Killer Aps Conference & Expo Mayoral Summit
Thomas J. Tauke
Fort Wayne, IN
May 1, 2007
It's a pleasure to be here at the Killer Aps Expo. Ever since Mayor Richard came to my office in his campaign to convince Verizon to deploy it's fiber-to-the-home network in Fort Wayne, I've been wowed by his vision, his enthusiastic commitment to a broadband community here in Fort Wayne, and his ability to turn his vision and commitment into reality.
The truth is: I came here to learn . . . to learn what's happening here in Fort Wayne – America's broadband city. And that's what I've been doing this morning. Now it's time to "sing for my supper" and share a few perspectives from our company, Verizon Communications.
Some people look at Verizon Communications and think "Verizon Wireless". A major corporation might see us as "Verizon Business". To some, we're simply the phone company. We're all these things. At our core, we are a network company, a company that builds the communications networks – wireless and wireline –that transform the way we live and learn, work and play.
The technology that is really driving these networks is high-speed broadband. And if a city in America knows about speed, it's Fort Wayne. After all, Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's lived here. Rod Woodson, who for a period of time was one of the fastest men in the National Football League, grew up here. And of course, Indiana is the auto-racing capital of the world. Folks here know fast food, fast guys and fast cars, in other words, they know speed. So it's no surprise that they understand broadband.
Broadband networks have been compared to the interstate highway system or the national electrical grid. I guess from a simple deployment perspective, this is true. But Verizon and other companies that are investing in this technology see these networks as much, much more. Broadband is today the disruptive technology shaping an increasingly interconnected and multi-media-focused world.
The other night, I participated in a small dinner discussion about the new Knowledge Economy with Alvin Toffler, one of the most prescient people of our time. His first book, Future Shock – really helped Americans understand and cope with the ever-increasing pace of change. Another Toffler book, The Third Wave, became a foundation for our understanding of the knowledge economy. In his latest book, Revolutionary Wealth, Alvin and Heidi Toffler introduce the concept of "pro-sumers" – unpaid producers and consumers whose work as parents, volunteers, hobbyists, and open-source software programmers provide a tangible benefit – real value and wealth – to the money economy. The creation of all of this revolutionary wealth is being enabled by broadband networks.
Broadband is driving change on two levels: the individual level and in the broader economy. By empowering individual users, broadband serves as the great equalizer in an economy that places increasingly greater value on information and innovation and passes that information and innovation to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
The result is a new, broadband economy, where an entrepreneur in Fort Wayne can compete against a larger company in San Francisco. I don't think it's an accident that the economy of Fort Wayne, a fully wired community, is outpacing the rest of the state.
Of course, broadband can only be as transformative as the products, services and applications used by the people connected to the networks. What we are seeing here in this convention center – all of the products and applications, the hardware and software – is creating value and driving innovation across the broadband economy.
Because of broadband's enormous capacity, high-speed Internet access and a superior video product are just the beginning of what broadband will offer. Broadband is changing the way we work, and the way businesses of all sizes access global markets. It is creating new opportunities for students and the disabled to grasp new ideas and enter new worlds. It is driving innovations to meet challenges in our society, including health care, energy conservation, and public safety.
And that brings us here, to Fort Wayne and Mayor Graham Richard's vision for his city. Where others saw a city in transition from manufacturing, he saw a city that could be a center for innovation and global businesses. Where some saw an inefficient government, he saw an opportunity to enhance and expand public services. Some saw a contracting community, he saw ways to expand Fort Wayne's horizons. The difference between these views? Broadband!
Mayor Richard became an evangelist for broadband and what the technology could mean for his citizens. What you are seeing and hearing in Fort Wayne is the result of the mayor's vision and the commitment of the community, a commitment Verizon is proud to share.
First, Verizon has more than 1400 employees who work here, and more importantly, live here. We're proud of our employees and their great contributions to this community. I'm particularly pleased to note their volunteer efforts for more than 180 community organizations here.
Second, our broadband networks. Verizon is the leader in the United States for deployment of and investment in broadband networks. We are truly investing in America. Again this year, Verizon will invest more capital in this country than any other corporation . . . and we're investing in the most advanced wireless and wireline communications networks.
In Fort Wayne alone, we've connected some 130,000 homes, multi-family households and small businesses to our fiber-to-the-home broadband service, called FiOS. Verizon is aggressively deploying FiOS across the country; we've already passed more than seven million homes, and we're on schedule to pass 18 million premises by the end of 2010. This is a network, because of the fiber to the doorstep infrastructure, which has 100 mbps of capacity.
FiOS consumers today have true convergence – phone, data and video. And soon Fort Wayne consumers will have real competition for the so-called "triple play" when FiOS TV is introduced here.
So while other cities are debating the merits of deploying fiber in their communities or whether to encourage broadband networks, Fort Wayne has done it. What is still tomorrow for many communities is already here today in Fort Wayne.
Of course, the networks are only part the equation. It's what you do with all of that bandwidth – the applications, products and services you offer over them – that fulfills broadband's promise. And we're seeing the potential for continued investment in the networks via applications and services here at the Killer Aps Expo.
Here in Fort Wayne, for example, broadband is linking students and teachers in 90 buildings across the city with real-time video conferencing. Students have access to a "dean's list" of educational resources, from Indiana University professors to state and local library databases, to resources at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington or the Louvre in Paris, all without leaving Fort Wayne.
The next step? Developing real-time interpreting services for deaf and hearing-impaired residents, so that they can take advantage of the many opportunities broadband is providing other citizens.
And keep this in mind: over the next five years broadband will be transforming itself, using new network technology called gigabit passive optical network, or G-PON. This will allow our fiber networks to go from the 100 megabit speeds we have today, to speeds up to 100-times faster – 10 gigabits.
With speeds like this, students won't necessarily be sitting in front of computer screens experiencing the Louvre. Gigabit capacity may enable the kind of virtual reality applications that put students in the middle of what they are studying. And when they aren't studying, these kinds of capacities change the multi-media experience, whether you're talking about education, gaming or watching movies.
Broadband presents opportunities to better address many challenges we face – from access to better health care to energy conservation.
Already doctors around the country are able to remotely monitor patients in Fort Wayne for forms of diabetes and some eye disorders using high resolution digital cameras that are placed in medical clinics here and connected to the broadband networks.
We are seeing in-home applications for patients who require reliable and secure 24/7 medical monitoring.
As energy conservation and productivity take on greater import, we've seen opportunities to leverage broadband's always-on, real-time and mobile capabilities for telework and energy efficiency in both the public and private sectors.
We're also seeing other potential applications. For example, a service that enables a residential consumer or a business to more effectively manage their energy consumption may be offered to homes that are wired, even if they don't have a high-speed Internet service subscription. This "Broadband without Internet" provides benefits to consumers while also providing value to the service provider, in this case the electric utility.
All of the opportunities we are discussing would not be possible without a clear broadband policy, something this city and Mayor Richard clearly have. The rest of America needs what Fort Wayne has . . . and that requires federal, state, and local policies that encourage investment in the deployment of broadband networks.
Broadband is still a developing technology. The new technologies and applications we are discussing and seeing here may evolve in ways we can't anticipate. Across the country, we see broadband speeds increasing, and prices for them decreasing. Meanwhile, we see new services added to those networks as consumers incorporate more fiber-fueled broadband to their lives.
The challenge we face as a nation is the huge capital investment in infrastructure needed to deliver ever-advancing broadband capacity to businesses and consumers across the nation. America needs to continue policies that encourage companies like Verizon and others to invest heavily in broadband and its deployment.
In most places, the private sector is making that one-time capital investment. Where the market is working, we should let the market continue to meet the needs of consumers. Where we determine that broadband is not available and the private sector is not making the needed investments in networks, we should look for innovative ways to do so. It may be through targeted investment plans, perhaps through a combination of loans, tax credits, or grants. Or maybe public private partnerships – such as the program developed in Kentucky, known as Connect Kentucky and now Connect America – are the way to go. Whatever the means, the goal is to ensure that broadband is available to all Americans.
The results of a pro-consumer, pro-community broadband policy are here – at this expo, in this city. And if you have the opportunity to walk around this hall, or outside using Fort Wayne's Wi-Fi network, consider this:
Back in 2004, Elon University and the Pew Internet and American Life Project published a survey with predictions looking ten years out. One of the predictions was: "By 2014, 90 percent of Americans will be online everywhere they go, using broadband spectrum connections, and at home the fiber will come all the way to the home. … It will be cheaper. It will be faster." That future is within reach.
It's difficult to predict the future. But what Fort Wayne has done in the past eight years to create this interconnected community should inspire us. This community chose not see an uncertain future, and instead invested in what it saw as unlimited possibilities. It's a future we are all invested in, whether through fiber manufacturing, installation equipment, hardware, software, web sites, education, health care or social services, or simply as a consumer. And it's a future Fort Wayne is allowing us see. Now.
