Example Project: City Valdosta, Georgia

The City of Valdosta hired Uptown to complete a feasibility study for offering broadband services. They offered water and waste management service in the community, but not electric services. They also wanted to understand the economics of expanding the broadband service area the bulk of the County.

Uptown completed a significant amount of research in the local market. We interviewed business, institutional and government leaders. We also completed a detailed competitive assessment of the local broadband market. Finally, Uptown completed a telephone based quantitative research study of the consumer broadband market. The results of these efforts formed the basis for all of Uptown’s demand projections for consumer and business services.

One of the key elements of the Valdosta study was the assessment of partnering opportunities with local and regional suppliers. Uptown evaluated alternative sources for video head end, Internet backbone and telephone switching services from neighboring providers of cable, Internet and telephone services. The opportunities presented to Valdosta allowed them to save significantly in the areas of capital and expense.

Uptown helped the client understand the issues associated with the various broadband technology alternatives including wireless, hybrid fiber coax and fiber to the premises. In the end, the client chose to pursue a FTTP system and Uptown developed a conceptual design using the latest specifications for a passive optical network.

Uptown created a number of business case scenarios using our proprietary Ambassador decision support architecture. These were presented to the client in two interactive modeling workshops. These workshops allowed the client to provide instant input to the financial analysis process and to view the impacts of different strategies in a real time setting. The results of these sessions were used to develop the final recommendation, which is currently being considered by the City’s broadband committee.



Example Project: Oconomowoc Utilities (OU)

The City of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin hired Uptown to complete a comprehensive assessment of the broadband market opportunity for their locally owned electric utility (OU). They were especially interested in understanding the business case for serving the business market.

Uptown analyzed the competitive broadband market and interviewed key business leaders and decision makers. The learnings from that in-depth local analysis were combined with those of a telephone based quantitative research study. This information provided the foundation for Uptown’s demand model for all critical services required buy the consumer and business markets.

Uptown also evaluated several technological alternatives for providing broadband services to the residential and commercial markets in Oconomowoc. The pros and cons for hybrid fiber coax, wireless and all-fiber systems were considered. Uptown dug deep into the various all fiber systems including SONET, ATM and Ethernet. Business only alternatives were considered in addition to networks capable of serving residential and small business customers.

Finally, Uptown completed financial pro formas for the various alternatives that the City should consider. Base case views were created and then put through rigorous sensitivity and statistical analyses using Uptown’s modeling tools. Uptown compared the financial results of each business alternative to the objectives set forth by the City in the beginning of the study process and determined that they should hold off until significant cost reductions took hold in the vendor community. It was disappointing for the client to hear the “thumbs down” outcome, but they were also appreciative of Uptown’s objective approach to laying out the realities involved with municipal broadband projects.

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