today the tele-ultrasound network reaches seven remote clinics: two on Oahu, one on Maui, one on Kauai, and three on the Big Island. With video conferencing equipment, the live connection enables the clinic to tell the local doctor exactly how the instruments should be positioned for audio and visual images for fetal examination. Patients can receive specialist care without the old-fashioned time and financial burdens.
Telemedicine – STAN & VISTA. Using web cameras and in-home or clinic-based blood pressure/pulse meters and stethoscopes connected to the internet, patients can send their vital signs and digital images of their wounds directly to a specialist in Honolulu, the urban center of the state. Created in 1994, the State of Hawaii Telehealth Access Network (STAN) connects 45 hospitals, clinics, and academic sites in the Pacific Rim. Telemedicine specialist Frank Fukunaga is instrumental in TAMC and STAN projects. The Veterans' Administration VISTA electronic health record covers over 125,000 veterans in the Pacific Rim. Technology has increased their access to health care, eliminating the expenses of air flight, lodging, and ground transportation.
Mobile Clinical Assistant Technology. Using this technology, visiting nurses can spend more time checking up and taking care of home-based patients and less time writing chart notes. Webcams carried by home-visit nurses can be used for real-time video consultations with doctors when needed, making medical assessment more prompt, and alleviating the need to arrange for transportation to a doctor’s office.
ECare. "eCare" is an internet-based home nursing service that helps patients manage their health between doctor visits, developed by Drs. Rodney Moriyama and Daniel Davies of Queens Medical Center. Nurses can pull up information in an interactive session with the patient and drop it onto their desktop. By having fewer face-to-face visits, nurses can handle more patients. Patients can take self-care classes on line, and self-monitoring reminders can be sent to patients' cell phones and pagers.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Thanks to Hawaii's 1974 universal health care legislation, which is why Hawaii was exempted from the new health care reform law, 92% of residents have insurance coverage, second only to Massachusetts. Kaiser, one of the two largest health plans in Hawaii, has used the electronic medical record for years, giving Kaiser patients portability of care. No matter where a patient is seen, her entire medical record is available to the treating clinician, improving the quality of care.
Hawaii’s other major health plan, HMSA, is helping physicians finance, train, and successfully switch to the EMR. The Pacific Telehealth & Technology Hui (another Frank Fukunaga project), a joint venture of the Dept. of Defense and Dept. of Veterans Affairs, is partnering with Hawaii's public hospitals and others to install and integrate EMR. All of the private hospitals on Oahu are underway with making the transition to the EMR.
Legal System
Judiciary. This summer the Hawaii State Judiciary will begin electronic filing of cases in all courts. This year the Hawaii State Bar Association began offering its attorney members online continuing legal education as well as section meeting webcasts.
Corrections. The Pew Center on the States reported that in FY 2007, across America, an estimated $1 out of every $15 state general fund dollars is spent on corrections, taking up a national average of 6.8% of state budgets. As prison budgets consume increasing amounts of state general funds, there is less available for other, equally important needs. Using technology for non-violent offenders leaves space available in our prisons for those who pose a real danger to society. Electronic monitoring is a less restrictive alternative that can be used to supervise low-risk offenders, helping states rein in their ever-increasing corrections budgets.
Housing
Hawaii has long been at or near the top for home prices and construction project overruns. Ultra-high speed broadband with 3D/4D/5D Virtual Building Model (VBM) technology can mitigate cost overruns and delays. VBM programming was used in more than two dozen federal construction project. Modeling allows project participants to view construction components to identify defects, conflicts and inefficiencies before they take effect in actual construction, and allow for quicker corrective action.
Conclusion
Hawaii is an optimal site for Google's Broadband Initiative. With year-round summer conditions, Google can deploy its network using existing utility conduits that run statewide. In-place systems in many different sectors are ready to be energized by one gigabit broadband. The visionaries who developed the systems are eager to work with Google to demonstrate the breakthroughs that can be achieved through ultra-high speed internet so we can attain a fuller transition to adoption of technology.
Our compact size, centralized government, and few points of contact for the private sector makes it easier for Google to demonstrate the significant benefits of ultra-high speed internet and develop useful proofs-of-concept with broad impact:
o reducing state budgets;
o revitalizing the economy and helping businesses remain viable;
o making health care available and affordable;
o helping social services stay operable;
o improving quality of and access to education;
o reducing dependence on fossil fuels;
o relieving traffic congestion through telework,
o and so many other ways.
The Lessons of History. History teaches that embracing technology enables society to break through the stalemate to solve problems and increase opportunity.
In the 1800s, the confluence of the development of the reaper, plow, and steam engine, changed the landscape of America forever. Subsistence farming became commercial farming. People could migrate to the unknown west along railway routes. Foods could be sold much farther than where it was produced. New towns sprang up. The telegraph was invented to meet the needs for communicating long distance. Commodity trading, the concepts of corporations and stocks, and our unique American common law system were all invented to cover the results of these developments.
Opportunities opened in the North, which embraced the technology. Its railways allowed it to transport goods and people, resulting in the expansion of the country, commercial vitalization, and the birth of the Industrial Revolution. In the Civil War, the North’s superior railway system transported soldiers, weapons, and supplies quickly, giving them the victory over the South, which for profit had rejected the technology.
In the late 1900s, the developers of the CD hit a wall. Music moguls resisted the change to CDs. The developers decided to demonstrate the technology to Stevie Wonder. Reveling in the clarity, Stevie Wonder's enthusiasm for the CD was the impetus for Sony to make the transition from records to the silver disk.
The most recent lesson, in 2005, is that the Fiber-to-the-Home initiative in Nuenen, Holland achieved 90% participation in the first year and 97% overall later by offering free installation. In that brief period, the high participation of the community gave rise to more than 100 new businesses based on ultra-high speed broadband. The economics took it from there, and gigabit broadband was launched in Europe.
One gigabit broadband technology puts the U.S. on the brink of a watershed. The Google Broadband Initiative is exactly the catalyst that will get the water flowing. Please select Hawaii as your partner to demonstrating the wonders and revolution that Fiber-to-the-Home technology can achieve as we move into the 21st century. Aloha.
Sheryll Bonilla - (808) 693-6681 (c) s.bonilla@capitol.hawaii.gov / sdbonilla@gmail.
