Further to my testimony to the FCC Workshop on broadband I am pleased to see that one of the recommendations of the FCC broadband task force is that research and education networks serve as anchor facilities. The FCC plan outlines the goal of providing community anchor institutions such as libraries, school and hospitals with one Gigabit per second (Gbps) connections as well as support for the development of a “Unified Community Anchor Network” (UCAN) that could be built leveraging existing non-profit research and education networks like Internet2 and NLR and their partner regional networks.
Not only with this provide these institutions with critical Internet bandwidth but R&E networks could also provide innovative business models and architectures that reduce an institutions overall energy, wireless, travel and related costs. I have blogged about this in the past that basing an institutions Internet bill on their energy consumption and perhaps travel budget will provide them with an incentive to reduce energy and travel using tools such as video conferencing, collaborative tools, etc
Community anchor institutions can also play a critical role by stimulating competitive broadband in their community by hosting carrier neutral transit or peering exchanges such as those deployed in New Zealand, British Columbia and Norway. The New Zealand network KAREN also provides detailed instructions and how a community anchor can deploy a carrier neutral IX. Well worth the look
My FCC Testimony on R&E networks as anchor facilities
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-testimony-at-fcc-broadband-workshop.html
New Zealand Open Standards for Building a Community IX
http://karen.net.nz/assets/Uploads/Publications/REANNZ-POP-Technical-Stds-Final.pdf
NLR and Internet2 Applaud FCC’s One Gbps Connectivity Goal For Community Anchor Institutions
https://mail.internet2.edu/wws/arc/i2-news/2010-03/msg00002.html