Highlights of the Wireless Communications Forum

Sawmill Inn
November 14th, 2006

The Wireless Communication Forum was the 20^th in a series of forums held to provide the opportunity to learn and talk about issues of concern.  The forum was titled: Putting the Itasca County Area on the Wireless Map: Why Our Coverage Has Service Gaps and What Can We Do About It?   

The goals were to 1) raise public awareness and understanding about the issue and opportunities for the community to play a role, and 2) jump start collective action on a solution.   

Peter McDermott of Itasca Economic Development Corporation and Bernadine Joselyn of the Blandin Foundation introduced the program and speakers.  Opening remarks included comments on the importance and critical need for good communication connections and how those connections relate to economic development.   

Guest Presenters:  

Eric Lampland:  President and Owner, Lookout Point Communications 

Eric Lampland was invited to participate in the forum presentations to share his technical and business skills knowledge covering both the end-user and vendor environments.  Eric has a strong and diverse career background in systems development, technical sales support, sales, network design, project management, consulting and training, operations and management.  Eric was appointed as a member of the St. Paul Broadband Committee by the St. Paul City Council and offered advice and opinions on what the Itasca Community could do to move forward to expand local coverage and answered many questions from the audience.  

Eric discussed the continually improving wireless technology and the convergence with wired technology, specifically fiber.  The third generation of wireless is now addressing the increased volume demands of moving data.   

Lorrie Yeschick: Technology consultant with Torrent Technologies 

Lorrie Yeschick discussed some of the issues the Itasca area faces concerning wireless communications which included business side aspects, technology, environment, and usage numbers.  Lorrie displayed maps showing where existing area towers are located and where the gaps are.  Data applications and demand is on the rise – minute usage in 2006 is up by 27% over 2005.  Lorrie noted that Itasca County’s coverage gap problem is different than the congestion problem experienced in the Twin Cities. New cell phone services are continually on the horizon and will require new infrastructure and education; new technology is coming and competition is increasing.  Carriers are building new networks to sell more demand services.   

Pat Medure: Itasca County Sheriff   

For the past six years Itasca County has been working on a much needed upgrade of the County’s radio communications system.  The complete system is expected to cost $9.4 million.  Recently the Department of Homeland Security announced a major grant to area fire departments worth nearly half million dollars with the balance of the funding coming from other grants, the State of Minnesota and Itasca County bonding.  Public safety departments within Itasca County are in the process of upgrading their communications equipment.   

The goal of this major undertaking is to connect communications with the sheriff’s office, fire departments, police departments, emergency medical services, public works and county land departments.  The radio network would eventually be connected to a larger, statewide radio network.   Pat Medure explained that county officials are in the process of completing the radio towers needed for the new system.  Each tower needs to be approximately 18 to 20 miles apart for a total of about eleven towers.  Because these towers are related to public safety, the restrictions for constructing them are less than for other purposes.  Another plus is that the County has enough land ownership to strategically place the towers without location complications.  Medure stressed the value of working together with a cooperative spirit to make things happen.  There is still a lot of money needed to complete the full project, but the cooperation between fire departments and public officials has been the key to the success so far. 

Medure said the county is very interested in renting space on the towers to commercial service providers and has negotiations underway for the completed towers. 

Provider Panelists:  Brian Schult of Cellular One, Dana Johnson of Unicel (RCC/Cell 2000), and Bill Kimbler of Northern PCS (Sprint) provided information on the services their respective companies provide and commented on the factors that influence their investment decisions.  Each made suggestions on what the community could do to improve local service from the provider’s perspective.  Some of those suggestions on how the community can help and influence better service included:

• Work with public officials to get zoning and setback regulations less restrictive
• Be active with local elected officials
• Attend public hearings to provide positive feedback  (typically only people opposed to a project attend the hearings)
• Communicate to wireless providers what is wanted and needed and expectations
• Continue to hold open discussions/forums
• Express challenges and concerns on an ongoing basis to providers
• Think beyond voice communications– include data and internet
• Put together a group to identify needs of Itasca area and speak with a single voice
     

The audience had the opportunity to ask questions and provide comment at the conclusion of the presentations.  Clearly many in attendance wanted to move forward to “make something happen” to improve local wireless service. 

At the invitation of Peter McDermott and Bernadine Joselyn, names were taken of anyone interested in participating on a new IEDC Action Team to address this issue or join the existing Get Broadband group functioning under Blandin Foundation sponsorship.   The forum generated enthusiasm and impetus for working on a solution to the area’s service gaps and volunteers came forward to work on a committee or Action Team.  IEDC will be convening a meeting in the next few weeks.