Microsoft Word - OBAC 2016 Report

Broadband in Oregon

A Report of the

Oregon Broadband Advisory Council

Presented to the

Joint Legislative Committee on Information Management and Technology

for

The Seventy-ninth Legislative Assembly

November 1, 2016

Broadband in Oregon

2016

Contents

Executive Summary ………………………………………………………………………..…2

Broadband in Oregon – Infrastructure Trends and Technologies…………………………..…5

– Industry Structure …………………………………………..………19

– Broadband Infrastructure Projects……..……………….………...…23

Broadband Accessibility in Oregon …………………………………………………...…..…35

Broadband Affordability in Oregon …………………………………………………….……37

Broadband Service Providers in Oregon……………………………………….…….……37

Broadband Performance …………………………………………………………….….…48

Broadband Technology Adoption and Utilization in Oregon ………………………….…….51

Broadband Adoption ……………………………………………………………….……..51

Telehealth …………………………………………………………………………….…...53

Energy Management ………………………………………………………….…….….….61

Education ………………………………………………………………………...….….…65

E-Government ……………………………………………….…………………………….71

Broadband Related Challenges and Opportunities………………………….…………...…....77

Cyber Security …………………………….………………………………………………77

K-12 Schools Broadband Access / Broadband Standards….………………….……..……83

Public Safety / FirstNet / 911 Centers……...…………………..……………….…………83

Local Community Broadband Planning ………………………………………….…….…85

Disaster Recovery Planning……………………………………..…………………………86

Federal Funding Programs ………………………………………………………………..89

Tier 1 Peering ………………………………………………………………………..……92

Concluding Remarks………………………………………………………………………95

Appendices …...…………………………….…………………………………………….......97

Appendix A – What is Broadband? ..………….………...……………………….…………….…97

Appendix B – Oregon Broadband Advisory Council Members 2016………………..……….…..98

Appendix C – Oregon Broadband Advisory Council Summary of Activities 2010-2016……….100

Appendix D – Broadband Communications following a Cascadia Subduction Zone Event…….107

Appendix E – Legislative Concept 904 DRAFT – CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 2017..…...110

References……………………………………………….………..……………….................111

Acknowledgments ………………………………………………..……………..…….…..…113

Executive Summary

This is the fourth report of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council (OBAC) to the

Legislative Assembly on the affordability and accessibility of broadband technology in

all areas of the state and on broadband technology use in healthcare, energy management,

education and government. The 2016 report will also present key broadband related

challenges and opportunities facing the state. The report is best read on-line as it contains

many links to references and other reports.

We have now passed the twentieth anniversary of the commercialization of the Internet,

and it is inspiring to consider how far the Internet has come in capacity, performance and

the utilization in that relatively brief period of time. We have progressed from 9600 bits

per second modems to Gigabit broadband, from text and MS-DOS to voice-data-image-

video over Internet Protocol (IP) with graphical user and virtual reality interfaces. The

Internet has grown from use by less than 1% of the world’s population in 1995 to use by

over 40% of the world’s population, 3.4 billion users, in 2016. Annual worldwide IP

traffic is forecast to triple between 2014 and 2019. As the capabilities and applications of

the Internet have developed, the bandwidth required by users to access them has steadily

increased making broadband Internet access essential for organizations and individuals.

Broadband is gaining significant attention and traction at the federal, state, and local

community levels in public awareness, elected officials’ awareness, and with

organizations and individuals as end-users. In 2015, President Obama created the

Broadband Opportunity Council, which includes twenty-five federal agencies and

departments, to engage with industry and other stakeholders to explore ways that the

government can better support the needs of communities seeking broadband investment.

In 2016, a group of U.S. Senators created the Senate Broadband Caucus to focus on

“strengthening broadband infrastructure and deployment across the country.” Federal

agencies have substantively expanded levels of funding and technical support for an

increasing number of broadband programs and initiatives. In 2015, the Oregon

Legislative Assembly considered thirty-three broadband related legislative concepts,

including proposals for state funding of infrastructure. Local communities are

increasingly recognizing broadband as essential infrastructure and are taking action to

accelerate the deployment and utilization of competitive broadband technologies.

“Access to high-speed broadband is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity for

American families, businesses, and consumers. Affordable, reliable access to

high-speed broadband is critical to U.S. economic growth and competitiveness.

High-speed broadband enables Americans to use the Internet in new ways,

expands access to health services and education, increases the productivity of

businesses, and drives innovation throughout the digital ecosystem.”

– President Barack Obama

The Rural Telecommunications Congress recently commissioned a study of broadband

investment and activity, and in May 2016 issued a report entitled the Fifty States of

Broadband http://sngroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/50-States-of-Broadband-

Overview-reissued-3may2016.pdf. This report ranked Oregon number three in the nation

for broadband availability and number three in the nation for broadband adoption.

Though Oregon continues to be a leader in the adoption and utilization of broadband

technologies when compared to other states, the “Digital Divide” continues to exist. In

past years, the Digital Divide referred to areas that had access to broadband services vs.

those that did not. Today, it refers to differences in the quality of available service and to

variances in rates of adoption between regions and demographic groups.

The benchmark for competitive state-of-the-art broadband service continues to be a

moving target. On January 29, 2015, the FCC raised the benchmark for broadband from 4

megabits per second (Mbps) down and 1 Mbps up as established in the 2010 National

Broadband Plan to 25 Mbps down, and 3 Mbps up. At this new standard, 17 percent of

Americans, 53 percent of rural Americans, and 63% of Americans living on Tribal lands

now do not have access to high speed broadband as viewed by the FCC. Broadband

infrastructure has proven to be a perennial work in progress for Oregon and the nation.

Key Broadband Challenges and Opportunities

OBAC has identified the following key broadband challenges and opportunities facing

Oregon in 2016, many of which continue as key issues from its 2014 report.

• Community Broadband Strategic Planning: The Council believes that there are

significant benefits to be gained by engaging in broadband strategic planning at

the local community level. The process establishes vital communications and

relationships between community leaders and establishes a valuable focus on the

adoption and utilization of broadband assets for economic and community

development.

• Broadband Access and related IT resources in K-12 Schools Statewide: The

Council believes that coordinated action to address the challenge of statewide

broadband access in its K-12 Schools is needed to meet the state’s educational

goals as well as to build a foundation for workforce development.

• Public Safety Communications: The Council believes that FirstNet, a national

long-term initiative to build a nationwide wireless broadband public safety

network, provides Oregon with an opportunity to achieve interoperable public

safety communications and enhance wireless broadband systems statewide.

• Disaster Recovery Planning: The Council believes that telecommunications and

electric power systems are key to the state’s ability to respond to and recover from

major disasters. Joint-planning and coordination between federal government,

state government, and broadband service providers is needed.

• Federal Funding: Oregon needs to fully utilize and leverage the expanding

broadband related federal initiatives and funding programs that are available to

help meet the state’s broadband needs.

• Cyber Security: The Council believes that cyber security is a “sleeper-issue” that

requires urgent attention. The security of data and communications systems is a

clear and present risk exposure for government, public organizations, private

sector businesses, and for individuals that is widely unrecognized and under

managed. An OBAC proposed cyber security Oregon Legislative Assembly Joint

Resolution, Legislative Concept 904, is presented in Appendix E of this report.

• Tier 1 Peering: The Internet is a network of networks, and there is a hierarchy of

network carriers. Peering is the interconnection of separate Internet Protocol (IP)

networks for the exchange of traffic. OBAC believes that Oregon should leverage

its growing base of assets to raise its position in this hierarchy and promote

establishing Tier 1 Peering in the state.

The Council continues to emphasize that access to competitive high-speed broadband

telecommunication networks and the Internet has great value for institutions, businesses

and individuals, and that broadband continues to grow in importance as an asset and

strategic tool available for economic and community development in Oregon. The

deployment of this infrastructure, however, must be followed by the adoption and

utilization of the technology and enabled services to realize its benefits. Infrastructure

does not produce value unless it is put to use.

Infrastructure Trends and Technologies

Internet Growth

The world’s telecommunications infrastructure is challenged to meet the ongoing and

rapid growth in user demand. Annual worldwide IP traffic is forecast to triple between

2014 and 2019. In 2019, annual IP traffic is forecast to hit a record of two zettabytes (two

billion terabytes or two trillion gigabytes). Global IP traffic has increased over 500% in

the past five years http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/06/02/global-fixed-

broadband-speeds-to-hit-43-mbps-in-2019-says-report/. Worldwide spending on

information technology (IT) will increase from $2.4 trillion in 2016 to more than $2.7

trillion in 2020, according to a forecast from International Data Corporation released this

year driven by cloud applications, mobility and big data.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/worldwide-it-spending-to-grow-3-3-cagr-exceed-2-7-

trillion-by-2020-idc-says/

According to the 2016 Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), more than 1 billion

additional people and 10 billion new devices will be connected to the Internet over the

next five years. Cisco predicts that global IP traffic will expand at a 22 percent compound

annual growth rate from 2015-2020. The number of Internet users globally will rise 36.7

percent, from 3 billion in 2015 to 4.1 billion by 2020. The developing and Internet of

Things (IoT) will mark the next wave of growth as machine-to-machine (M2M)

connections including video surveillance, smart meters, digital health monitors,

environmental sensors and other new services exceed 12 billion devices representing 46

percent of all of the devices connected to the Internet worldwide by 2020.

https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=press-

release&articleId=1771211

Akamai State of the Internet

Every quarter, Akamai – a global content delivery service provider, releases an update to

its State of the Internet report that shows key trends. For Q1 2016: Average Internet

speeds went up about 10% around the world; The US ranks solidly in the top 10% of all

nations and in the top 1% of low population density nations; Cyber-attacks are increasing

in intensity.

Akamai findings Q1 2016:

•

United States ranks 16th in the world in Average Connection Speed (web speed)

at 15.3 Mbps, up 7.7% from the preceding quarter and 29% from the year-ago

quarter.

•

US ranks 22nd in Average Peak Connection Speed (broadband speed) at 67.8

Mbps, up 10% from the preceding quarter and 27% from the year-ago quarter.

•

US ranks first in number of IPv4 addresses seen by Akamai.

•

US ranks 6th in percentage of connections using IPv6, at 17%, up 0.7% from the

preceding quarter.

•

US is the 2nd greatest source country for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

attacks (after China, the greatest source.)

•

US is the number one source country for web attacks, most aimed at retailers.

•

The US is slipping in the global rankings. http://hightechforum.org/akamai-state-

internet-q1-2016/

Akamai findings Q2 2016:

•

Global average connection speed decreased 2.3% from the first quarter of 2016 to

6.1 Mbps, a 14% increase year over year.

•

Global average peak connection speed increased 3.7% to 36.0 Mbps in the second

quarter, rising 2.5% year over year.

•

Global 10 Mbps broadband adoption rate grew 0.7% quarter over quarter, but 15

Mbps and 25 Mbps broadband adoption rates fell 0.8% and 2.1%, respectively.

•

Average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 23.1 Mbps in the United

Kingdom to a low of 2.2 Mbps in Venezuela. Akamai.com/stateoftheinternet

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

OBAC noted in its last report that FCC Chair Tom Wheeler has been promoting the

migration of users from the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to new

broadband packet switched networks and protocols. It has also been noted that users are

steadily migrating their legacy analog voice services to digital wireless and broadband

networks. 45.4% of U.S. households do not subscribe to wireline telephone service.

There is interest in accelerating this move rather than to continue to invest in maintaining

legacy networks that are losing customers. http://www.telecompetitor.com/this-is-big-

telcos-mef-launch-ethernet-interconnection-point-eip-project/ / www.mef.net

In July 2016, the FCC established plans for the telecommunications industry’s

technology transition from the traditional legacy “switched access” phone service to IP

based access. The commission ruled that incumbent local exchange carriers are no longer

the dominant carriers for local access services, and that Incumbent Local Exchange

Carriers (ILECs) wishing to discontinue switched access services may do so, but must

show that an adequate replacement exists. Clearly, Telecommunications Protocol /

Telecommunications Protocol (TCP/IP), the communications protocol for the Internet,

has emerged as the world’s de-facto standard for telecommunications networks.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/traditional-phone-service-phase-out-rules-adopted-by-

fcc-with-demanding-requirements/

Regardless of this milestone transition, the legacy twisted-pair copper network is

extensive and in place. Broadband component manufacturer Sckipio Technologies

believes that it can help telephone companies extend the life of this legacy infrastructure

and enable them to compete with cable companies. G. Fast technology was developed to

support high bandwidth transmission over short twisted pair copper loops. Aggregate

upstream and downstream speeds of 150 Mbps over 1600 feet of traditional phone

wiring, and the aggregate speeds of 300 Mbps over 980 feet of traditional phone wiring

are already feasible. So as the PSTN, as a switched voice grade network is retired over

the coming years, the physical network will live on carrying new services with new

protocols and equipment at competitive speeds. http://www.telecompetitor.com/g-fast-

bandwidth-improvement-better-positions-copper-broadband-against-cable-docsis/

CenturyLink has set a goal of bringing broadband service supporting speeds of at least 40

Mbps to 50% of its base by the end of 2018. Although CenturyLink has done some fiber-

to-the-home deployments to support speeds as high as 1 Gbps, CenturyLink broadband

plans will rely largely on upgrading existing copper loops using bonding, vectoring and

G. Fast technologies. Upgrading broadband speeds has become increasingly critical to

telephone companies as customers demand higher-speed services to support streaming

video and other high-bandwidth applications. By the end of 2019, CenturyLink expects to

have 11 million households capable of receiving 100 Mbps within its territory, including

three million homes capable of receiving speeds as high as 1 Gbps.

A single copper pair can support speeds of 40 Mbps over a distance of up to 2,500 feet.

With two bonded pairs, the distance doubles to about 5,000 feet. And if vectoring is

added, the distance is extended to 8,000 feet. Vectoring technology increases broadband

speeds on copper cable by using noise cancellation technology.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/centurylink-broadband-roadmap-funding-shifting-from-

the-cloud/

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Broadband Coverage

www.broadband.oregon.gov

Cable

Cable service providers currently dominate broadband access in market share, and

broadband data services are rapidly expanding as applications on cable provider

networks. For the first time, the country's largest cable provider, Comcast, has more

Internet subscribers than cable TV programming subscribers. Streaming video over

broadband is disruptively changing customer viewing patterns and is reshaping the cable

industry. Cable providers are beginning to lose entertainment package subscribers to

Internet based content providers like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. In the January-March

2015 period, Comcast added 407,000 high-speed Internet access customers, the most

since early 2013, while it lost 8,000 video programing customers.

http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-

forest/index.ssf/2015/05/comcasts_internet_subscribers_1.html

Cable broadband subscriber additions were 3.3 million new subscribers in the 12 months

from April 2015, and the cable broadband market share is at 62 percent of the total fixed

broadband market, according to the latest Strategy Analytics Service Provider Strategies

service report. Total fixed broadband household penetration approached 80 percent of the

broadband market. http://www.telecompetitor.com/report-cable-broadband-market-share-

surging-now-at-62-of-total-fixed-broadband-market/

In December 2015, Comcast announced it had installed the world’s first Data Over Cable

Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS) 3.1 modem on a customer-facing network, a

key step towards a Comcast DOCSIS 3.1 gigabit broadband future. The trial installations

are being tested in preparation for Comcast to install gigabit modems and use DOCSIS

3.1 for its next generation of broadband service. By the end of 2016, Comcast expects to

be offering a new gigabit speed service that works over existing connections in customer

homes in several additional parts of the country. DOCSIS 3.1 has the advantage of being

backwards compatible with existing coaxial cable network infrastructure.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/comcast-docsis-3-1-gigabit-era-begins-with-philadelphia-

trial/

Nokia Bell Labs reported it had achieved a world first by downloading and uploading

data at a rate of 10 Gbps over coax, specifically the hybrid fiber-coax infrastructure

widely used by cable companies today. The achievement was made using XG-CABLE

technology. According to Nokia Bell Labs, XG-CABLE can easily integrate into the

cable industry’s new full-duplex DOCSIS 3.1 equipment. XG-CABLE is a prototype

technology that may allow network operators to avoid the need to extend fiber to the

premises. Instead operators would be able to use HFC cabling over the last 200 meters,

and be able to deliver unprecedented upstream speeds over that infrastructure.

http://finleyusa.com/nokia-bell-labs-demos-xg-cable-10-gbps-over-coax/

Like twisted pair copper telephone lines, legacy cable TV coaxial cable lines will also

continue to be a valuable asset and used to deliver competitive broadband services in the

future.

Cable Broadband Coverage

www.broadband.oregon.gov

Mobile Wireless

Mobile wireless services continue to be a rapidly growing segment of the

telecommunications industry and its infrastructure. Smart phones and tablets are driving

this growth by becoming a primary device for user broadband Internet access. Long Term

Evolution (LTE) mobile wireless service subscriptions passed the 1 billion milestone

worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2015. LTE subscriptions are expected to double by

2017 and triple by 2019, with continued smartphone, tablet computer, and mobile

broadband service adoption. 2G subscribers will become a relative rarity over the period,

with 3G and 4G subscribers accounting for 85% of overall global cellular service

subscriptions by year-end 2020 and 5G network technology is in development.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/ovum-global-lte-subscriptions-exceed-1-billion/

The last two years have seen a significant deployment of optic fiber cable throughout

Oregon primarily driven by the construction of back-haul network facilities for 4G

mobile wireless services. U.S. wireless carriers invested nearly $32 billion in 2015 due to

the rapid growth in network traffic adding nearly 10,000 new cell sites. They have

invested more than $177 billion since 2010 in efforts to improve network coverage and

capacity http://www.telecompetitor.com/data-consumption-growth-ctia-finds-doubling-

between-2014-and-2015/. On May 10, 2016 AT&T announced that it has invested

nearly $325 million in its Oregon wireless network during 2013-2015. These investments

funded upgrades to reliability, coverage, speed and overall performance for individual,

business customers, and also improved services that support public safety and first

responders. In 2015, AT&T made 18 wireless network upgrades in Oregon including new

cell sites, wireless broadband upgrades, network capacity, and expanded coverage

in Oregon of the AT&T 4G LTE network. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-

releases/att-invests-nearly-325-million-over-3-year-period-to-enhance-local-network-in-

oregon-300265364.html.

This wireless infrastructure expansion trend will continue. Peak-period mobile bandwidth

consumption is forecasted to grow by 500 percent over the next three years. It is

predicted that typical macro cell capacity requirements will increase from today’s 260

Mbps to 1.5 Gbps within five years. Network operators are actively increasing the

capacity of their back-haul networks to meet the forecasted increases in bandwidth

customer demand http://www.telecompetitor.com/acg-peak-mobile-bandwidth-forecast-

surge-five-fold-2018/. Mobile wireless network data traffic has dramatically expanded

surpassing voice traffic and carrying more than 100,000 times the traffic they supported

as recently as 2008 according to National Science Foundation Media Advisory, July 13,

2016.http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=139189&WT.mc_id=USNSF_5

1&WT.mc_ev=click

Reflecting dramatic market penetration, an eMarketer report indicates that 88.3% of teens

aged 12–17 will have mobile phones this year, and among that population, 84% will have

smartphones. And the trend is moving downward in age group. The report also indicates

that about 50% of children aged 0 – 11 will have a smartphone by 2020, up from 41%

this year. The age group with the current highest smartphone penetration of 95.2% is

adults aged 25–34, followed closely by adults aged 18–24 at 94.9%. By 2020, the 18-24

age group will surpass all other categories, with 99% penetration. Smartphone

penetration by adults aged over 65 is at 44%. http://www.telecompetitor.com/report-

smartphone-penetration-among-children-surging-not-just-teens-anymore/

Another trend in the mobile wireless industry segment is consolidation. According to an

FCC Report on the Mobile Wireless Market, the nation’s four largest wireless service

providers; AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon have a combined market share of 98.5%

with all other providers sharing 1.5% of the market. The largest four providers controlled

about 66% of the market in 2003. Today, 99.6% of the U.S. population can get LTE

from at least one service provider, 97.8% that can get service from two or more service

providers and 91.5% who can get service from three or more providers

http://www.telecompetitor.com/fcc-wireless-competition-report-highlights-shrinking-tier-

2-and-3-market/. According to data reported by the Center for Disease Control, adults

aged 25–29 (69.2%) and aged 30–34 (67.4%) live in wireless voice-only households. The

18–24 demographic is 57.8% wireless only. The 35–44 age group is 53.7% wireless only,

the 45–64 age group is 36.8%, and for those 65 and over, 17.1%.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/nearly-half-of-u-s-households-are-now-wireless-only-

households-but-60-may-be-more-accurate-number/

In yet another trend, mobile wireless service providers continue to develop strategies to

off-load their networks of traffic by interfacing with local WiFi networks. By 2019 it is

predicted by Juniper Research that WiFi networks will carry almost 60 percent of

smartphone and tablet data traffic reaching over 115,000 petabytes (PB) by 2019,

compared to under 30,000 PB in 2015, representing almost 400 percent growth.

According to WiFi service provider iPass, there were nearly 40 million community

hotspots in 2014 and this is expected to more than double this year to nearly 90 million.

http://ipcarrier.blogspot.com/2015/06/wi-fi-to-carry-60-of-mobile-

data.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blog

spot%2FCxDEk+%28IP+Carrier%29

This exponential growth will set the foundation for 5G mobile wireless which is in

development. Looking forward to 2020 and beyond, the International Telecommunication

Union (ITU) is working to develop 5G mobile telecommunications standards that will

enable wireless communication to match the speed and reliability achieved by fiber-optic

infrastructure providing significant enhancements to voice, data and video performance

http://www.telecompetitor.com/itu-5g-standardization-group-launched/.

Verizon announced that it will launch America's first 5G network, five years after it

became the first carrier to offer 4G. The nation's largest wireless carrier has announced

that it will begin field-testing 5G network technology in 2016, aiming to have some part

of its 5G network up and running for commercial use by 2017. Verizon says its 5G

technology will have 50 times the capacity of its current 4G network and be able to

"handle exponentially more Internet-connected devices." The FCC has indicated that it

wants to see 5G wireless service to be commercially available by 2020.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/08/technology/verizon-5g/index.html

Mobile Wireless Broadband Coverage

www.broadband.oregon.gov

Fixed Wireless

Fixed wireless is a cost effective technology for broadband distribution networks, is an

important component of Oregon’s broadband infrastructure and could play an expanding

role in rural broadband infrastructure as an effective solution to distance and terrain

barriers for wireline technologies. Though optic fiber is a preferred medium, end users

for the most part don’t care if Internet access arrives by wireless or by wired connection,

as long as it is fast, reliable, secure, and affordable. The cost of building a fixed wireless

network can average $200 to $300 per subscriber including the equipment customers

need in their homes (the customer premise equipment or CPE). Fiber networks may cost

an average of $1,000 – $2,000 and up to $10,000 per household in the sparsely populated

rural areas. In addition, the deployment time for fixed broadband is faster with wireless

http://www.dailyyonder.com/analysis-new-use-of-wireless-holds-promise-for-rural-

broadband/2016/08/17/14829/. Google is currently re-evaluating its gigabit broadband

distribution network architecture, and looking at fixed wireless as an alternative to fiber-

to-the-home in urban areas.

Oregon based fixed-wireless service providers include Gorge Net, EONI, and Eastern

Oregon Telecom (EOT), serving north-central and northeastern Oregon providing fixed

wireless Internet service with residential speeds up to 20 Mbps and commercial speeds up

to 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps) collectively to more than 5500 customers. In most cases, the only

alternative these customers have is satellite-based Internet which has signal latency and

data-cap constraints. Counties served include Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam,

Morrow, Umatilla, Union, and Wallowa. It should be noted that these companies are

competitive providers who reach the most rural and remote customers without state or

federal subsidies. Freewire Broadband serves business customers in Washington,

Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Yamhill, Marion, and Lane counties with

guaranteed 99.99% uptime.

Fixed Wireless Broadband Coverage

www.broadband.oregon.gov

Other fixed wireless service providers include King Street Wireless in Benton, Linn,

Lane, Deschutes, Jefferson and Grant Counties; Unwired West in Lane County; Douglas

FastNet in Douglas County; FireServe in Klamath and Lake Counties; and High Desert

Air in Harney County.

This year, fixed wireless technologies appear to be gaining in popularity with carriers.

Windstream announced that it will launch fixed wireless service in 40 markets

nationwide. The service is targeted to provide speeds of up to 275 Mbps up and 275

Mbps down with available service level agreements. AT&T recently entered into a

CenturyLink market with competitive fixed wireless broadband service using spectrum in

the 70-80 GHz band for which the company has a nationwide license. The spectrum that

Verizon also has fixed wireless plans using frequencies in the 28-31 GHz and 39 GHz

bands. Google has been experimenting with fixed wireless using 3.5 GHz unlicensed

band frequencies and has halted fiber-to-the-home projects while it evaluates fixed

wireless alternatives. Google has acquired fixed wireless provider Webpass which uses

spectrum in the 70-80 GHz band. http://www.telecompetitor.com/windstream-fixed-

wireless-expansion-highlights-growing-competitive-realities/

Satellite

Satellite broadband service capabilities continue to improve and provide service options

for users located in urban, rural and frontier areas with a clear view of the southern sky.

ViaSat Inc. has introduced its new Exede Business Internet service plans offering variety

of satellite Internet service options for primary connectivity, and a new Internet back-up

service. The continuity service offers businesses a diverse access redundant satellite

broadband connection to avoid service interruptions during outages with their primary

Internet service provider. The new Exede Business Service plans offer up to 15 Mbps

download and 4 Mbps upload speeds that support applications such as video, data, voice,

remote monitoring, point-of-sale (POS) systems and “cloud connectivity.”

http://www.telecompetitor.com/viasat-introduces-new-exede-business-internet-service-

plans/ News Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/viasat-introduces-

new-exede-business-internet-service-plans-300209645.html

Satellite broadband provider ViaSat plans to participate in the FCC’s Connect America

Fund auction, and not just in the portion of the Connect America Fund targeting

extremely high-cost areas. ViaSat appears to meet the two slowest of the four CAF

auction speed tiers. These include the 10 Mbps downstream / 1 Mbps upstream tier and a

25 Mbps / 3 Mbps tier. Both of those tiers have a minimum usage allowance of 150

gigabytes per month, while the two higher speed tiers (a 100 Mbps / 20 Mbps tier and a

1 Gbps/ 500 Mbps tier) require unlimited monthly usage.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/www-viasat-com/

Satellite based broadband services will be increasingly competitive with terrestrial

solutions and may be the only services available for some rural and frontier areas.

Optic Fiber

Optic fiber is a preferred transmission medium because it is virtually unlimited in its data

carrying capacity, limited by the equipment connected to it. The term “fiber” is often

used as being synonymous with broadband though it is but one of many transmission

media. Fiber is used in the core and “middle mile” sections of telecommunications

networks, and has been increasingly extended to distribution networks or “fiber-to-the-

home (FTTH)” networks. It is widely touted as the premier broadband transmission

medium particularly in the context of Gigabit Services, though, as was noted earlier,

hybrid-fiber network architectures are receiving new interest as alternatives. Hybrid

networks utilize fiber to the neighborhood, “curb,” or pedestal, but then use twisted pair

copper, coax, or fixed wireless technologies for the final connection to the end user.

Fiber Broadband Coverage

www.broadband.oregon.gov

Fiber has been deployed in Oregon as a distribution network technology by telephone

company, cable company, competitive access, and municipal service providers. Oregon

service providers offering fiber-to-the-home for residential services include CenturyLink,

Comcast, Wave Broadband, MINET, SandyNet, Douglas FastNet, ComSpan USA,

Online NW, and Eastern Oregon Telecom.

An excellent reference for “all things fiber” is the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council

Americas, a non-profit association consisting of companies and organizations that deliver

services over fiber optic connections, companies that manufacture FTTH products, and

others involved in planning and building FTTH networks www.ftthcouncil.org.

A key area of “traction” for Oregon has been undersea fiber optic cable landings. There

are currently fourteen in-service commercial undersea cables coming ashore in Oregon.

Oregon is a preferred location to come ashore on the West Coast of North America

because of a well-established working relationship between state government, the fishing

fleet, and the undersea cable operators.

Oregon Cable Landings

On June 30, 2016 a new undersea fiber-optic cable funded by Google and a consortium of

Asian telecommunications companies went into service. The cable system called

FASTER was built by Japan’s NEC Corporation, stretches 5,600 miles from Bandon,

Oregon to two landing points in Japan and a landing point in Taiwan, and has an

estimated cost of $300 million. The project was announced in 2014 and was completed

on schedule, a hallmark of Oregon cable landings.

FASTER is the fastest, highest capacity trans-Pacific undersea cable built, to date. It can

theoretically deliver as much as 60 terabits per second of bandwidth—more than half the

total bandwidth available between the U.S West Coast and Asia at the end of 2015,

according to telecommunications consulting firm Telegeography. Google is reserving 10

terabits of that capacity to speed up communications between its own computer data

centers. Traditionally, these cables have carried public Internet and carrier traffic. But

now, companies like Google and Facebook are using them to carry data directly between

their own data centers, bypassing the Internet and carrier networks altogether in order to

speed up content delivery and reduce costs. Private networks now use 60 percent of the

capacity of trans-Atlantic cables. Facebook and Google are also buying up “dark fiber”

capacity throughout the US—to connect their various data centers in private network

configurations. http://www.wired.com/2016/06/google-turns-giant-internet-cable/

There are two additional undersea cables coming ashore in Oregon 2017-2018, the

Hawaiki Cable landing in Pacific City and connecting to Hawaii, American Samoa,

Australia and New Zealand in Q3 2017 http://hawaikicable.co.nz, and the New Cross

Pacific Cable System also landing in Pacific City and connecting to China, Taiwan,

Korea and Japan planned for completion in Q1 2018.

Tata Communications, headquartered in India, has brought its network to a Digital Realty

data center in Hillsboro, a hub for access to the numerous transpacific submarine cables.

Tata operates an extensive submarine cable network, linking countries in Asia Pacific,

Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America.

Digital Realty is one of the world’s largest data center providers whose recent focus has

been on expanding its business from major cloud providers, expecting them to attract

enterprise customers. Global connectivity services like Tata’s are especially important to

cloud providers, who serve customers around the world.

HTTP://WWW.DATACENTERKNOWLEDGE.COM/ARCHIVES/2016/05/10/GLOBAL-

DATA-CENTER-CONNECTIVITY-UPDATE/

Centeris, a new data center provider that recently launched what it describes as

a “transpacific connectivity hub” outside of Seattle, has partnered with the US subsidiary

of Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest telecommunications company, for connectivity

between the hub and Chunghwa’s network end points in Asia. The partnership establishes

new connectivity options between the US and Asia via the Trans-pacific Express, New

Cross-Pacific, and FASTER submarine cable systems all of which come ashore or will

come ashore in Oregon.

www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/05/10/global-data-center-connectivity-

update/

This growing cluster of undersea cables is positioning Oregon as a telecommunications

gateway to the Pacific Rim. There is an ongoing opportunity to promote Oregon for

future cable landings, related on-shore operations, and as a preferred location for any

business or organization needing high-bandwidth connectivity between North America

and the Pacific Rim. Undersea telecommunications cables and their interconnections add

valuable infrastructure to the state. Undersea cables bring permitting and easement fees,

contract work for the fishing fleet, and the potential of long term jobs to manage and

maintain the cables and the networks.

Oregon has worked to build this working relationship and generate awareness in the

industry. In January 2016, the Pacific Telecommunications Conference, the Asia-

Pacific’s premier undersea telecommunications conference, was held in Honolulu.

Governor Kate Brown provided an open letter to the delegates of that conference

reaffirming Oregon’s interest and competitiveness as the place for fiber optic cables to

come ashore on the west coast.

Other Technologies

There is also the potential for the development of new technologies to deliver

broadband services. AT&T Inc. announced that it has a way, other than power-line

carrier, to deliver high-speed broadband over electrical power lines. The

technology, which AT&T calls AirGig, works by placing antennae on power poles

and transmitting a wireless signal that “hugs” the outside of the power line. The

wireless signal then radiates from the power line and provides web connections at

gigabit speeds. AT&T has filed patents for the technology and is looking for a

place to conduct field trials next year. The advantage of using existing power lines

is that such wires have already been built around the world, including into places

where traditional broadband or wireless signals have not. It could also serve as an

inexpensive way to deliver high-speed Internet in cities or suburban areas, by using

existing power line infrastructure. Though AirGig is still in the early stages of

development, AT&T views it as a potentially transformative technology that could

deliver low-cost, multi-gigabit wireless internet access services to customers in

underserved areas around the world.

AirGig Antenna

http://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-to-test-broadband-over-power-lines-1474411386

Also see:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/atts-airgig-uses-power-lines-for-

multi-gigabit-wireless-broadband/

http://gigcommunities.net/att-introduces-project-airgig-with-the-hope-of-speeding-

gigabit-network-deployment-worldwide/

Industry Structure

Oregon is served by a mix of franchised telephone companies, cable companies,

competitive access providers, fixed and mobile wireless companies, satellite service

providers and publicly owned municipal and consortia telecommunications networks.

These providers are represented by associations including the Telecommunications

Association of Oregon www.ota-telecom.org, the Oregon Cable Telecommunications

Association www.oregoncable.com, and the Northwest Telecommunications Association

http://nwta.biz/.

The industry has fundamentally changed over the past ten years with the migration from

basic narrowband service to broadband, from wireline to wireless, from analog to digital,

and from the migration of telecommunications network traffic from voice to data / text /

video / image. We can expect to see continued significant rates of change as new

applications and technologies are introduced. The growing Internet of Things (IoT) will

dramatically impact data traffic on carrier networks. Bandwidth capabilities and service

offerings will continue to grow. The move by the Federal Communications Commission

to retire the legacy voice grade Public Switched Telecommunications Network (PSTN)

and declaring that incumbent local exchange carriers are no longer dominant carriers for

local access services reflects the extent of this “sea change.” 100% of Oregon’s

Incumbent Local Exchange Companies (ILECs) now offer DSL broadband services.

Cable companies continue to dominate the broadband market nationally and in Oregon.

Telephone companies AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon and other telephone companies

collectively added just 65,893 broadband subscribers and lost 185,000 subscribers in the

fourth quarter of 2015. Cable providers accounted for 111 percent of the three million net

broadband additions over the past year http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/att-

centurylink-verizon-lose-more-broadband-subscribers-q1-lrg-says/2016-05-16.

Leichtman Research Group (LRG) reported that the seventeen largest cable and

telephone providers in the US representing about 94 percent of the market acquired about

645,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2015. These

top broadband providers now account for 89.5 million subscribers with the top cable

companies having nearly 54.3 million (61%) broadband subscribers, and top telephone

companies having over 35.2 million (39%) subscribers.

Other broadband findings include:

• Overall, broadband additions in 3Q 2015 amounted to 92 percent of those in 3Q

2014.

• The top cable companies added about 790,000 broadband subscribers in 3Q 2015,

representing 134 percent of the net additions for the top cable companies in 3Q

2014.

• The top telephone companies lost about 140,000 broadband subscribers in 3Q

2015 compared to a gain of about 110,000 in 3Q 2014.

• AT&T and Verizon added 305,000 subscribers via U-verse and FiOS in 3Q 2015,

while having a net loss of 432,000 DSL subscribers.

• In the first three quarters of 2015, cable companies added about 2,300,000

broadband subscribers, while telephone companies lost about 130,000

subscribers.

http://bbpmag.com/wordpress2/2015/11/isps-add-over-600000-broadband-subscribers-in-

q3-2015/

We will continue to see industry consolidation of service providers, as well as industry

vertical integration, as many service providers move to provide content services in

addition to transport services. Verizon has been steadily acquiring companies like

Yahoo!, Complex, and AOL. AT&T’s recently announced agreement to acquire Time

Warner reflects its business plan to vertically integrate through information,

communications, and entertainment services.

Broadband Industry Regulation

Broadband has been classified as an enhanced service and has not been subject to

regulation at the federal or state level. In 2015, the FCC adopted new Open Internet rules

after months of deliberation and over 4 million public comments. The FCC ruling states

that wired and wireless broadband providers may not:

• Block access to legal content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.

• Impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, applications,

services, or non-harmful devices.

• Favor some lawful Internet traffic over other lawful traffic in exchange for

consideration of any kind.

One of the most controversial parts of the ruling is reclassifying retail broadband service

as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996,

and therefore subject to regulation by the FCC as a “common carrier” service.

Broadband providers sued the FCC to stop the new net neutrality regulations

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/net-neutrality-lawsuit-ctia-116957.html.

In 2016, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Communications

Commission’s 2015 Net Neutrality rules in their entirety. The court ruled that the FCC

had the authority to regulate broadband Internet access service as a “common carrier”

service and to issue rules that police the relationship between customers, broadband

Internet service providers, and Internet content and application companies. The decision

is being appealed by broadband providers to the U.S. Supreme Court and will likely also

result in proposed legislation that would restrict the FCC’s ability to enforce the new

rules. The final resolution of this issue will impact the future develop and deployment of

broadband services.

http://www.connectednation.org/sites/default/files/bb_pp/06142016_open_internet_court

_ruling.pdf

Universal Service Fund – Connect America Fund

In line with viewing broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II, and

subject to regulation, the FCC has made significant changes to use of the Universal

Service Fund over the past two years. It has repurposed the fund as the Connect America

Fund offering carriers nearly $1.7 billion to expand broadband service in rural areas that

are unserved.

Broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity for full

participation in our economy and society – for all Americans. For that

reason, the FCC has adopted comprehensive reforms of its Universal

Service Fund (USF) and Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) systems to

accelerate broadband build-out to the approximately 23 million

Americans (as of December 31, 2013) who lack access to infrastructure

capable of providing 10/1 Mbps fixed broadband. This reform will

expand the benefits of high-speed Internet to millions of consumers in

every part of the country by transforming the existing USF into a new

Connect America Fund focused on broadband.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf

The program seeks to expand broadband service availability to over 8.5 million

additional rural Americans.

•

The Oregon allocation accepted by Frontier Communications is $3,897,357 for

8,542 homes and businesses in Oregon.

•

The Oregon allocation accepted by CenturyLink is $17,759,903 to reach 41,785

homes and businesses

UM 1481 - PUC Investigation of the Oregon Universal Service Fund

A little over six years ago, the PUC opened Docket UM 1481 to examine what changes

might be needed in the Oregon Universal Service Fund (OUSF) to reflect the

technological advances in data transmission rates and broadband services and the

explosive growth of cellphone use. The Commission’s response was to have a

multiphase proceeding addressing the definition of universal service, criteria for funding,

sources and levels of funding and eligibility criteria for parties receiving funding.

The journey has been neither short nor linear. As landline subscriber numbers declined

due to a customer shift to cellular phones as the primary means of telecommunication, the

sources of OUSF funding became fewer and increases in monthly customer surcharges

went into effect to compensate for the shortfall in funds due under the support

calculations.

The Commission soon began to narrow its focus on to three areas:

1. Accountability for Non-Rural Companies: Identifying methods for accurately

estimating how OUSF funds are directed to operating expenses in claimed high-

cost areas.

2. Consideration of a methodology (other than revenues) to allocate incumbent local

exchange carrier (ILEC) network costs between basic telephone and other

services, including a review of the cost models used to calculate OUSF support;

and

3. Identifying areas of unsubsidized competition and determining if OUSF support

should continue to be provided there.

The primary focus of the parties themselves during the proceeding, however, has been on

the funds disbursement levels going forward, in the face of a declining subscriber base.

In Order No. 16-093 entered March 4 of this year, the PUC took two actions.

First it addressed the fund disbursement levels by adopting the “Revised Phase III

Stipulation,” which included an 8.5% cap on the contribution surcharge for the five-year

term of the stipulation. The result of applying the cap on the surcharge was a 27.5

percent reduction in OUSF support for non-rural companies and a 15.2 percent reduction

for rural companies.

Second, the Commission adopted the “Phase IIIa Stipulation” which modified the

reporting requirements for CenturyLink and Frontier Northwest for their expenses in

areas eligible for OUSF support, thereby addressing the question of financial

accountability of non-rural companies.

In that order, the Commission again set aside resolution of the second and third issues of

concern to be addressed in subsequent proceedings.

Several months after the Commission issued Order 16-093, on September 9 of this year,

the PUC received a petition for rulemaking filed by the Oregon Telecommunications

Association. The petition proposes revisions to the PUC rules that would change the

definition of basic telephone service to include “access to broadband services.” The

petition has been placed in a new docket, AR 604, which is currently under consideration.

Oregon Broadband Infrastructure Projects

OBAC believes that access to competitive high-speed broadband telecommunication

networks and the Internet has great value for institutions, businesses and individuals, and

that broadband continues to grow in importance as an asset and strategic tool available

for economic and community development. That belief is shared by others in the state

that have undertaken a range of projects in the past two years to improve the state’s

broadband infrastructure.

Cities

City of Condon

The City of Condon released a broadband RFP stating that it believes that universal

access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet access services is essential for the City’s

economic vitality and quality of life. Broadband has transformed the ability to

communicate, participate, create, educate, inform, and drive economic and community

development. It is the function of government to provide essential services to the

community, and the City believes broadband is an essential service on par with

electricity, telephone, sewer and water services.

http://cityofcondon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/RFP-Final-Aug-2016.pdf

City of Eugene

The City of Eugene been actively engaged in broadband policy development, planning,

and infrastructure projects for many years.

In 2014, in partnership with private sector service providers, the city began a 3-year pilot

program to install fiber in downtown Eugene in existing electric conduit owned by the

Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB), a municipal utility. The dark fiber is leased

out to private sector service providers for the provision of high-speed broadband services

to area businesses. In the third year of the pilot, the city council reviewed the project and

directed that the pilot be expanded to approximately 125 additional buildings in the

downtown area, including residential. The city is working to identify funding sources

and the construction timeline.

The city is offering fiber based Internet access with speeds of up to 1 Gbps at prices as

low as $100 per month to companies in downtown Eugene. In May 2016, the first

connection was made between building tenants and the fiber network. The long-term goal

is to identify funding sources to add fiber optic infrastructure across the downtown core

and to the riverfront redevelopment area.

Matt Sayre of the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO), a proponent of the urban

renewal funded fiber project says that pilot project across four buildings has been a

success. He says that the city’s vacancy rate is 12 percent, but for the buildings with the

high-speed fiber installed, the vacancy rate is at zero, and that as a result of the pilot

project, Internet speeds at the Broadway Commerce Center increased 250 percent while

costs dropped by 40 percent.

https://www.eugene-or.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1980&ARC=4111

http://www.eugene-or.gov/3254/Proposed-Projects---High-Speed-Fiber

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/20160922/news-features/urban-renewal-and-high-speed-

fiber-downtown

The City of Eugene also operates several Wi-Fi sites: 6 sites downtown; 3 sites in west

Eugene; 3 sites in south Eugene; 3 sites in north Eugene; and at the regional airport.

City of Maupin

The City is working with Q-Life, a quasi-public broadband service entity created in The

Dalles over a decade ago, to bring fiber optic broadband to Maupin. Currently, the

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has fiber passing through its’ Maupin

Substation located about 2 ½ miles from the community. LS Networks, a Q-Life partner

in The Dalles has leased BPA fiber through this location. The initial plan is to purchase

and install equipment at the substation that will download at least 10 Gbps of Broadband

from LS Network’s fiber. This will be connected to a Q-Life fiber line that will go from

the BPA substation to a telecommunications hut (Point of Presence or POP). The

presence of fiber in the community will markedly enhance the potential for industrial and

commercial job creation. The fiber will also reach South Wasco County School District,

Deschutes Rim Health Clinic and City of Maupin Facilities.

City of Sandy

In June of 2014 the City of Sandy started construction on a municipally owned and

operated fiber to the home network. The goal of this project was to provide state of the art

gigabit internet connectivity to the residents of Sandy, ensuring the broadband future of

the community.

The scope of the network build was city wide, focusing in the initial phase on all

residential neighborhoods inside city limits. Contractors worked for just over 12 months,

during which over 40 miles of mainline fiber was constructed throughout the City of

Sandy passing approximately 3500 residential premises. The entire network consists of

underground construction. Over 2000 service drops were constructed to homes as

residents signed up for service on the fiber network.

In 2015, the City of Sandy completed a fiber-to-the-home municipally owned network to

provide 1 Gbps service at $59.95 per month and 100 Mbps service at $39.95 per month to

its citizens, SandyNet. The 2015 National Association of Telecommunications Officers

and Advisors (NATOA) Community Broadband Award recipients are Jeremy Pietzold

and Joe Knapp of Sandy Oregon who were recognized for the SandyNet project that is

now offering high speed broadband services at affordable prices available to all homes in

Sandy and is being subscribed to by nearly 60% of the community's residents. Sandy is

receiving significant national attention with the roll-out of its network. Councilman

Jeremy Pietzold was invited to the White House to discuss broadband strategies.

Since the completion of construction, the demand for service on the network has not

diminished with several hundred new orders for service being requested in the 12 months

following construction. Additionally, city staff are working on expanding the network

offering in the business district of the City and expects to solicit construction bids for a

project this fall. Multiple Dwelling Units are also in the future expansion plans. City staff

is currently testing brand new equipment to cost effectively extend the fiber service into

existing apartment complexes in a project hoped to launch this fall.

Funding for this project was accomplished by the issuance of a $7.5 million revenue

bond. The revenues generated by the system cover the operation costs as well as the bond

costs http://www.ci.sandy.or.us/SandyNet/ .

Counties

Clackamas County

Clackamas County continues to develop its nearly 200 mile fiber optic network

infrastructure, the Clackamas Broadband eXchange http://www.clackamas.us/cbx/ to

provide community anchor institutions, such as schools, police and fire stations, libraries,

healthcare centers, governments, transportation facilities and utility companies with cost

effective service and make Clackamas County competitive. The Clackamas Broadband

eXchange now serves the cities of Milwaukie, Oregon City, Gladstone, Damascus,

Boring, Sandy, Estacada, Colton, Molalla, Canby, Government Camp and Wilsonville.

Sherman County

While Sherman County Oregon is a rural county with less than 1800 residents, it feeds

millions with its wheat production and powers hundreds of thousands of homes with its

wind farms. While its value to others is great, its Court felt that it was suffering from a

lack of quality Broadband service availability for all its citizens. The county did not want

to become an Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it found that it also could not attract an

ISP to build a network to serve such a low population base at a profit. The County chose

to create a "Best Effort" Wireless Internet Network Development project leveraging its

existing 911 tower system to create a low cost solution. The result was a system that

covered 900 square miles at an initial cost of $40,000.00. Sherman County invited ISP's

to use the network and pay the County $6.00 a month per subscriber in order to over the

continuing costs. The county now has an ISP that serves 13% of the county (mostly those

who had little or no service before). The county also sells transport to the ISP and pays

for the cost of transport that was borne by the 911 system. It has also led to the county

discovering a partner to bring fiber through the area and reducing the original fiber

construction cost from $4-6 million to $1.4 million. The state of Oregon is pledging $1

million towards the project. This innovative solution has been covered by the National

Association of Counties (NACO) News and Resilient Counties publications County

Commissioner Mike Smith, who led the effort for this project, has been a featured

speaker at both the NACO New Orleans and Legislative Conferences.

Wheeler County Fiber

Oregon State Representative John Huffman’s Office issued a news release announcing

that the Oregon Legislature has approved $2 million in lottery bond funds for a fiber-

optic extension project in Wheeler County. The bonded funds will be used to deliver

fiber-optic capabilities to Fossil, bringing new jobs and economic opportunities to the

area. The fiber-optic extension is also a priority for Oregon Health and Science

University, with the school pledging to create a number of local, full-time positions upon

completion of the project. The project funding was included in SB 5507.

http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/Huffman

Tribes

At least four tribes are working on advanced broadband service delivery projects. The

Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde charge a flat fee for their residential customers and

are increasing broadband service speeds by changing from asynchronous DSL to very-

high-bit-rat DSL lines. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are

planning for broadband fiber connectivity to their Yellow Hawk Tribal Health Center and

residential areas. The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is operating a level-3

commercial data center in Roseburg that provides 36 racks and currently hosts HughesNet

among other customers. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs continue to build

fiber out to customers from its competitive local exchange company (CLEC) including a

recent buildout to serve a future Unmanned Ariel System training center at Kah-Nee-Ta. In

August 2016, Warm Springs Telecommunications Company, a certified CLEC and

Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) in Oregon, filed a petition with the FCC to be

treated as the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) of record for two areas identified

on the Warm Springs Reservation.

Other Projects

BendBroadband

TDS Telecom, the parent company of BendBroadband continues to invest in fiber-to-the-

home with more than 1000 fiber-to-the-home or premises addresses served throughout

Central Oregon. 257 service addresses were added in the first half of 2016 enabling

future broadband speeds in excess of 1 Gbps.

Residential DOCSIS broadband investment in the region remains strong with 16-channel

bonding and a top speed tier of 300 Mbps. Plans for a DOCSIS 3.1 trial were unveiled in

2016 with residential 1 Gbps products to be made available market wide in 2017.

BendBroadband reports that fiber to the business in Madras, Prineville, Sunriver and La

Pine continues to see strong adoption after federal Broadband Technology Opportunities

Program (BTOP) funding aided in the 2011 deployment. High capacity metropolitan

Ethernet services at speeds up to 10 Gbps are available throughout the footprint.

Also, TDS Telecom renewed its long-term platinum sponsorship to Oregon State

University’s Open Source Lab (OSU OSL). The partnership provides high capacity

transport and national datacenter resources for the betterment of the open source

community www.bendbroadand.com.

CenturyLink

CenturyLink, Inc. has accepted $505,703,762 in support from the Connect America Fund

to expand and support broadband for over 2.3 million of its rural customers across the

nation. The Oregon allocation is $17,759,903 and infrastructure projects will reach

41,785 homes and businesses. The Connect America Fund support will enable

CenturyLink to deliver broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps for downloads and 1

Mbps uploads to homes and businesses in selected rural service areas

www.centurylink.com.

CoastCom by Wave

CoastCom by Wave’s mission is to continue to deliver advanced fiber optic based

telecommunication services to its customers. Wave has invested in excess of $100

million in recent years to rebuild and upgrade its distribution network and related

transmission equipment. In 2015, CoastCom built over 1,500 miles of new fiber routes,

and is on track to exceed that amount in 2016 including a self-healing ring from the

Oregon Coast to Hillsboro supporting undersea fiber cable connections. CoastCom by

Wave is also the network operator for Tillamook, an intergovernmental agency

comprised of Tillamook County, Tillamook PUD and Port of Tillamook Bay organized to

provide advance broadband connectivity in Tillamook County www.coastcom.net.

Colton Tel

ColtonTel is a small telecommunications company providing broadband, video, and voice

services to about one thousand households in the Colton Oregon community, and is

currently completing a four year fiber to the home project in which ColtonTel invested

more than eight million dollars ($8,000 per household) to replace its legacy copper

network with fiber optics. By the end of 2016 all of ColtonTel’s customers will be fiber

connected and have access to broadband speeds up to one Gigabit per second.

http://www.colton.com/

Comcast

Comcast has announced plans to provide its new residential multi-gigabit broadband

service to more than 650,000 customers later this year. Gigabit Pro is a symmetrical, 2

Gigabit-per-second service that will be delivered via a fiber-to-the-home solution and

offered to customers throughout Comcast’s footprint in Oregon and Southwest

Washington…In addition, Comcast will launch Extreme 250, a new 250 Mbps Internet

speed tier for local customers.

Comcast has invested heavily over the past decade in its network and infrastructure

across the Oregon and SW Washington service area, doubling the capacity of its network

every 18 months. Additionally, the company has been delivering multi-gig (up to 10

Gbps) Ethernet service to businesses in this area since 2011.

Comcast is currently testing DOCSIS 3.1, a scalable, national, next-generation 1 Gbps

technology solution with plans to begin rolling it out in early 2016. When fully deployed,

it will mean almost every customer in Comcast’s national footprint will be able to receive

gigabit speeds over the existing network (a combination of both fiber and coax).

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/comcast-plans-rollout-of-residential-2-gig-service-in-

oregon-and-southwest-washington-2015-05-21

Douglas FastNet

Douglas Services (Douglas FastNet) in Roseburg was selected by the FCC for rural

broadband experiments funding. Douglas Services is one of twelve bidders selected

nationwide to receive $2,375,000 in funding under the program. The funding will support

a fiber-to-the-home construction project to about 2,500 homes in a rural area in Douglas

County.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0310/DA-15-288A1.pdf

Eastern Oregon Network, Inc. (EONI)

Since the last OBAC report, EONI has deployed 3 miles of fiber and a gigabit passive

optical network (GPON) to business and soon to residential customers. EONI has also

completed installation of 60 additional miles of licensed microwave backhaul into

Wallowa County to increase transport capacity and lower costs. EONI’s projects are self-

funded without government subsidy http://www.eoni.com/.

Eastern Oregon Telecom Gigabit Services

Huawei announced in March that Eastern Oregon Telecom (EOT) has selected Huawei to

bring a gigabit broadband network to rural homes and businesses in Hermiston and the

surrounding area, including Umatilla, Irrigon and Boardman. EOT expects to complete

initial deployments in the second half of 2015, with underground fiber rollouts set for

some time in 2016. The fiber broadband rollout by EOT and Huawei will also provide

new services, including Voice over IP (VoIP), high-speed broadband and Internet

Protocol television (IPTV) to the community.

Huawei will provide its GPON solutions throughout EOT's network footprint in Eastern

Oregon, bringing broadband to over 8,000 homes and businesses in Hermiston and the

surrounding area. The fiber broadband rollout by EOT and Huawei will also provide new

services, including Voice over IP (VoIP), high-speed broadband and Internet Protocol

television (IPTV) to the community. http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2015/03/09/eastern-

oregon-telecom-selects-huawei-launch-gigabit-broadband-network-rural-

oregon#axzz3TuGFwtQA

Telecompetitor produced a story on the EOT fiber project including several videos

featuring its General Manager and CEO Joe Franell. EOT is a competitive provider based

in Eastern Oregon, serving primarily small town and rural markets. EOT recently

embarked on a gigabit fiber program, EOT Velocity Internet, which is building FTTP to

select markets throughout their service territory. EOT’s gigabit project will eventually

pass about 7,500 homes throughout their service territory. They currently have about

3,000 broadband customers. EOT is the first U.S. based company to deploy Huawei gear

for FTTP. They are also a rural market competitive telecom provider and historically

have not secured funding through universal service programs to build or expand their

network in rural markets. EOT also has not taken any government grants or loans for the

project. http://www.telecompetitor.com/eastern-oregon-telecom-a-model-for-rural-

gigabit/

Eastern Oregon Telecom Cable Modem

In later 2012 and early 2013, Eastern Oregon Telecom (EOT) acquired abandoned

coaxial cable facilities in Boardman, Irrigon, Umatilla, and unincorporated areas of

northwest Umatilla County. Since then, they have repaired and refurbished the systems,

launching a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem service to more than 2500 homes and businesses.

Internet access at 100 Mbps speeds are now offered in these areas and EOT has plans to

beta test a DOCSIS 3.1 platform in 2017 which will offer speeds up to 1 Gbps (1000

Mbps). Prior to this project, these communities were only able to get Internet speeds up

to 7 Mbps from the telephone company.

Electric Lightwave

Electric Lightwave is the largest fiber-based provider in the West supporting Business,

Government, Data Centers, and Carriers. Its Oregon network has more than 1000 fiber

miles and more than 1100 fiber lit buildings with dense and diverse routes in several

Oregon cities and five different fiber routes entering/exiting the State. Electric

Lightwave’s capital investment in Oregon over the last two years has been more than $33

million. From 2015 through September of this year, the company added 36 fiber miles

and 271 new buildings. In 2015, Electric Lightwave acquired opticAccess, LLC leading

to a 40% increase in available route miles and providing unique routes to California and

Hillsboro as well as access to West Coast submarine cable landing stations.

Frontier Communications

Frontier Communications announced symmetrical broadband speeds are now available to

its residential FiOS customers in Oregon and Washington. Frontier began offering speeds

up to 100 Mbps to residences throughout its FiOS footprint this past fall. With this latest

enhancement, the company will offer symmetrical speed tiers of 30/30, 50/50, 75/75,

100/100 and 150/150 Mbps.

http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/news/2015/apr/01/news4.html

Frontier Communications announced that it will accept $283 million in annual funding

from the FCC to cover some of the costs of bringing broadband to parts of its local

service area that cannot get broadband today or only have low-speed broadband

available. The FCC confirmed that Frontier would accept the entire $283,401,855 in

CAF II funding that the commission offered the company in April. According to the

FCC, the funding will go toward bringing service to more than 1.3 million households in

28 states. Frontier the first company to announce its plans for CAF II funding. The

Frontier funding includes $3,897,357 for 8,542 homes and businesses in Oregon.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/frontier-accepts-caf-ii-broadband-funding-worth-283-

million-annually/ FCC News Release:

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0616/DOC-

333932A1.pdf

To qualify as a CAF II-served location, the broadband service must support at least 10

Mbps / 1 Mbps, be comparable to the price of service in urban areas (currently standalone

broadband priced below ~$65), offer voice, and have a usage allowance no less than 100

gigabytes (GB), and Latency below 100 milliseconds.

Buildout Schedule:

• End of 2015 & 2016 - no milestone reporting required

• End of 2017 - 40% of households

• End of 2018 - 60% of households

• End of 2019 - 80% of households

• End of 2020 -100% of households

Frontier served cities with broadband construction projects funded by CAF

ALOHA

AZALEA

BANDON

BANKS

BEAVERTON

BROOKINGS

BULL MOUNTAIN

CANYONVILLE

CAVE JUNCTION

CLATSKANIE

COOS BAY

COQUILLE

COVE

DAYS CREEK

DETROIT

ELGIN

EMPIRE

ENTERPRISE

FOREST GROVE

GASTON

GLENDALE

GOLD BEACH

GRESHAM OR

HOODLAND

IMBLER

IMNAHA

JOSEPH

LA GRANDE

LAKESIDE

LANGLOIS

LOSTINE

MCMINNVILLE

MILL CITY

MURPHY

MYRTLE CREEK

MYRTLE POINT

NORTH BEND

OBRIEN

ORIENT

PORT ORFORD

POWERS

PROVOLT

REEDSPORT

RIDDLE

SANDY

SELMA

SHERWOOD

SILVERTON

SOMERSET WEST

SUNNYSIDE

TIGARD

TUALATIN

TURNER

UNION

VERNONIA

WALLOWA

WILSONVILLE

WOLF CREEK

YAMHIL

Gorge Networks

Gorge Networks is a regional telecommunications provider serving the mid-Columbia region of

Washington and Oregon with a wide variety of voice and data products over fiber, copper and

wireless facilities throughout the region. In the last two years, Gorge Networks has deployed ten

miles of fiber in rural communities to serve both business and residential customers. This local

independent provider is the first in its area to offer fiber-to-the-home with service levels of 20

Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps service. It as also installed several licensed microwave links

reaching into underserved rural areas in Hood River and Wasco Counties www.gorge.net.

LS Networks

LS Networks announced this month that it will deploy a high-density, fiber-optic broadband

network in 25 rural communities in Oregon and Washington over the next two years. The

program will offer simple broadband plans at 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps speeds for affordable prices.

The $1.2 million project, “Connected Communities,” launched in Maupin, Oregon in July and

the first services will turn up in January 2017. This directly supports the company’s mission to

build in locations where others cannot or will not, with top-tier service for urban and rural

communities. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/10/prweb13790263.htm

Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company / People’s Telephone Company

Approximately 85% of customers living within the service territory of Stayton Cooperative

Telephone Company, and approximately 90% of customers living within the service territory of

People’s Telephone Company now have access to fiber to the home facilities. SCTC and PTC

have continued their outside plant construction with additional fiber builds in 2016. Both

companies offer asymmetrical services ranging from 6 Mbps to 100 Mbps. New for 2016 are

symmetrical broadband services offered in fiber deployed areas at 50 Mbps upload / 50 Mbps

download, 200 Mbps upload / 200 Mbps download, 500 Mbps upload / 500 Mbps download, and

Gigabit service at 1000 Mbps upload / 1000 Mbps download.

Wave Broadband expands its Fiber network in Oregon

Wave Broadband has expanded its fiber network by an additional 500 miles in Oregon in 2015.

In 2016 Wave acquired CoastCom, Inc., a privately held Competitive Local Exchange Carrier

(CLEC) based in Newport that provides fiber optic based telecommunication services on the

Coast through its own fiber optic distribution networks and diverse fiber routes from the coast to

the Portland metropolitan area, and over 250 miles of fiber in Oregon. Wave has also acquired

SawNet, a broadband services provider for businesses, schools, and consumers in the Columbia

Gorge region with over 100 miles of fiber. Wave plans to continue its build-out of its fast-

growing fiber network in Washington, Oregon, and California, along with future acquisitions.

Wave Broadband has also expanded its Wave G residential Gigabit service to Portland

http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-

forest/index.ssf/2015/05/wave_broadband_joins_oregons_f.html

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160914005409/en/Wave-Raises-125-Million-

Continue-Accelerated-Fiber .

Other Oregon Broadband Activities

Oregon Google Fiber

Google has suspended plans to bring Google Fiber to the Portland metro-area. Google is

suspending plans to lay fiber optic cables in Portland as it changes its overall strategy, switching

from cable to wireless technology because cable has proved too expensive and time-consuming.

As recently as June 2016, Google's plans to bring super high-speed internet to Portland seemed

on track, even though there's never been an official announcement.

http://www.wweek.com/news/2016/08/15/google-fiber-not-coming-to-portland/

Oregon Broadband Map

In 2010, the State of Oregon through the Public Utility Commission received a $5.6 million grant

funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for a Broadband Mapping

Project. This five year project included the collection and reporting of broadband Internet

provider service areas for facilities-based providers in Oregon to the National

Telecommunications and Information Administration and the creation of an Oregon interactive

map which was launched in 2011 with a website at www.broadband.oregon.gov.

The Oregon Broadband Mapping Project Team included the Public Utility Commission, the

Department of Administrative Services, and the Oregon Business Development Department. The

map presents multiple data layers and is searchable by geographic area. Users can search by

street address, municipality, county, tribal lands, or by positioning a “push-pin” icon at a desired

location on the map. Also included on the map are “Community Anchor Institutions” which

include schools, libraries, hospitals, colleges and universities, medical/health care facilities, and

public safety entities all identified and searchable by name and location, though you need to

zoom in on the map for them to appear. At the conclusion of the project and the federal grant

funding, the PUC turned down the Mapping Project website taking the Map off-line in December

2014.

In August 2015, OBDD entered into a two year inter-agency agreement with the Oregon

Department of Administrative Services and provided funding to re-launch and update the Oregon

Broadband Map. Maintaining the Oregon Broadband Map is important given that the FCC

recently announced that it will not be updating the National Broadband Map which currently

displays 2014 data. Hopefully, the Oregon Broadband Map will continue to be available as an

information resource on facilities-based providers in Oregon for use by citizens, businesses,

economic development organizations, government officials and policy makers.

Innovate Oregon – An Innovation Strategy for Oregon

Innovate Oregon www.innovateoregon.org is an initiative to create a culture of problem solving

to empower the next generation to meeting the challenges facing Oregon. Community partners

include cities, school districts, non-profit corporations, universities, and industry associations.

Thompson indicated that competitive broadband access is key to community economic

development and the Innovate Oregon strategy. The strategy seeks to bring together leaders and

grassroots organizations to solve the challenges facing communities promote creative solutions

and develop an innovation culture.

Innovate Oregon’s is currently engaged in a project with the Dayton School District to establish

an Innovation Academy at Dayton High School as part of required class for students. In this

class, students participated in a design sprint for a mobile application and also began to build a

foundation in computational thinking and coding. The program is testing a new learning model

that integrates individual, team and community learning experiences to accelerate and inspire the

learning process. This model is being adopted throughout the school.

The project recognized the critical connection between broadband and economic development

and the innovation strategy. This was discussed with community participants including a local

service provider, Online NW. Online NW www.onlinenw.com became a partner in the project

and is building the broadband infrastructure in response to this identified need by the

community, and by the community’s organized effort to obtain broadband infrastructure and

benefit from the adoption and utilization of broadband technologies.

This has enabled yet another project which illustrates the potential of the Internet of Things in

agriculture, and provides an example of how technology can motivate students and support new

ways of learning. The agricultural IoT project is a collaborative effort involving IBM, wireless

ISP OnlineNW, and the Dayton School District. The project goal is to better control mildew that

can damage grapevines by using data gathered from a mesh network of wireless sensors located

throughout a large vineyard.

Dayton has the distinction of being one of the nation’s first communities to offer 10 Gbps

service. The service is to be delivered over infrastructure deployed by OnlineNW with the school

district as an anchor tenant.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/oregon-vineyard-local-students-benefit-from-agricultural-iot-

project/

Making Rural Communities Better with Broadband

A Making Rural Communities Better with Broadband Workshop was hosted by the Oregon

Rural Development Council in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural

Development's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) in Bend at Central Oregon Community College on

February 2 and 3. There were about 150 attendees. The workshop provided information on how

to build rural economies using broadband for educational opportunities; improved healthcare; job

creation, retention, and economic development. One-on-one consultation was provided by

USDA RUS with prospective applicants for USDA broadband funding programs.

Oregon Connections Telecommunications Conference

The Oregon Connections Telecommunications Conference draws attendees from all regions of

the state to share ideas, experiences and knowledge about telecommunications. In 2015, the

conference program explored aspects of Broadband as it came of age twenty years after the

commercialization of the Internet. Program topics included cyber-security, smart communities,

the challenge of infrastructure, Internet and Broadband Public Policy, and Broadband enabled

applications. The conference held its twenty-first annual gathering in Hood River on October 20

and 21, 2016. This year’s conference presenters and attendees explored broadband enabled

mobile applications, the impact of mobility technologies on how we live and work, and the status

of broadband in Oregon www.oregonconnections-info.

Oregon Broadband Outreach and Strategic Planning Project

The Oregon Broadband Outreach and Strategic Planning Project website remains active at

www.oregonbroadbandplanning.org providing reference materials and a template to assist local

communities engage in broadband strategic planning. As of September 30, 2016, there have

been 9,059 unique visitors (July 1, 2012 - September 30, 2016).

Broadband Accessibility in Oregon

Broadband services are widely available at competitive prices throughout the state.

Oregon Broadband Number of Providers

This 2016 map was produced on the Oregon Broadband Mapping Project website

www.broadband.oregon.gov. Users of the site may produce maps showing service availability,

technology, and providers statewide and by region, county, city, tribal lands and specific

addresses.

The Oregon Broadband Survey conducted by the Oregon Business Development Department

with the support of OBAC places broadband access in Oregon homes at 82% as compared to

80% nationally.

The Rural Telecommunications Congress recently commissioned a study of broadband

investment and activity, and in May 2016 issued a report entitled the Fifty States of Broadband

http://sngroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/50-States-of-Broadband-Overview-reissued-

3may2016.pdf, which ranked Oregon number three in the nation for broadband availability.

FCC’s Broadband Progress Reports

This year’s Broadband Progress Report concludes that while the United States continues to

make progress in the deployment of broadband infrastructure, it is not being deployed as rapidly

as needed.

Key findings of the report include:

• Approximately 34 million Americans still lack access to fixed broadband at the FCC’s

new benchmark transmission rate of 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream (the

FCC reported Oregon’s average download speed at 26.29 Mbps and average tier

subscription speed at 26.03 Mbps)

• There is a persistent urban-rural divide; 39 percent of the rural population lacks access as

compared with 4% of the urban population

• 41 percent of Tribal Lands population lacks access

• 41 percent of schools have not met the FCC’s goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 students and

staff

• The United States continues to lag behind other developed nations ranking 16

out of 34

countries

• Both fixed and mobile access is needed. Mobile devices provide access to the web while

on the go, and are useful for real-time two-way interactions, mapping applications, and

social media, but consumers who rely solely on mobile broadband are more likely to

forego use of the Internet. (The FCC has not set a mobile broadband benchmark).

Additional report finding include:

• Significant growth in advertised broadband speeds available to consumers, though the

results are not uniform across technologies.

• Actual speeds experienced by most ISPs’ subscribers are close to or exceed advertised

speeds.

• Consumers with access to faster services continue to migrate to higher service tiers.

• Latency and packet loss vary by technologies. Consumers generally experienced low

latency – the time it takes for a data packet to travel from one point to another in a

network – on DSL, cable and fiber systems. Higher latency in satellite services may

affect the perceived

Industry has taken issue with the FCC’s position noting that private industry has invested over

$1.4 trillion to reach most Americans, and that service speeds and performance are steadily

increasing year over year.

https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/measuring-broadband-america/measuring-

broadband-america-2015

Broadband Affordability in Oregon

Broadband services are available in Oregon at competitive price points, though prices vary by

service area.

Broadband Providers in Oregon

The following is a list of facility-based broadband providers that have supplied data for the

Oregon Broadband Map. An asterisk before the Provider Name indicates that they are 'business-

only' broadband Internet service providers.

Provider Name

URL

Alyrica http://www.alyrica.net

Applegate Broadband LLC http://www.applegatebroadband.net/

Ashland Fiber Network http://www.ashlandfiber.net

AT&T Mobility LLC http://www.att.com

*Axxis Communications http://www.axxistel.com

Beaver Creek Telephone Company http://www.bctelco.com

BendBroadband http://www.bendbroadband.com

BendTel http://www.bendtel.com

Blue Mountain Cable Co. http://www.bmtvcable.com

Cableone http://www.cableone.net

Cal-Ore Communications Inc. http://www.cot.net

Canby Telcom http://www.canbytel.com

Cascade Networks, Inc. http://www.cascadenetworks.net

Cavenet http://www.cavenet.com/

CenturyLink http://www.centurylink.com

Charter Communications Inc. http://www.charter-business.com/fiber-internet.aspx

City of Cascade-Locks http://www.cascade-locks.or.us

Clear Creek Mutual Telephone Company http://www.ccmtc.com

CoastCom, Inc. http://www.coastcom.net

Cogent Communications Group http://www.cogentco.com

Coltontel http://www.coltontel.com

Comcast http://www.comcast.com

Communications Access Cooperative Holding Enterprise

http://hrec.coop/internet/index.htm

Community Broadband http://communitybroadband.com

Comspan Communications Company http://www.comspancomm.com/en

Cottage Grove WiFi http://www.cgwifi.net

Country Vision Cable http://www.countryvisioncable.com/

Crestview Cable http://www.crestviewcable.net

Cricket Communications, Inc. http://www.mycricket.com

Datavision Communications http://www.dvcom.biz/home.html

DC Wireless http://www.dcwisp.net

Douglas FastNet http://www.dfn.net

Eagle Telephone Systems, Inc. http://www.eagletelephone.com

*Earthlink, Inc. http://www.earthlinkbusiness.com

Eastern Oregon Net, Inc. http://www.eoni.com

Eastern Oregon Telecom http://www.eotnet.net

*EasyStreet Online (Atmosera) http://easystreet.com

Elgin TV Association http://elgin.elgintv.com

Fibersphere http://fibersphere.net

FireServe http://www.fireserve.com

*Freewire Broadband LLC http://www.gofreewire.com

Frontier Communications of Oregon http://west.frontier.com

FTX Networks LLC http://wwwftxnetworks.com

Gervais Telephone Company http://www.gervaistel.com

Gorge Networks http://new.gorge.net

Helix Telephone Company http://www.helixtel.net

HughesNet http://www.hughesnet.com

Hunter Communications, Inc. http://www.hunterfiber.com

*Infostructure http://infostructure.net

*Integra Telecom http://www.integratelecom.com

Ispeed Wireless http://www.ispeedwireless.com/index.cfm?

J & N Cable Systems, Inc. http://www.jncable.net

*Level 3 Communications, LLC http://www.level3.com

LS Networks http://www.lsnetworks.net

M2 MachMedia http://machmedia.net

Megapath Corporation http://www.megapath.com

MINET http://www.minetfiber.com

Molalla Communications Company http://molalla.net

Monitor Cooperative Telephone Company http://monitorcoop.com

Monroe Telephone http://www.monroetel.com/

Mount Angel Telephone Company http://www.mtangel.net

MTE Communications http://www.ruralnetwork.net

Nehalem Telecommunications Inc. http://ww2.nehalemtel.net

North-State Telephone Co. http://www.ortelco.net/nstc/index.html

OneWave Networks http://www.onewavenetworks.com/boise/index.html

OnlineNW http://www.onlinenw.com

*ORCA Communications http://www.orcacomm.com

Oregon Telephone Corporation http://www.ortelco.net

OregonFast.net http://www.oregonfast.net

Oregon-Idaho Utilities, Inc. http://www.oiutelecom.net

Outreach Internet http://www.outreachinternet.com/

PEAK Internet http://www.casco.net/communications/

Pendleton Fiber Company http://wtechlink.com

Peoples Telephone Company http://www.sctcweb.com/PTC/index.php

Pine Telephone Systems, Inc. http://www.pinetel.com

Pioneer Telephone Cooperative http://www.pioneer.net

PocketiNet Communications Inc http://www.pocketinet.com

Prinetime Internet Solutions, LLC http://www.prinetime.com

QualityLife Intergovernmental Agency http://www.qlife.net/

*Quantum Communications http://www.quantum-networks.net/

Reliance Connects http://www.relianceconnects.com/

Roome Telecommunications Inc. http://www.rtinet.com/

Rural Technology Group, LLC http://www.ruraltechnologygroup.com

Safelink Internet Services http://www.safelink.net

SandyNet http://www.ci.sandy.or.us/

SawNet http://www.saw.net/

Scio Mutual Telephone http://www.smt-net.com

SCS Communications http://www.sctcweb.com/SCS/index.php

Silver Star Telecom LLC http://www.silverstartelecom.com

Siuslaw Broadband http://siuslawbroadband.com

Skycasters http://www.skycasters.com

Snake River PCS http://www.snakeriverpcs.com/

SpeedyQuick Networks http://speedyquick.net

Sprint http://www.sprint.com

St Paul Telephone http://www.stpaultel.com/

StarBand Communications http://www.starband.com/

Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company http://www.sctcweb.com/SCTC/index.php

Stephouse Networks http://www.stephouse.net/

TDS Telecom http://www.tdstelecom.com/

T-Mobile USA, Inc. http://www.t-mobile.com

Tnet Broadband http://tnet.biz/index.php

*TW Telecom of Oregon LLC http://www.twtelecom.com/

United States Cellular Corporation http://www.uscellular.com

UnwiredWest LLC http://www.unwiredwest.com

Upward Access http://www.upwardaccess.com/

Verizon Wireless http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/index.html

ViaSat Communications, Inc. http://www.viasat.com

Wallowa Valley Networks http://www.wallowavalley.net

Warm Springs Telecommunications Co. http://www.warmspringstelecom.com

Wave Broadband http://www.wavebroadband.com

Webformix Company http://www.webformix.com/

Whiz To Coho, Inc. http://whiz.to/

Wtechlink http://wtechlink.com/

Yellowknife Wireless http://www.ykwc.com

Zayo Group LLC http://www.zayo.com

* Serves Business customers only.

A survey of facilities-based broadband service providers serving Oregon customers including

broadband transmission rates and monthly service costs follows. Information was collected from

service provider websites.

DSL Service Provider Monthly Rate

Canby Telecom [www.canbytel.com ]

$39.95

1 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

CenturyLink [www.centurylink.com ]

Up to 12 Mbps downstream (faster speeds including 1Gbps available) $29.95

Douglas FastNet [www.dfn.net] $39.99

1.5 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream DSL (speeds up to 40 Mbps available)

Eagle Telephone System [www.eagletelephone.com] $54.51

Up to 10 Mbps downstream

Eastern Oregon Telecom [eotnet.com] $49.95

1 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream (speeds up to 1 Gbps available)

Frontier Communications High Speed Internet [www.frontier.com] $24.99

Up to 30 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Helix Telephone Company [www.helixtel.net] $32.00

1 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds are available)

Molalla Communications Company [www.mololla.com] $30.00

2 Mbps upstream, 10 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Monroe Telephone Company [www.monroetel.com] $44.95

1.5 Mbps upstream, 1.5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Mt. Angel Telephone [www.mtangel.net]

$39.95

1 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Nehalem Telecommunications [www.nehalemtel.com] $29.95

1 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Oregon Telephone Corporation [www.ortelco.net] $39.95

765 Kbps upstream, 1.5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

People's Telephone Company [http://ptc-web.com] $39.95

1 Mbps upstream, 6 Mbps downstream

Pine Telephone Company [www.pinetel.com] $39.95

1 Mbps upstream, 14 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Pioneer Telephone Company [www.pioneertelephonecoop.com] $44.95

“Power” speed not specified (speeds up to 100 Mbps available)

Scio Mutual Telephone [www.smt-net.com] $48.95

1 Mbps upstream, 6 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

St Paul Cooperative Telephone Association [www.stpaultel.com] $39.99

1 Mbps upstream, 3 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company [www.sctcweb.com] $39.95

1 Mbps upstream, 6 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

TDS Telecom [www.tdstelecom.com] Prices not posted

512 Kbps upstream, 1. Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Cable Modem Service Provider Monthly Rate

BendBroadband [ www.bendbroadband.com ]

$34.99

3 Mbps upstream, 50 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Charter Communications [ www.charter.com ] $39.99

Starting at 60 Mbps downstream

Comcast [www.comcast.com]

$39.99

Up to 25 Mbps (faster speeds available)

Crestview Cable Communications [www.crestviewcable.com] $27.95

Up to 5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Eastern Oregon Telecom [www.eot.net] $39.95

1.5 Mbps upstream, 8 Mbps downstream (speeds up to 100 Mbps available)

Wave Broadband [www.wavebroadband.com] $59.95

5 Mbps upstream, 55 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

Mobile Wireless Internet Access (3G / 4G) Monthly Rate

AT&T Wireless [www.ATTwireless.com] $30.00

Up to 6 Mbps Mobile Internet access

Verizon Wireless [www.verizonwireless.com] $35.00

4G LTE Up to 2 GB

Sprint [www.sprint.com] $20.00

4G LTE Up to 1 GB

T-Mobile [www.t-mobile.com] $70.00

4G LTE Unlimited talk, text, data

Fixed Wireless Internet Access Monthly Rate

Douglas Fastnet [www.dfn.net]

5 Mbps downstream (speeds up to 15 Mbps downstream available) $39.99

Eastern Oregon Net, Inc. [www.eoni.com]

“High Speed” service $29.95

Eastern Oregon Telecom [www.eotnet.net]

5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available) $49.90

FireServe Wireless Broadband [www.fireserve.com]

Up to 10 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available) $39.95

Freewire Broadband [www.freewirebroadband.com] (business) Prices not posted.

Symmetrical Ethernet.

Goose Lake Computing [www.gooselake.com]

Up to 10 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available) $39.95

GorgeNet [www.gorge.net]

5 Mbps upstream, 30 Mbps downstream (Business) (faster speeds available) $54.95

Oregon FAST.net [www.oregonfast.net] speeds not specified $39.99

Rural Technology Group Up to 2 MB

Speeds not specified $29.95

SawNet [www.saw.net] 1 Mbps upstream, 3 Mbps downstream

(faster speeds available) Prices not posted

Municipal / Consortia / Public-Private Partnership Providers Monthly Rate

Ashland Fiber Network [www.ashlandfiber.net]

3 Mbps upstream, 30 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available) $55.00

Eastern Oregon Telecom [www.eotnet.net]

100 Mbps downstream (Gigabit service available) $69.95

MINET (Monmouth-Independence Network) [www.minetfiber.com]

2 Mbps downstream (Faster speeds available) $10.00

Q-Life [qlife.net] Q-Life is a middle mile transport provider with independent

ISPs providing end-user services. Prices not posted.

SandyNet FTTH [www.sandynet.org]

300 Mbps upstream, 300 Mbps downstream $39.95

(Symmetrical Gigabit service available)

Facilities based Competitive Access Providers

CoastCom [www.coastcom.net]

Internet / Metro Ethernet Services / Prices not posted

Douglas FastNet [www.dfn.net]

100 Mbps downstream, 10 Mbps upstream (speeds up to 1 Gbps downstream,

20 Mbps upstream available via fiber optics) $39.99

Other Competitive Providers Monthly Rate

Cogent Communications [www.cogentco.com]

DIA, IP Transit, Ethernet, Colocation services Prices not posted

FTX Networks [ftxnetworks.com]

Fiber Optic based services Prices not posted

Integra Telecom [www.integratelecom.com] /

Electric Lightwave [www.electriclightwave.com] Prices not posted

Data Networking and Internet, Colocation

Western Independent Networks [www.win-networks.com] Prices not posted

Point-to-Point Special Access / Ethernet Transport / Internet Backbone Access

Satellite Internet Access Monthly Rate

HughesNet [www.hughesnet.com] $49.99

1 Mbps upstream, 5 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

ViaSat - WildBlue [www.wildblue.com] $59.99

3 Mbps upstream, 10 Mbps downstream (faster speeds available)

SkyCasters [www.skycasters.com] $149.00

2 Mbps upstream, 16 Mbps downstream

The Monthly Rates listed above are mostly for base level services. It should be noted that

bundled services and ongoing promotional discounted pricing is also widely available from

service providers.

Though prices for broadband services in Oregon are competitive with other states, cost continues

to be a barrier to adoption for many Oregonians.

Programs for Digital Inclusion

Families and individuals that do not have access to broadband connectivity are at a competitive

disadvantage.

• 90% of college applications are now submitted online.

• 79% of teachers assign homework that requires Internet access.

• Many large employers only accept job applications submitted online.

Online employment resources now rival personal and professional networks as a top source of

job information for Americans who are looking for work. According to Pew Research, less than

18% of households with income below $14,000 have Internet Access at home and more than

90% of households with income over $100,000 have Internet Access at home.

Many service providers have participated in offering special pricing programs for “digital

inclusion” to address the cost barrier for broadband adoption in disadvantaged segments of the

population.

Comcast Internet Essentials Program

Comcast has announced plans to expand its low-cost Internet service to residents of public

housing, making inexpensive online connections available to roughly 40,000 more homes in

Oregon and Southwest Washington. The Internet Essentials service offers broadband

connections of 10 megabits per second for $10 a month, one-fifth the price of the cheapest tier

Comcast advertises on its website. Comcast says the discounted service is now available to

residents of federally supported housing, including people paying their rent with the assistance of

Section 8 vouchers. Previously, Comcast's discounts were limited to families with children who

qualified for the federal free and reduced lunch program. More information is available at

www.internetessentials.com, and at http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-

forest/index.ssf/2016/07/comcast_expands_low-cost_inter.html

AT&T Broadband Access Program for low income users

AT&T launched “Access from AT&T,” an Internet service for low income users costing as little

as five dollars a month. The company agreed to offer the service as a condition of its acquisition

of DirecTV. Households in AT&T’s local service territory that have at least one resident

participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

(SNAP) will be eligible for the program, which will last through at least through April 2020.

AT&T said it will work with school districts and national and community-based organizations to

educate eligible households about Access from AT&T. In its press release, the company also

references its AT&T Digital You website, which has a range of resources offering advice on how

to get online, use technology safely, use online learning, search for a job and other applications.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/access-from-att-launches-offering-5-a-month-internet-for-low-

income-users/

More information is available at https://www.att.com/shop/internet/access/#/

BendBroadband

BendBroadband partnered with Boys & Girls Clubs of Bend, Family Access Network and Bend

Area Habitat for Humanity to implement a digital literacy outreach program for the 2016-2017

school year modeled on Connect2Compete. Eligible families are able to receive high speed

Internet for $9.95 for two years together with a free modem and professional installation.

New this year, the available speed of service for program participants has been increased to

15Mbps download speeds and 3 Mbps upload speeds. In 2015, there were about 20 participating

families. So far in 2016 there are 59. BendBroadband attributes the increased enrollment to

greater awareness of the program thanks to its partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club of

Bend, the Family Access Network, and Bend Area Habitat for Humanity.

http://blog.bendbroadband.com/residential/2016/09/08/connect2compete-enrollment-triples-in-

2016/

CenturyLink

CenturyLink’s Internet Basics Program provides 1.5 Mbps Internet access to qualifying families

for $9.95 (plus tax) per month for twelve months. Qualifying families may also purchase an iPad

Minicomputer for $150 plus shipping and handling at initial enrollment and receive free Internet

training in person or in print. More information is available at

http://www.centurylink.com/home/internetbasics/

Charter Communications / Spectrum

Charter Communications announced a new low-cost broadband service for low-income

customers that it pledged to offer within six months of the close of its acquisitions of Time

Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. The service, which will be offered across Charter’s

footprint within three years of close, will deliver speeds of up to 30 Mbps downstream and 4

Mbps upstream for $14.99 per month. Charter Communications has completed the transactions

with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, and will being doing business as

Spectrum. http://www.multichannel.com/news/distribution/charter-pledges-low-cost-broadband-

after-twc-bhn-deals/396091

Frontier Communications

Frontier works in cooperation with government and other discount programs that can help

qualified individuals, schools, libraries, community based organizations, and health care

providers meet their needs. Frontier has been authorized to provide E-Rate, Lifeline, Rural

Health Care (RHC), and Low Income Veteran discount programs to approved applicants. The

discounts are intended to ensure that qualified entities have access to affordable

telecommunications and information services.

https://frontier.com/resources/discount-programs

ConnectHome

ConnectHome is an initiative to extend affordable broadband access to families living in HUD-

assisted housing. Through ConnectHome, Internet Service Providers, non-profits, and the private

sector are offering broadband access, technical training, digital literacy programs, and devices

for residents in assisted housing units in 28 communities across the nation. On July 14, 2016,

HUD and Comcast announced a major expansion of Comcast’s Internet Essentials program and

ConnectHome’s efforts to close the digital divide. ConnectHome Nation will extend the Internet

Essentials across the country. Two million households will be eligible $9.95 broadband Internet

access.

Legal right to fast broadband

In Great Britain, citizens will soon have a legal right to fast broadband under plans to bring rural

areas and unconnected households into the 21st century. A law ensuring the right to broadband

will mean that up to a million people in rural areas will receive better service. It brings Internet

connectivity into line with the right to get electricity, telephone and postal services. In a speech

to Parliament, Queen Elizabeth stated, "Measures will be brought forward to create the right for

every household to access high-speed broadband" in order to "make the United Kingdom a world

leader in the digital economy." Following the Queen's Speech, the government said it would

introduce a Digital Economy Bill that would codify in law a universal right to broadband.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/all-households-get-legal-right-to-fast-broadband-86025xf8j

Broadband as a right in Ireland

The new Communications Minister of Ireland has stated that there are plans in place to revise the

current 40-year-old universal service obligation (USO) for telephony services across Ireland

from basic copper telephony, or voice, to a minimum of 30 Mbps broadband once the National

Broadband Plan begins to be rolled out. Unlike the UK, which has stalled at 10Mbps, the

Minister has said that when Ireland’s National Broadband Plan rolls out in 2017, 30Mbps

broadband will be an “enforceable right.”

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/national-broadband-plan-right-ireland

Broadband Performance

Oregon benefits from over one-hundred facilities based service providers offering services

competitive in performance with service available in other states.

Oregon Broadband Maximum Advertised Speed

This 2016 speed map was produced on the Oregon Broadband Mapping Project website

www.broadband.oregon.gov. Users may produce maps showing service availability, technology,

and providers statewide and by region, county, city, tribal lands, and for specific addresses.

Average Broadband Speeds

Akamai issued its “First Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report” and reported that average

broadband speeds rose 10 percent quarter-to-quarter globally to reach 5 Mbps for the first time.

Average Internet speeds increased in 131 of a total 144 qualifying countries/regions in 1Q’15. At

11.9 Mbps, the U.S. ranked 19th globally in terms of average 1Q Internet connection speeds and

22nd in terms of average peak Internet connection speeds (53.3 Mbps). The top 10 U.S. states

experienced quarter-to-quarter gains in average Internet connection speeds across the board in

1Q. Six states had average Internet connections speeds above 15 Mbps including Oregon which

was ranked number eight in the Country at 14.1 Mbps, though none of the top ten reached the

FCC’s new 25 Mbps broadband threshold.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/akamai-average-broadband-speeds-increase-in-all-u-s-states-but-

still-below-new-25-mbps-definition/

See Akamai’s full Q1 2015 State of the Internet Report

https://www.stateoftheinternet.com/downloads/pdfs/2015-q1-state-of-the-internet-report.pdf

Akamai Technologies, Inc. released its Second Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report

reporting the following highlights

• The global average connection speed increased to 5.1 Mbps in the second quarter of

2015. Average connection speeds among the top 10 countries/regions all remained well

above 10 Mbps and like the previous quarter, six of the 10 had average connection speeds

above 15 Mbps. (Oregon has an average connection speed of 14.1 Mbps and is ranked 8

among states in the US.)

• Reversing the trend seen in the first quarter, the number of unique IPv4 addresses

worldwide connecting to Akamai dropped by about 8.6 million in the second quarter as

IPv6 addresses are increasingly used. Growth in IPv6 adoption has been led primarily by

cable and wireless companies in each geography. US-based Verizon Wireless reached 50

percent IPv6 adoption in 2014.

• The number of mobile data subscriptions is increasing rapidly, driving growth in data

traffic along with a continuous increase in the average data volume per subscription. The

volume of mobile data traffic grew by 15% between the first and second quarters of 2015,

and increased 55% year-over-year.

https://www.stateoftheinternet.com/resources-cloud-security-2015-q2-web-security-report.html

Akamai reports continued improvement in 2016

Average Internet speeds go up about 10% around the world; The US ranks solidly in the top 10%

of all nations and in the top 1% of low population density nations.

Akamai findings Q1 2016:

•

United States ranks 16th in the world in Average Connection Speed (web speed) at 15.3

Mbps, up 7.7% from the preceding quarter and 29% from the year-ago quarter.

•

US ranks 22nd in Average Peak Connection Speed (broadband speed) at 67.8 Mbps, up

10% from the preceding quarter and 27% from the year-ago quarter.

•

The US is slipping in the global rankings since the good old days of Title I.

http://hightechforum.org/akamai-state-internet-q1-2016/

Akamai findings Q2 2016:

•

Global average connection speed decreased 2.3% from the first quarter of 2016 to 6.1

Mbps, but still reflects a 14% increase year over year.

•

Global average peak connection speed increased 3.7% to 36.0 Mbps in the second

quarter, rising 2.5% year over year.

•

Average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 23.1 Mbps in the United

Kingdom to a low of 2.2 Mbps in Venezuela.

Akamai.com/stateoftheinternet

Broadband Technology Adoption and Utilization

Broadband Adoption

The Rural Telecommunications Congress commissioned a study of broadband investment and

activity, and in May 2016 issued a report entitled the Fifty States of Broadband, which ranked

Oregon number three in the nation for broadband adoption. Though Oregon continues to be a

leader in the adoption and utilization of broadband technologies compared to other states, there

are significant variances in the rates of adoption between regions and demographic groups.

Notably adoption rates are notably lower in Eastern Oregon and in rural areas as compared to the

I5 corridor and urban areas of the state. The “Digital Divide” continues to exist and will continue

to exist for the foreseeable future. As service quality improves in rural areas of the state, it also

continues to improve in urban areas. What constitutes high-quality broadband service is a

moving target.

Pew Research reports Internet penetration in the U.S. may have reached saturation levels

according to an analysis of 15 years of data collected by a Pew Research Center. The Internet

saturation point has been reached for Americans with high levels of education and those who live

in more affluent households. Seventy percent of young U.S. adults used the Internet in 2000.

Today 96 percent of young adults use the Internet. Internet penetration continues to lag among

older adults, those with lower levels of education and those living in lower-income households.

Key Trends over the 15-year study period:

• Age differences: Older adults have lagged behind younger adults in their adoption, but

now a clear majority (58%) of senior citizens uses the Internet.

• Class differences: Those with college educations are more likely than those who do not

have high school diplomas to use the internet. Similarly, those who live in households

earning more than $75,000 are more likely to be Internet users than those living in

households earning less than $30,000. Still, the class-related gaps have shrunk

dramatically in 15 years as the most pronounced growth has come among those in lower-

income households and those with lower levels of educational attainment.

• Racial and ethnic differences: African-Americans and Hispanics have been somewhat

less likely than whites or English-speaking Asian-Americans to be Internet users, but the

gaps have narrowed. Today, 78% of blacks and 81% of Hispanics use the Internet,

compared with 85% of whites and 97% of English-speaking Asian Americans.

• Community differences: Those who live in rural areas are less likely than those in the

suburbs and urban areas to use the Internet. Still, 78% of rural residents are online.

http://www.telecompetitor.com/pew-internet-penetration-reaches-saturation-levels-for-

some/

See the Pew Research Report at:

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/06/26/americans-internet-access-2000-2015/

Of particular concern to the Council are the variances in rates of adoption in rural areas as

compared to urban areas of Oregon.

Broadband Status

Total

Coast

Portland

Central

Coast

Oregon

North

Central

Oregon

South

Central

Eastern

Broadband at

home

82%

78%

85%

83%

79%

76%

83%

69%

67%

Not-at-home

Internet User

Dial-up

Internet Non-user

13%

14%

10%

13%

15%

20%

10%

24%

25%

Oregon Broadband Adoption by Region

Oregon Broadband Survey Report

Farm Internet use

The USDA issued a report indicating that the Internet is becoming increasingly important to U.S.

farmers. Nearly 70% of farms currently have Internet access, up from 67% in 2013 and from

about 57% in 2007. Oregon is a national leader with 85% of farms having Internet access

through a mix of technologies: Dial-up 7%, DSL 23%, Cable Modem 7%, Satellite 23%,

Wireless 37%, and Unknown 3%. The number of farmers that own or lease computers has

tracked quite closely with Internet access since 2007, with 71% of farmers now falling into that

category, as reported by the USDA report, “Farm Computer Usage and Ownership” (August

2015).

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1062

Telehealth

Telemedicine, the interactive delivery of health care over distance using advances in

telecommunication technology (i.e. video-conferencing equipment), is an evolving model for

care delivery that increases access, improve outcomes, and reduces costs. By improving access,

both geographically and temporally, telemedicine is a transformative use of technology, allowing

earlier involvement of specialists in acute, life-threatening situations, as well as for many other

in-person health interactions that while not urgent, are not efficiently occurring, impeded by the

current delivery system. Access to medically underserved areas, both rural and urban, is

improved, with resultant improved outcomes and cost savings from reduced patient transports.

The term Telehealth is used to more broadly include all use of electronic information and

telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and

professional health-related education, public health and health administration, in other words not

restricted to clinical care alone.

Oregon is viewed as a leader in Telehealth due to progressive programs employed by many of its

healthcare service providers and a supportive state-level public policy. Telemedicine activities in

the state have been detailed in previous versions of this report in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Current

clinical activity continues to grow among all the major health systems. In this report, we will

report on significant policy issues affecting Telehealth and statewide efforts in the field.

Oregon Health Authority and Telehealth Alliance of Oregon project

Telehealth in Oregon is evolving rapidly. In order to better understand the Telehealth landscape

within Oregon, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) asked the Telehealth Alliance of Oregon

(TAO) to undertake three tasks, detailed below. This project is funded through the Oregon

Health Authority’s federal State Innovation Model (SIM) grant, which supports projects that

advance Oregon’s health system transformation efforts.

• Create a comprehensive, easy to understand Law and Policy Review with on-going

quarterly updates;

• Develop a portal where Telehealth providers can share information regarding the types of

services being offered and to whom; and

• Conduct a Telehealth gaps and opportunities assessment and follow it up in a year with

another assessment that will help determine how those gaps and opportunities are being

addressed.

Law and Policy Review

Law and policy issues have provided some the biggest barriers to the deployment and growth

of Telehealth. TAO has created an online resource with information for providers and others

interested about the laws and policies at both the state and federal levels that apply to the practice

of Telehealth in Oregon. This review will be updated on a quarterly basis.

http://www.ortelehealth.org/content/law-and-policy

Telehealth Services Inventory Portal

This on-line portal allows providers of Telehealth services in Oregon to enter information about

the services they offer. The data entered is available to anyone, is searchable by provider,

services type, geographic region, and reimbursement method, and allows the user to refine the

search to meet specific needs. The portal has a data and a geographic display.

The portal can assist both those providing Telehealth services as well as those seeking services.

Telehealth providers can use the portal to determine where their services might be needed and

market to that area. Those seeking a specific service can determine which providers are offering

that service and the parameters around that service.

http://www.ortelehealth.org/content/oregon-telehealth-services-inventory-portal

Telehealth Gaps and Opportunities Assessment (TGOA)

This assessment was conducted by TAO throughout the state in August 2015. There were five

focus groups covering five separate regions, and additional individual discussions with several

key informants. In addition, TAO conducted a quick, informal scan of Telehealth services

currently being provided in Oregon. Through the focus groups and the scan, TAO found that a

wide variety of specialty services are being delivered by large urban providers to acute care

settings such as rural and regional hospitals. Ambulatory care is being delivered by both urban

and regional hospitals to clinics and directly to patients in their homes, schools and workplaces.

Home monitoring services are just beginning to be offered. Distance education and knowledge

sharing, between providers at separate sites, between providers and community groups, groups of

patients, or individual patients occurs], but not is always acknowledged as Telehealth.

While focus group participants and key informants could envision the opportunities offered by

Telehealth, they believed that significant barriers would need to be removed in order to facilitate

expansion. Barriers were classified into four categories:

• Cultural (including education and knowledge sharing)

• Operational (including funding)

• Technical

• Regulatory / Policy

Cultural barriers appear to present the biggest challenge to implementing or expanding

Telehealth in the different regions. Participants from all focus groups believed that increased

information about Telehealth was necessary, ranging from very basic information about what

Telehealth is to very sophisticated information regarding security, scope of practice issues, and

billing. Another common theme was that current provider and patient cultures surrounding

Telehealth are the biggest barriers to Telehealth development. In the current culture, originating

site providers (providers at the patient location) worry that Telehealth providers at distant sites

(locations where the Telehealth provider is located) will take away their patients, or that

Telehealth is a way for other providers to oversee and attempt to manage their practice. For

Telehealth providers, they are uncertain about receiving reimbursements and there are difficulties

with getting licensed and credentialed to provide services. Patients have concerns that they will

be getting sub-standard care not tailored to them as individual patients. With so much of the

healthcare culture changing, participants expressed that it seems overwhelming to take on

changing Telehealth culture as well, though all agreed that providing more educational

opportunities would be the key to changing the culture for both providers and patients.

The Telehealth Alliance of Oregon (TAO) conducted a follow up assessment in August 2016 to

determine how barriers have been addressed for the participants, and if some of the requested

supports were provided and proved helpful. The 2015 assessment is available online and the

follow up will be soon:

http://www.ortelehealth.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/general/page/521/gaps_and_opport

unities_assessment_oha_final.pdf

Policy Developments

Stakeholders and the state of Oregon have been developing policy that will allow Telehealth to

grow with demand. Policy in Oregon has been developed in two ways. The first has been through

collaboration between providers and state agencies to change or develop policies that allowed

providers to move forward with their Telehealth program (examples include Grande Ronde

Hospital working with the Oregon Medical Board to change their cross-state licensure protocol

so that Grande Ronde could more easily use out of state consultants to provide needed services.

Another example is the work done between TAO and the state Medicaid office to develop the

state’s first protocols regarding Medicaid payment for Telehealth services.)

Telehealth policy in Oregon has also been developed through legislation. In 1999, Senate Bill

(SB) 622 was passed. It allowed US West to build six interconnected broadband rings throughout

the state with funds that would have been used to pay a significant fine from the Public Utility

Commission. These rings were to be used by education and healthcare. In 2003, House Joint

Resolution (HJR) 4 was passed. The bill expressed legislative support and encouragement for

telemedicine and for reimbursement for services delivered telemedically. In 2009, SB 24 was

passed mandating that health benefit plans cover telemedicine services between health care

organizations without consideration for urban and rural designations. In 2013, SB 569 was

passed requiring the OHA to develop uniform documentation requirements for credentialing

providers of telemedicine services. New legislation related to Telehealth is detailed below.

SB 144 (2015)

SB 144, a Bill which modifies requirements for health benefit plan coverage of “telemedical”

health service was passed unanimously by both houses in the 2015 legislative session. SB 144

updated Oregon’s statute on the reimbursement of clinical services provided through

telemedicine and applies to plans beginning in 2017. The bill modified health benefit plan

coverage to include coverage of direct provider to patient services via telemedicine regardless of

where the patient was located. It also required the Oregon Educators Benefit Board (OEBB) and

the Public Employees Benefit Board (PEBB) to cover telemedicine services.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB144/Enrolled

SB 5701 (2016)

SB 5701, passed in the 2016 session, appropriates moneys from General Fund to Emergency

Board for allocations during biennium. The Bill includes $1.1 million for telemedicine services

to rural areas through a virtual clinic, increasing opportunities for rural residents to receive care

through online video conferencing.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2016R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB5701/Enrolled

OHSU Office of Rural Health / Oregon Health Authority Telehealth Projects

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Oregon Office of Rural Health (ORH) are

partnering to implement five Telehealth pilot projects. The projects are supported by the federal

State Innovation Model (SIM) grant, which Oregon received to fund innovative projects that

support the State's health care system transformation efforts. In October 2014, OHA, in

partnership with ORH, requested letters of intent from organizations interested in conducting

Telehealth pilot projects that improve care coordination; increase individuals' access to their own

health data and engagement in their care; expand system capacity; and achieve efficiencies in

health care delivery. Proposed projects were required to be innovative, scalable, and align with

SIM grant purposes:

• Support Oregon's coordinated care model and health care transformation;

• Identify and spread health care innovation and/or;

• Promote the triple aim of better health, better care, and lower costs.

Five projects were selected. The Telehealth pilots will run through June of 2016. OHA and ORH

will share the results of these projects in early fall of 2016.

Adventist Health Tillamook Medical Group

Adventist Health Tillamook Medical Group paramedics cover 1,100 square miles and respond to

nearly 4,000 calls for service each year from four ambulance stations strategically located

throughout Tillamook County. This project's focus is to reduce hospital readmissions related to

gaps in a care between the hospital and primary care or specialty management. Adventist

Tillamook Medical Health Group will put high-speed data connectivity in each ambulance to

support direct, real-time communication with the Rural Health Clinics (RHC). Hospital-based

Community Paramedics (CP) will visit patients identified as at-risk for hospital readmission due

to lack of post-discharge follow up with a primary or specialty care provider. The CP will have

the capability to communicate directly with the RHC's Care Coordinator, or provider to help

individuals adequately manage their health care follow up from home.

Capitol Dental Care

Studies in other states have shown that a remotely located dentist, working with an Expanded

Practice Dentist Hygienist (EPDH), who is seeing a patient at a different location, can

collaboratively deliver quality dental care. Capitol Dental Care's pilot project will target

approximately 1,500 children in the Central School District of Polk County, which includes three

elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Led by an EPDH, Capitol Dental Care

will implement Telehealth-connected oral health teams to reach children who have not been

receiving dental care on a regular basis and to provide community-based dental diagnostic,

prevention and early intervention services.

HIV Alliance

People living with HIV/AIDS who are newly diagnosed or those that have unsuppressed viral

loads, co-morbidities, and/or other medication adherence issues have greater issues with drug

interactions, side effects, and other medication adherences, resulting in poorer health outcomes.

HIV Alliance's project aims to increase access to care for these persons in rural eastern and

southern Oregon with collaborative practice agreements and Telehealth technology. The pilot

will proactively engage Pharmacists to be more directly involved with HIV specialists or primary

care providers through collaborative practice agreements. These agreements will enable

Pharmacists to: view and order labs for patients; assess a patient's current medication

regimen;identify problems in the regimen;make changes to the regimen as needed and in

consultation with the HIV specialist; andprovide regular education, consultations and follow-up

monitoring with patients.

Oregon Health & Science University: Layton Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Center

Currently, 80,000 Oregonians have dementia. One of the main goals of the State Plan for

Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias in Oregon (SPADO) is to increase access to

dementia care. To meet this need, SPADO experts recommend expansion of telemedicine

services across the state. The Layton Center's project will create a direct-to-home telemedicine

program to: establish the reliability of standard measures of patient and caregiver well-being

when used with telemedicine, and establish the feasibility and usability of direct-to-home video

dementia care using telemedicine technology.

Trillium Family Services

Children in Secure Children's Inpatient (SCIP) and Secure Adolescent Inpatient (SAIP) programs

can spend up to six months on a waitlist to see a Psychiatrist in their community, which is a

requirement for discharge. For low-income children in rural areas, access to outpatient mental

health services is a significant challenge. Trillium Family Services' project will improve access

to mental health services for vulnerable children in rural Oregon by providing psychiatric

assessments, follow-up and medication management via Telehealth for approximately 80

children each year discharged from SCIP and SAIP programs and approximately 300 children in

rural school settings who cannot effectively access outpatient psychiatry services.

Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT)

The Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) was established in 2011 as is part of the

Oregon Health Authority. OHIT's work focuses on supporting the adoption of electronic health

records, the secure exchange of health information, and achievement of meaningful use in the

state. Through collaboration and partnerships, OHIT seeks to increase the use of health

information technology (HIT) across Oregon's health care community. Stakeholder engagement

has led to a vision for Oregon of a transformed health system where health information

technology and exchange efforts are foundational. The Health Information Technology

Oversight Council (HITOC) is a statutory body of Governor appointed, Senate confirmed

citizens, tasked with setting goals and developing a strategic health information technology plan

for the state, as well as monitoring progress in achieving those goals and providing oversight for

the implementation of the plan. The Council, in collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority:

• Monitors and evaluates the shifting health information technology environment;

• Makes policy and strategy recommendations;

• Convenes committees as needed to collect and share information.

Council members are appointed by the Oregon Health Policy Board. They represent consumer

and business perspectives, public and private sectors, and the geographic and demographic

differences of Oregon's health care providers and the patients they serve. HITOC builds on the

past work of the Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee and the Health

Information Security & Privacy Collaborative. HITOC is supported by the Office of Health

Information Technology at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).

Initiatives include:

• Common Credentialing Program - solution will streamline the process for applying for

and maintaining credentialing information for Oregon practitioners. Today, health care

practitioners are credentialed independently by different organizations, resulting in a

duplication of efforts. Health care practitioners must repeatedly complete credentialing

applications and provide supporting documentation for each credentialing organization.

Oregon's Common Credentialing tool will provide credentialing organizations access to

information necessary to credential and re-credential health care practitioners. The

common credentialing solution will not only capture and store credentialing information

and documents; it will include a verification process for select credentialing information

according to state and national requirements.

• Provider Directory Services - Today, Oregon does not have an authoritative statewide

directory of health care providers. Instead, health care organizations use a multitude of

isolated provider directories, spread across state and non-state systems. Those directories

are often limited in scope and data accuracy, and are costly and burdensome to maintain.

They also may or may not meet current and emerging nationwide provider directory

standards. OHA is developing a state-level provider directory or "provider directory

services" to fill this gap. The directory will contain the information providers need to

securely communicate and exchange patient information. It will also provide a rich single

source of authoritative provider information, such as contact information, clinic

affiliations, licensing data, etc. that can support the operations and analytics needs of

health care organizations. OHA seeks to leverage data in current provider databases and

add critical new information and functions. A stakeholder advisory group is working to

help inform the development process, scope and requirements.

• Clinical Quality Metrics Registry - The Oregon Health Authority is developing a clinical

quality metrics registry with the ability to receive and display clinical quality data for the

Medicaid program and inform benchmarks and other quality improvement reporting. The

registry will be utilized to calculate eligibility for paying quality incentives to coordinated

care organizations and Medicaid EHR incentives to providers. The State will use the

registry data and other state data sources to produce information on utilization, cost, and

performance on clinical quality metrics. Once implemented, the registry will likely have

value for non-Medicaid pay-for-performance programs and reduce administrative burden

on providers by collecting Meaningful Use clinical quality measures for multiple

programs.

More information about HITOC’s plan can be found at:

https://www.oregon.gov/oha/OHIT/resourceDocuments/Business Plan Framework.pdf

OCHIN – Medical Grade Network

OCHIN, based in Portland, is the nation’s largest provider of EPIC electronic medical records

systems to Federally Qualified Health Centers across nineteen states. OCHIN also provides data

aggregation, disaster recovery, billing, and consulting services. OCHIN acquired the Oregon

Health Network (OHN) in 2013, and OHN now does business as the OCHIN Broadband

Network Services (OBNS).

The Federal Communication Commission’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program (RHCPP) that

provided subsidies to the Oregon Health Network ended in May 2014. At that time, the Oregon

Health Network had 231 sites and $20.182 million in subsidies expended. It was an OCHIN fiber

build project in Southwest Oregon that enabled a ring architecture and redundancy for the

Southern Oregon coast, and another OHN project that brought fiber to Christmas Valley. The

permanent replacement for RHCPP is the Healthcare Connect Fund, and under OCHIN’s

stewardship, participants have migrated to the new FCC program. The new FCC program

provides up to a 65% subsidy for the installation and monthly cost of network services as well as

broadband equipment costs for eligible healthcare providers. 97% of OCHIN members, mostly

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), are eligible for the program. OCHIN has recently

added over 40 additional sites and is expanding the managed network outside of Oregon into

Washington, Montana and Alaska.

OCHIN’s goal is to provide a robust, scalable, monitored network to clinics and hospitals that

leverages the FCC’s Healthcare Connect Fund funding to help support EMR, telemedicine, video

conferencing, and image transport. 221 hospitals and clinics were transitioned from the original

231 Rural Healthcare Pilot Program to the Healthcare Connect Fund in 2015. Since then, 76

additional clinics and hospitals have been added. Additional sites are continuously being added

to the network.

OCHIN members are collectively receiving a total of $3.1M in annual FCC funding, and

anticipate that their membership base will be receiving a collective annual subsidy of $4.5M in

FCC funding in the next year. This funding is expected to increase as new members are brought

on to the OCHIN network in other states.

Healthcare is effectively serving as an anchor tenant in rural communities driving the

deployment of new broadband infrastructure which then becomes available for other users in the

community. Thirteen different carriers provide telecommunications services to OCHIN in

Oregon. More information about OCHIN may be found at www.ochin.org.

Mapping Broadband Health in America

The Federal Communications Commission has continued its support of broadband in healthcare

with the launch of its Mapping Broadband Health in America, a web-based mapping platform

created by the Connect2Health FCC Task Force to drive more efficient, data-driven decision

making at the intersection of broadband and health. Users can generate customized, county-level

maps displaying broadband access, adoption and speed data alongside various health outcomes,

access, and quality measures in urban and rural areas. The mapping platform can be used by

both public and private sectors and local communities to identify gaps and opportunities in

connected health https://www.fcc.gov/health/maps.

OHSU Project ECHO

Project ECHO® enhances the ability of primary care physicians (PCP) to treat chronic and

complex illnesses in their hometown clinic and increases patient access to care. It is modeled

after the University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare

Outcomes). OHSU ECHO connects primary care providers with OHSU specialists for live,

weekly video teleconferences. These one-hour virtual clinics give PCPs real-time reviews of

complex cases. OHSU specialists provide written treatment recommendations. Each session also

includes a 15- to 20-minute didactic presentation. Continuing Medical Education credit is

provided. PCPs are expected to present cases up to six times a year and share patient outcome

data.

OHSU’s first Project ECHO® initiative, a Psychiatric Medication Management pilot program,

was launched in September 2014 in conjunction with and support from Health Share. This pilot

focused on PCPs in counties surrounding the Portland metropolitan area, enabling them to work

more effectively with individuals seeking treatment for mood disorders, anxiety disorders,

psychotic disorders, ADHD and other mental health challenges. Medications are one of many

important tools for treating a variety of psychiatric disorders, including those related to sleep and

substance use. Because individuals can respond differently to the same medications, appropriate

prescription of psychotropic medications remains challenging. Managing these medications can

be enhanced with the assistance of OHSU psychiatric specialists.

Based on the success of this first pilot, OHSU has continued the Psychiatric Medication

Management program with funding from Health Share and Columbia Pacific CCO. With

funding from OHA, a Child Psychiatry ECHO Clinic was launched in 2016, to help PCPs

throughout the state diagnose and treat child patients with ADHD, anxiety, depression, learning

disabilities, trauma, PTSD and other issues.

http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/for-healthcare-professionals/telemedicine-network/for-

healthcare-providers/ohsu-echo/

Telehealth Review

Individuals looking for more information regarding the current status of Telehealth nationwide

are directed to the following excellent review published in The New England Journal of

Medicine in 2016. The authors identified three trends currently shaping Telehealth, specifically:

• The transformation of the application of Telehealth from increasing access to health care

to providing convenience and eventually reducing cost

• The expansion of Telehealth from addressing acute conditions to also addressing episodic

and chronic conditions

• The migration of Telehealth from hospitals and satellite clinics to the home and mobile

devices

http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMra1601705

Energy Management

Broadband is helping Oregon utilities move to a smarter electrical grid where power outages are

identified, responded to, and repaired more quickly. Additionally, customers are empowered

with information to help them understand and manage their energy use, stay connected to their

utility in case of emergencies, and use less energy. Saving energy is easier and in some cases

automatic as timing of energy use is being managed to match supply.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is an integrated system of smart utility meters,

communication networks, and data management systems that enables two-way communication

between utilities and customers. Smart meters are electronic devices that record consumption of

electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicate that information back to the

utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication

between the meter and the central system. In 2012, 55 percent of the electric meters in Oregon

were smart meters, but this penetration is expected to increase with PacifiCorp’s recently

announced three-year project to install AMI.

Smart meters can be thought of as one step to modernizing all aspects of the electric grid, from

the generation of electricity to the consumption of electricity. The requirements for the speed of

such communications are encompassed by broadband. The Federal Communications

Commission (FCC) has recognized this and holds that broadband is an advantageous component

of smart grids as it allows more content to be carried through information networks.

(FCC’s National Broadband Plan is available at https://transition.fcc.gov/national-broadband-

plan/national-broadband-plan.pdf).

Smart grids are therefore a noteworthy element of broadband usage in energy management. The

three Oregon investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have or will have implemented smart grid

infrastructure to achieve higher efficiency in energy management. Most Customer Owned

Utilities (COUs) have or will have similar smart grid infrastructures to achieve higher efficiency

in energy management as well.

Idaho Power Company

Idaho Power Company (IPC) is headquartered in Boise, and while IPC’s service territory is

primarily in Idaho, it also extends into parts of Eastern Oregon including Ontario and outlying

areas extending west, near Baker City, John Day, and Prairie City. Past estimations reveal IPC’s

broadband network reaches about 350 miles. IPC uses this system for two-way radio

communication, generation and/or transmission energy management, along with implementing

and monitoring responses to power disturbances, inter-connections with other utilities, and

security operations.

Within Oregon, IPC owns and operates communications facilities including microwave

terminals, microwave repeaters, and transmission switching stations. In the past, IPC’s

broadband capabilities have ranged in data rates as low as 12.35 Mb/s and as high as 155.52

Mb/s. IPC has also utilized commercially-owned telecommunications facilities and leased

approximately 240 miles of broadband facilities for carrying AMI service and distribution

substation energy management EMS. At least some of their Oregon substations have used leased

communication facilities.

Broadband technology has also been used in IPC’s Irrigation Peak Rewards Program, for

backhaul communication between IPC’s substation data collectors and the utility enterprise

network, but this did not include communication with individual meters or devices. Idaho Power

also has a web portal that customers can access for energy monitoring purposes, but it does not

broadcast this information to customers using broadband technology. Broadband technology is,

however, used to retrieve meter reads and load profiles.

PacifiCorp

PacifiCorp (PAC), headquartered in Portland, serves approximately 567,000 customers in

Oregon. PacifiCorp also serves retail customers in the states of California, Idaho, Utah,

Washington, and Wyoming. PAC’s Oregon service territory includes sections of Portland, the

Coast, Willamette Valley, as well as Southern and Eastern Oregon.

Given PAC’s Oregon customer base, and its diverse service area, it has a rather extensive data

network of which the vast majority is owned by PAC. It also contracts with third-party providers

for networking into and out of their Portland control center. In the past, PAC has had

approximately 600 miles of broadband capability in Oregon related to sustaining power flows in

Oregon. PAC uses this system for two-way radio communication, generation and/or

transmission energy management, implementing and monitoring responses to power

disturbances, inter-connections with other utilities, and security operations. Speeds have ranged

from a low of 1.2 kb/s to 1,500 kb/s on the high end.

In addition to this capability, PAC recently filed an update to its Smart Grid Report with the

Oregon Public Utility Commission expressing its intent to develop and install AMI in Oregon.

In its filing, PAC states that it intends to develop AMI technology in an effort to reduce

operating costs and improve customer service. PAC plans to place these smart meters into

service within the next three years. While details about how PAC will be using broadband to

deploy its AMI technology is limited, PAC is currently planning on using a “Wi-SUN” certified

wireless mesh network to facilitate communication between geographically distributed access

points and retail meters.

PAC also currently uses broadband to manage and facilitate the use of: Supervisory Control and

Data Acquisition (SCADA); to control/monitor spinning reserves, non-spinning reserves,

regulation service; and demand bidding and buyback.

PGE

Portland General Electric (PGE), also headquartered in Portland, currently serves around

840,000 customers within a 4,000 square mile service territory, which focuses on the Portland

Metropolitan area as well as the Willamette Valley. PGE uses a combination of owned and

leased fiber at all of its generation plants and transmission and distribution substations for

broadband services. Given the need for minimal delay, high reliability and redundancy fiber is

used for both operations monitoring and control. PGE utilizes a range of speeds on its system,

from dark fiber (unused fiber) to 2.488 Gbps. Data to and from retail meters is transmitted over

a wireless network at very low speeds.

PGE also has about 90 substations with low speed connections and about 50 that use cellular

connections. PGE has stated that it is planning to switch these connections to leased broadband

over the next few years in PGE service territory.

In 2015, PGE completed its Outage Management System (OMS), which uses input from AMI,

SCADA and customer calls. The intent of the OMS upgrade is to pinpoint, collect information

about, and respond to outages more quickly. However, PGE currently has no plans for

expanding its broadband to include connection to customer meters.

PGE has also launched a smart water heater demand response pilot program that uses customers’

own Wi-Fi networks (enabled through existing broadband-based internet service providers) to

communicate with PGE, in combination with a simple FM radio network that broadcasts control

signals. In this program, customers allow PGE to connect to their home water heaters and ramp

them up or down, with these control events occurring on a daily basis. This allows a matching of

supply and demand through adjustments to the appliances of residential customers. In this way,

PGE gets the benefit of existing broadband networks without the expense of installing its own

dedicated fiber. To date, fourteen residential customers are participating in the pilot.

Customer Owned Utilities

There are 41 COUs in Oregon: 20 electric cooperatives, 12 municipal electric utilities, and 6

people’s utility districts (PUDs). While COUs serve more than two-thirds of Oregon

geographically, they only serve about 26% of Oregon’s population. Smart grid related

deployments in this group vary from very aggressive deployments to no deployments at all. A

lack of broadband infrastructure being a significant barrier to smart grid deployments in some

rural areas was cited by most that had no deployments. Several have built their own fiber optic

communications infrastructure while many rely upon the infrastructure of local communication

providers. Some have a combination of their own fiber optic infrastructure and service from a

local communication provider. One Gbps was cited as the fastest speed utilized.

Aggressive deployments include AMI and SCADA at substations with some planning to deploy

Distribution Automation (DA) on their local electric distribution systems in the future.

Smart Grid applications are designed to save costs, reduce outage time, and improve both

internal and customer communications.

Current applications of Smart Meters include:

• reading meters remotely

• energy use monitoring by the customer via smart phone or PC

• energy use in-home monitors by customer

• outage management systems (OMS)

• outage detection by the utility

• outage notification via smart phone or PC by customers

• outage progress updates via smart phone or PC to customers

• outage map viewing by customers via the web

• social media outage notification and progress updates

• automated pre-pay programs that eliminate the need for sending electric bills

Current applications of SCADA include:

• substation monitoring of internal equipment

• substation video monitoring

• remote switch operations

• remote fault detection

• load control management

Other Applications include:

• Conservation voltage reduction (CVR)

A NOTE ABOUT SMART METERS: Smart Meter current and pending deployments increased

from 55% in 2012’s “Broadband in Oregon Report” to 85% in this report of all electric meters in

Oregon. As reported in the Third Annual Grid Modernization Index, January, 2016, only three

states and Washington DC had a higher percentage than 85% of smart meter penetration.

A NOTE ABOUT COUs PROVIDING BROADBAND TO OTHERS: Seventeen COUs either

directly or indirectly provide broadband to their local communities. Some provide wholesale

broadband services while others provide retail and wholesale broadband services. Services

generally are provided via a subsidiary or by intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with others.

Some are wholly-owned by the COU or are in partnerships corporations, LLCs or IGAs. A few

provide wholesale broadband services directly from the COU.

Education

There have been significant developments regarding broadband in K-12 schools since OBAC’s

last report. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has continued to support its 2014

adoption of the high speed broadband connectivity targets established by the State Educational

Technology Directors Association (SETDA). In September 2016, SETDA released The

Broadband Imperative II: Equitable Access for Learning (www.setda.org) in which SETDA

continues to advocate for increasing robust access both in and out of school to best prepare all

students for college and careers. The Broadband Imperative II focuses on four key areas:

• Increasing Infrastructure to support Student-Centered Learning

• Designing Infrastructure to Meet Capacity Targets

• Ensuring Equity of Access for All Students Outside of School

• Leveraging State Resources providing direct state funding to Increase Broadband

Access

This 2016 report expands on earlier recommendations from SETDA’s groundbreaking

report, The Broadband Imperative: Recommendations to Address K-12 Education Infrastructure

Needs. The 2016 report includes the following updated recommendations for high-speed

broadband connectivity based on school district size.

http://www.setda.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SETDA-Broadband-ImperativeII-Full-

Document-Sept-8-2016.pdf

Oregon Department of Education (ODE) staff members have been integrally involved in the

development of the SETDA Broadband Imperative II Report. Amy McLaughlin - Director of

Information Technology Operations and Carla Wade - Digital Innovations Lead, both served on

the Broadband Steering Committee for the development of the 2016 SETDA report. Carla Wade

of the ODE was the Chair of the SETDA Board of Directors for 2015-16 and continues on the

Board as the Past Chair for 2016-17.

The ODE is working with a variety of partners to improve K-12 connectivity statewide. During

the summer of 2015, the Oregon Department of Education worked with EducationSuperHighway

(ESH) www.educationsuperhighway.org, a non-partisan non-profit focused on improving school

connectivity nationwide, on a K-12 broadband connectivity study to assess the current status of

schools and support planning to meet broadband needs. Applications to the federal FCC E-Rate

Program provided most districts’ data for the survey. Schools that did not apply for E-Rate

subsidies were contacted to collect the needed data. Data was collected on 144 of Oregon’s 197

K-12 school districts representing 1,224 of Oregon’s 1260 K-12 public schools (97%).

The results of this study were published in an Oregon Broadband Connectivity Report, issued in

2016. This report provides a point in time snapshot of K-12 connectivity at Oregon’s school

districts and highlights opportunities to make digital learning a possibility for more students. The

report also provided a baseline analysis of some of the challenges facing Oregon school districts

but did not go to the individual school building level. Some key observations based on the

district level data include:

• 74% of districts meet 2014 goals for Internet access, but 82% need to upgrade to meet

2018 goals.

• 18% of districts currently meet 2018 goals for Internet access

• Internet costs vary significantly across the state and price transparency can make the cost

more equitable

• School districts in I-5 corridor are mostly all on fiber; Eastern and Southern Oregon

needs the most help procuring fiber

• Internet services procured and aggregated by Education Service Districts (ESDs) is

cheaper than districts that procure on their own

• Internet connectivity is more expensive in Eastern and Southern Oregon.

• Neighboring districts frequently pay different costs for the same service

Additionally, ODE has collaborated with ESDs across the state to conduct a follow up survey

that will provide connectivity data down to the individual school building level. This data

collection will be completed in October 2016 and utilized for planning strategies to further

improve high speed broadband connectivity to all schools and improve school internal networks

so that connectivity can be leveraged in the classroom.

E-Rate Program

The FCC’s “modernization” of the E-Rate program has been a positive development in the

challenge to equip Oregon schools with broadband network access and in-school distribution

network infrastructure. There are currently $44 million of E-rate funds can be leveraged for a

statewide broadband access and in-school Wi-Fi implementation and education. In another

enhancement to the program, the FCC will add another 10% subsidy if the state provides 10%

funding. These contributions added to the E-Rate subsidy of up to 80% means that some schools

may qualify for no out of pocket cost.

The FCC adopted two major orders re-orienting the E-rate program to provide support for high-

capacity broadband services to and within schools and libraries; improving the administration of

the program; and raising the annual E-rate funding cap.

The first FCC E-Rate order

• Re-oriented the E-rate program to focus it on broadband

• Adopted goals and measures for the program

• Significantly expanded Wi-Fi funding for all libraries and schools

• Improved E-rate program cost-effectiveness through pricing transparency, encouraging

consortia and bulk purchasing

• Simplified the E-rate application process and program administration

• Seeks comment on how to best meet the needs of the program going forward

Internet access targets:

• 100 Mbps per 1,000 students (short term); 1 Gbps per 1,000 students (long term)

• 100 Mbps for libraries serving fewer than 50,000 people and at least 1 Gbps for libraries

serving more than 50,000 people

In-school / On-campus Distribution Network target:

• Connection scalable to 10 Gbps per 1,000 students (long term)

The second FCC E-Rate order

• Raised the annual E-rate funding cap to $3.9 billion

• Focused on addressing the connectivity gap facing many schools and libraries,

particularly in rural areas, by maximizing the options available for purchasing affordable

high-speed connectivity

• Directed the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to establish a

performance management system to assess the effectiveness of policy changes and

program administration

• Expanded the definition of rural to include schools and libraries located in urban clusters

with fewer than 25,000 residents

The Oregon Department of Education promoted the enhanced E-Rate Program to and

encouraged applications to the program to address broadband needs and is leveraging an E-Rate

trial enhancement. The Department of Education approached the Emergency Board in May 2016

with a request for a pilot project for state funding of qualified e-rate projects for category 1

access. The Emergency Board funded $273,000 Education to conduct a pilot program of

providing state matching funds for seven school districts that are funding optic-fiber

infrastructure projects through the FCC’s E-Rate Program. The participating school districts are

in Paisley, Arlington, Sherman County, Dufur, South Wasco, Santiam Canyon, and Glendale.

The FCC’s additional 10% funding offer will continue for three years.

OBAC is excited by the progress made by the Oregon Department of Education. This spring, the

Oregon Department of Education, in conjunction with the National Governors Association with

support from EducationSuperHighway, developed a plan to continue to assess and address the

broadband needs of the state’s K-12 Schools. In their national State of the States report ESH

reports that 38 Governors have committed to upgrade their schools, including Oregon’s

Governor Brown.

http://stateofthestates.educationsuperhighway.org/?utm_source=friends-

link&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sots

Oregon is making significant progress, however, the Digital Divide continues to exist. Students

in low-population frontier and low-income areas have less access to the educational resources

than their peers do. Adequate access to broadband can narrow that gap.

Digital Learning in Oregon

Quality broadband access supports digital learning and access for students to a broader range of

opportunities and equitable educational opportunities. Since the last report, ODE has made

significant forward progress in supporting digital learning options.

Students in Oregon’s small and rural districts do not always have access to the courses needed

for personalized learning and preparation for career and college. Beginning in the fall of 2015,

ODE offered Online Course Access to 138 rural districts through the Oregon Virtual School

District (ORVSD) program. Online Course Access offers students more flexibility, increased

curricular options, and alternatives to meet their unique learning interests.

Additional resources provided by this program include district licenses for professional level

tools including ARC GIS mapping tools and SketchUp Pro for engineering and architectural

design. ODE’s ORVSD is also providing access to online content from the National Repository

of Online Content including HippoCampus educational resources, EdReady which allows

students to assess their readiness for higher level math, provides study options and a personalized

study path to fill in knowledge gaps.

ODE is also providing resources for school district implementation of digital learning. The

Oregon Ed Tech Professional Development Cadre is celebrating its 15

year of providing

professional development in effective integration of technology, emerging technologies and

effective professional development strategies to build the capacity of districts and Education

Service Districts across the state. Many of the participants are extending this professional

development by providing Regional Ed Tech Cadres to expand the learning to the local districts

and regions.

The Oregon Department of Education has convened the Oregon Digital Learning Advisory group

to guide development of a new State Digital Learning Plan and guide to Digital Learning

Standards and Computer Science Standards. In order to assist school districts in implementing

this plan, ODE will be using resources such as the SETDA Guide to Implementing Digital

Learning which addresses a number of factors districts must consider to implement digital

learning including planning, professional learning, content & software, broadband connectivity,

devices and tech support. ODE will also have some schools participating in Future Ready,

which provides a roadmap to achieve success with high quality teaching, dynamic use of

technology and personalized learning.

The Future Ready Framework addresses:

• Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

• Use of Space and Time

• Robust Infrastructure

• Data and Privacy

• Community Partnerships

• Personalized Professional Learning

• Budget and Resources

Oregon is also engaged in the National #GoOpen Exchange where states are “working alongside

with innovators from education technology companies and nonprofit organizations to share

effective strategies and ideas, create new tools and provide professional learning opportunities

that help educators find, adapt, create, and share resources.” http://tech.ed.gov/open-

education/states/

As a part of the state commitment to #GoOpen, supported by Governor Brown, the ODE is:

• Implementing a statewide strategy that includes the use of open educational resources

(OER)

• Developing a statewide repository for openly licensed resources

• Developing the technical capability to publish OER to the National Learning Registry

• Participating in a community of practice with other #GoOpen states and supporting local

#GoOpen districts

• Posting its #GoOpen commitment, resources and progress on the Oregon Educator

Network

ODE is also providing the Oregon Educator Network (OEN) for schools, districts and educator

groups. The OEN is a dynamic tool for sharing and discovery of practices, resources, model

programs and professional development. Engineering of enhancements is underway to increase

the functionality of the site and migrate a previously developed professional development

strategies database into the OEN.

The Homework Gap

The Homework Gap refers to the problem of students that do not have broadband access at home

while course content, learning tools and resources, and school communications are moving on-

line. In 2012, the Joint Interim Task Force on STEM Access and Success (HB4056) Report

recommended that Oregon make investments to “ensure that the appropriate IT infrastructure is

in place to provide reliable broadband internet access, online delivery systems, and computers

and technology in schools and the home for all P-20 students. In 2014, OBAC referenced the

lack of home access to high-speed broadband and recommended that Oregon provide equitable

access for students and educators to reliable and robust broadband connectivity both in the

school and at home. In order to make a case for our students without home access to high-speed

broadband connectivity, the Oregon Department of Education continues to share data and

information with the FCC and the USED about access to high-speed broadband in our rural and

frontier school districts and the communities they serve.

The Homework Gap is becoming an issue of national concern. The FCC’s Wireline Competition

Bureau is seeking comment on two petitions, one filed by Microsoft Corporation and others in

Virginia, and the other filed by the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic on

behalf of the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado requesting that the Commission allow

E-rate subsidized broadband networks to be accessed by students at home for educational

purposes, without an obligation on the E-rate applicant to cost allocate the portion of the traffic

attributable to off-campus use.

Oregon Districts and Education Service Districts are looking at multiple strategies to address the

Homework Gap.

EBS Spectrum and LTE

Educational Broadband Service (EBS) Spectrum and LTE technology has the potential of being

an effective strategy to meet the broadband service needs of unserved students through schools

and Community Anchor Institutions. Currently, High Desert Education Service District and

Deschutes County Administrative School District, Community Anchor Institutions, are testing

the use of EBS spectrum to provide Internet connectivity to their schools.

EBS Spectrum makes up one of the largest spectrum bands allocated by the FCC for advanced

wireless services. The band in the 2495-2690 MHz (2.5 GHz) frequency range is licensed by the

FCC on a geographic service area (GSA) basis only to accredited educational institutions and

nonprofit entities whose missions are educational. Currently, EBS is an underused resource and

commonly resold by license holders. It has the potential of being an effective strategy to meet the

broadband service needs of unserved students through schools as Community Anchor

Institutions.

Educational Broadband Service (BRS & EBS - 2496-2690 MHz)

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=service_home&id=ebs_brs

Call Sign Organization

Frequencies

Lease ID(s)

Lease Holder Names

Lease

Commence

ment

Lease

Expiration

WNC471 Oregon State University B1, B2, B3, B4 L000018291 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

2/13/2016

11/3/2024

WNC527 Oregon State University A1, A2, A3, A4 L000018358 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

3/3/2016

1/17/2025

WNC574 Oregon State University C1, C2, C3, C4 L000018359 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

3/3/2016

3/20/2025

WNC718 Oregon State University C1, C2, C3, C4 L000018292 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

2/13/2016

10/16/2025

WNC771 Oregon State University D1, D2, D3, D4

L000003933

ATI Sub, LLC

10/16/2008

3/3/2018

WNC470 Portland State University D1, D2, D3, D4 L000018290 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

2/13/2016

11/3/2024

WNC487 Lane Community College D1, D2, D3, D4 L000018356 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

3/3/2016

11/8/2024

WLX237 Portland Community College B3, B4 N/A -

WHR746 Portland Community College B1, B2 N/A -

WHR771 Chemeketa Community College District A1, A2, A3, A4 N/A -

WHR543 Oregon Public Broadcasting A1, A2, A3, A4 L000010314 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

2/9/2013

10/19/2022

WNC526 University of Oregon B1, B2, B3, B4 L000018357 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

3/3/2016

1/17/2025

WNC987 High Deser Educational Service District B1, B2, B3, B4 L000008031 Webformix Company

1/25/2011

9/15/2017

WNC540 Linn-Benton Community College G1, G2, G3, G4 L000018360 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

3/3/2016

2/13/2025

WNC717 Western Oregon University G1, G2, G3, G4 L000018293 Clearwire Spectrum Holdings III, LLC (Sprint)

2/13/2016

10/16/2025

WNC759 Southern Oregon University G1, G2, G3, G4

L000003928

ATI Sub, LLC

10/16/2008

3/3/2018

WNC815 Central Oregon Community College D1, D2, D3, D4 L000008033 Webformix Company

1/25/2011

10/7/2016

WNC816 Deschutes County Admin School District No. 1 A1, A2, A3, A4 L000008032 Webformix Company

1/25/2011

10/7/2016

Current State of Oregon EBS License Holders

WiFi on Buses

Another development has been equipping school buses with WiFi Internet access for extended

learning time. Additionally, some buses have been positioned in residential neighborhoods as

WiFi hotspots for student use.

The Oregon Broadband Advisory Council will continue to work with ODE to analyze the State

of high-speed broadband access for Oregon school districts and promote the development of

solutions to deliver equitable access to connectivity and digital learning resources for all

students.

E-Government

Oregon.gov

In 2015, the State of Oregon launched an upgraded version of the state portal that is a finalist, for

the second year in a row, in the Center for Digital Government’s Best of the Web awards.

One in every three visitors come to Oregon.gov from a mobile device such as a smart phone or

tablet. Over the year, mobile devices have visited Oregon.gov websites over 42 million times.

58, 71% of Oregonians told Oregon.gov that optimizing our services to work with mobile

devices was important.

Visitors have access to over 1,900 Oregon services where they can complete their entire

interaction over the internet.

The survey of Oregon residents has pointed out for the first time that contacting the state over the

internet is considered just as convenient as using the telephone. In Oregon, 9 of 10 residents

(91%) report having internet access at home. Another 5% have internet access from somewhere

else (page 38 & 39). Only 4% of Oregonians did not have access to the internet.

Last year, Oregon residents visited Oregon.gov webpages over 42 million times viewing over

139 million web pages.

The Electronic Portal Advisory Board (EPAB) publishes three key measures: 1) Survey of

Oregonians 2) Number of Online Services 3) Agency Defined measures. These three cover 80

different measures published once a year in the EPAB Annual Report.

One of the 80 measures is how does Oregon compares against national criteria used to rank all

50 states for Best of the Web by the Center of Digital government. Within that measure is 59

different criteria. Oregon was selected as a finalist for Best of the Web in 2015.

In 2015, the E-Government ecommerce service collected more than 2.54 billion dollars in over 3

million transactions. This is in addition to the other online payment services provided by the

Treasurer’s office.

Nearly every agency, board and commission participates in the centralized Oregon E-

Government service offering, including websites, online applications, online payments, open

data and enterprise collaboration.

The Electronic Government Portal Advisory Board publishes the future projects under

consideration as a handout at each quarterly board meeting:

http://www.oregon.gov/epab/pages/agenda_minutes_handouts.aspx

To review the full 70 page annual Oregon.gov report go to:

http://www.oregon.gov/epab/docs/2016_EPAB_Annual_Report.pdf

Cities

The use of the broadband Internet by city governments in Oregon continues to expand and the

inventory of Internet and broadband services throughout the state is becoming more robust. This

is particularly important as cities seek to use technology to communicate with and provide

services and information to the citizens and businesses residing and operating within their

jurisdiction.

The League of Oregon Cities approached several of its members with a questionnaire provided

by staff of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council. So while not a comprehensive view of the

use of Internet and broadband services in terms of e-government, it does provide some

interesting insights.

Internet Websites

While not representative of every city in Oregon, every responding city indicate that they

maintain an Internet website. Some sites are more robust than others depending upon city size.

Typically, these websites are used to provide general civic information to citizens as well as

more specific information on the city government itself and its activities. Many cities provide

streaming video of council meetings as well. And of value to both the citizenry and the local

government, business transactions are increasingly being conducted over the Internet - such as

paying invoices and obtaining permits. A few cities go as far as to have available to the public

information about their broadband infrastructure. This is particularly so in cities that operate

their own facilities.

Broadband Services

Several cities in Oregon act as a provider of broadband services to the community. Affirmative

respondents to this portion of the survey included Portland, Eugene, and Sandy (SandyNet),

although there are others who do so as well. Portland’s offering includes services to

government, schools and public libraries utilizing optic fiber and copper cable. Eugene’s is a

partnership with private sector providers and serves businesses, government, schools, hospitals

and other users with optic fiber and wireless. The City of Sandy extends its broadband services

(Internet and phone) to citizens in their homes, businesses, government, and schools, mostly with

optic fiber and some copper cable and wireless.

Public Broadband Policy

The City of Portland has been actively engaged in establishing broadband policy can be viewed

at https://www.portlandoregon.gov/revenue/57451 . The National Association of

Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) 2016 Community Broadband Awards

recipients included two from the City of Portland. The Community Broadband Awards recognize

exceptional leaders and innovative programs that champion community interests in broadband

deployment and adoption in local communities nationwide. Recipients were selected based on

their extraordinary efforts, achievements and innovation in community-based approaches to

broadband technology. Portland was recognized for its Digital Equity Action Plan, and Mary

Beth Henry, its recently retired director of the Office for Community Technology was

recognized as a Community Broadband Visionary.

The City of Eugene adopted a telecommunication vision and policy in 1997 and in 2013

approved a Eugene Community Broadband Plan.

http://www.oregonbroadbandplanning.org/Engaged-Communities/Community-

Plans/G1plans/EugenePlan.pdf

The City of Sandy has modified its development code to require infrastructure improvements for

SandyNet fiber facilities in all new developments and has also established a Broadband Adoption

and Utilization Strategic Plan. http://www.oregonbroadbandplanning.org/Engaged-

Communities/Community-Plans/G1plans/SandyPlan.pdf

Counties

In 2016, the Association of Oregon Counties conducted a survey of the counties regarding their

use and focus on broadband. Of the thirty-one counties that responded, 100 percent maintain a

website, and most use the website to provide and distribute general civic information to citizens,

and provide information about county government and its activities. Some of the counties

broadcast county commission meetings and/or other public meetings via streaming video, and

provide transactional services such as paying invoices and obtaining permits. Only a few

counties display information about their broadband infrastructure or provide broadband services

to the community.

County

Does your

county

maintain an

internet

website?

Is your

website

used to

provide and

distribute

general

civic

information

to citizens?

Is your

website

used to

provide

information

about

county

government

and its

activities?

Do you

broadcast

county

commission

meetings

and/or

other public

meetings

via

streaming

video?

Is your

website

used to

provide

transactional

services

such as

paying

invoices and

obtaining

permits?

Does your

website

include

information

about the

county’s

broadband

infra-

structure?

Is your

county a

provider of

broadband

services?

Grant Yes Yes Yes No No No No

Union Yes Yes Yes No No No No

Clackamas Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Crook Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No

Marion Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Lane Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Deschutes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Linn Yes n/a n/a No No No No

Sherman Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes

Jackson Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Wheeler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Washington Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Coos Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Clatsop Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Benton Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No

Wasco Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes

Klamath Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No

Douglas Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Wallowa Yes No Yes No No No No

Columbia Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No

Clatsop Yes Yes Yes No No No No

Malheur Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No

Umatilla Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Lincoln Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Josephine Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Baker Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No

Tillamook Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Lincoln Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Coos Yes Yes Yes No No No No

Jefferson Yes Yes Yes No No No No

Gilliam Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes

Tribes

There are nine federally recognized Tribes within the boundaries of the State of Oregon.

Oregon federally recognized Tribes

All Oregon Tribes have websites that provide information about governmental services (Table

below). Typical information includes tribal law and code, plans, forms, permits, public meeting

notices, agendas, meeting minutes, and job announcements. Most of the websites provide maps

with information like land boundaries, roads and service locations, directions, etc. One website

offers extensive streaming video of public meetings.

Few of the websites provide opportunities for interaction with the exception of providing e-mail

contacts for elected officials and administrative departments. A few tribes offer informal

discussion forums on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Listserv or E-mail notification services, online bill or fee pay, and online forms submission is

very limited. Most Tribes have exclusive portals for information sharing within the tribal

organization. These provide information and opportunities for interactivity that do not exist at the

public website.

At least four tribes are working on advanced broadband service delivery projects. The

Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde charge a flat fee for their residential customers and are

increasing broadband service speeds by changing from ADSL to VDSL lines. The Confederated

Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are planning for broadband fiber connectivity to their

Yellow Hawk Tribal Health Center and residential areas. The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe

of Indians is operating a level-3 commercial data center out of Roseburg that provides 36 racks

and currently hosts HughesNet among other customers. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm

Springs continue to build fiber out customers from their CLEC including a recent buildout to

serve a future Unmanned Ariel System training center at Kah-Ne-Ta. In August 2016, Warm

Springs Telecommunications Company, a certified Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)

and Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) in Oregon, filed a petition with the FCC to be

treated as the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) of record for the two areas identified on

the Warm Springs Reservation.

Tribe URL

Burns Paiute Tribe http://www.burnspaiute-nsn.gov/

Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower

Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians

http://ctclusi.org/

Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde http://www.grandronde.org/

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian

Reservation

http://ctuir.org/

Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs http://www.warmsprings.com/

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians http://www.ctsi.nsn.us/

Coquille Indian Tribe http://www.coquilletribe.org/

Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of

Indians

http://www.cowcreek.com

Klamath Tribes http://klamathtribes.org/

Broadband Related Challenges and Opportunities

OBAC has identified the following key broadband challenges and opportunities facing Oregon

and on its agenda for 2016.

Cyber Security

The Council believes that cyber security is a “sleeper-issue” that requires urgent attention. The

security of data and communications systems is a clear and present risk exposure for public

organizations, private sector businesses, and for individuals that is under recognized and under

managed.

Recently in the news, it was reported that last year's data breach at JPMorgan Chase Bank

affected more than 76 million households and seven million small businesses.

JPMorgan Chase reported that hackers may have stolen customer names, addresses, phone

numbers and email addresses. That ranks among the biggest consumer data breaches in recent

years.

Other big reported breaches include:

• Software-maker Adobe Systems suffered a breach in 2013 that reportedly involved 150

million customer email addresses and encrypted passwords.

• Online retailer eBay had a 2014 breach involving an estimated 145 million customer

names, addresses and encrypted passwords.

• Home Depot suffered a 2014 breach that reportedly exposed about 56 million customer

payment card accounts, plus email addresses for 53 million more customers.

• Retail chain Target stores had a breach in 2013 that reportedly affected 40 million

payment cards and phone numbers or addresses for another 70 million customers.

• Insurance company, Anthem, reported a breach last year that included social

security numbers, employment and income information for up to 80 million people.

• Sony Pictures Entertainment suffered a hack last year in which personal information for

nearly 50,000 current and former employees, including salaries and social security

numbers, was posted online.

• U.S. Office of Personnel Management suffered a hack involving sensitive information

including social security numbers and even fingerprint records for over 21 million current

and former federal workers. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/jp-morgan-

chase-breach-biggest-recent-years-35109338

A recent survey of nearly 4,000 young adults worldwide, commissioned by Raytheon and the

National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), revealed that the perception of young “millennials”

as a tech-savvy generation may not be accurate. There is a surprising ignorance among the 18 to

26 year-old respondents when it comes to their online security.

• 65 percent of respondents said they believe they can stay safe online.

• 58 percent of respondents said they were not taught how to stay safe online

• 67 percent of respondents said they hadn't heard about any cyber-attacks in the past year.

https://fcw.com/articles/2015/10/26/millennials-cybersecurity.aspx

Current and Trending Cyber Risks

• The Internet of Things (IoT)

• Data Protection during Transfer and Storage

• Data Privacy – Big Data

• Ransomware

• Cyber Espionage/Terrorism

• Power Grid – SCADA

• Consumer Fraud/Identity Theft

• Weak and Stupid “Human Firewall” (There is no patch for stupidity)

• Cyber Security Risks

David Trepp of Info@Risk, Inc. provided the Council with a briefing on cyber-security risks.

Cyber Security risk management entails more than software, hardware, and communications

technologies, it also involves physical facilities such as buildings and offices, people, and

administrative systems.

Risk = Likelihood * Impact

Risk may be viewed as the measure of the extent to which an organization is threatened by a

potential circumstance or event (threat); a function of impact and likelihood. The sources of

security threats may be external and internal.

•

Cyber risk exposure is increasing over time. Cyber-crime is a growth industry as is

becoming “professionalized” with supply chains for tools and professional services.

External threats include “Hacktivists” seeking to impart digital vigilante justice on

perceived enemies, nation states, and cyber criminals. Internal threats include employees,

visitors, vendor and service staff.

•

One of the most prevalent paths or “vectors” for cyber-attacks is through people via

“social engineering” in person, by phone, and through email. Consequently, people are

an important line of defense and need to be trained in cyber threats, risks, and defenses. If

an organization has more than 50 employees, then social engineering is likely to be the

greatest threat to information security.

•

The increasing use of mobile technologies and applications is providing additional

channels for hacker access to systems. Other systems such as operating systems,

application software, workstations, servers, and other attached devices provide access

channels as they get out of sync or out of date through loose administration.

•

Effective Information Security requires organizational understanding of business needs,

compliance, threats and the vulnerabilities of information assets.

•

Not enough professionals with Cyber Security skills

Cyber security is a repeat challenge from 2014 in this report for 2016, and progress is being

made. In the 2015 legislative session, the Oregon Department of Justice sponsored SB 601 to

update Oregon’s statutes regarding data breaches, and the bill passed. The statute requires that

entities that collect personal information must keep that information secure, and that if a data

breach occurs, the entity must report this to the Oregon Attorney General if it affects more than

250 Oregonians. Since the beginning of 2016, six data breaches have been reported to the

Attorney General.

Oregon Department of Justice

The Oregon Department of Justice is focused on the threats associated with cyber-security and

has dedicated resources to Cyber Crime within its Criminal Justice Division. The DOJ works

with county, state and federal prosecutors to investigate and prosecute cyber-crimes.

Oregon Cyber Task Force

The Oregon Cyber Task Force is a statewide resource that includes the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Oregon DOJ Criminal Justice Division,

Oregon State Police, Portland Police Bureau, and the Beaverton Police Department. The Task

Force investigates digital crimes such as the theft / sale of PII, destruction of data by malicious

exploits, computer intrusions by organized crime, and network sabotage. The most widely seen

areas of activity are ransomware, the compromise of business e-mail, and cyber-scams.

Oregon Cyber Task Force

9109 NE Cascades Parkway

Portland, Oregon 97220

(503) 460-8000

[email protected]

Legislative Concepts

Other cyber security bills introduced in the 2015 Legislative session included:

SB 187

Establishes Oregon Student Information Protection Act. Prescribes prohibited, required and

allowed activities of operator of Internet website, online service, online application or mobile

application in relation to certain personal information related to students in any grade from

kindergarten through grade 12. Makes violations of Act unlawful practice. Act. Status: Governor

signed into law 6/22.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB187/Enrolled

HB 2377

Prohibits person from soliciting, requesting or otherwise inducing another person to provide

personal information by representing or implying that person is third person, without third

person's knowledge, authorization and consent. Governor signed into law 5/21.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB2377/Enrolled

SB 188

Creates crime of unlawful dissemination of intimate image. Punishes by maximum of one year’s

imprisonment, $6,250 fine, or both for first offense, and five years’ imprisonment, $125,000 fine,

or both for subsequent offense. Status: Governor signed into law 6/11.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB188/Enrolled

SB 377

Modifies crime of invasion of personal privacy. Creates manner of committing crime in which

nudity of person viewed or recorded is not required. Expands certain definitions related to crime.

Elevates crime to Class C felony, punishable by maximum of five years’ imprisonment,

$125,000 fine, or both, if victim is under 12 years of age. Status: Governor signed into law 6/10.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB377/Enrolled

HB 2704

Provides that recording of peace officer or parole and probation officer does not constitute crime

of interfering with peace officer or parole and probation officer unless recording actually

prevents officer from performing lawful duties. Creates exemption to prohibition on recording

conversations for person recording law enforcement officer while officer is performing official

duties. Status: Governor signed into law 6/25.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB2704/Enrolled

SB 641

Prohibits public body from obtaining information from portable electronic device without

warrant except when imminent threat to public safety exists. Provides that information obtained

in violation of prohibition is not admissible in adjudicatory proceeding. Status: Governor signed

into law 6/30.

https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB641/Enrolled

In September 2016, Governor Kate Brown ordered state agencies to update their cybersecurity

systems, and have been directed to work with the state’s chief information officer on the task.

Oregon Center of Cyber Excellence

The University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University, and the Oregon

Institute of Technology have established an Oregon Cybersecurity Consortium are prepared to

engage as a group with Oregon Industry through the Oregon Center of Cyber Excellence.

The resulting consortium is prepared to develop course offerings, professional development

opportunities and other capabilities to create and maintain a pipeline of graduates and

professionals with deep cybersecurity expertise to enable Oregon industry to deliver cyber

security solutions.

There has been a request to build a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)

laboratory in one of the Community Colleges do study threats and risks faced by SCADA

systems in energy, telecommunications, and transportation.

Oregon is one of five states that does not have a cyber-center.

Mt. Hood Community College Cyber Defense Program

The US National Security Agency and US Department of Homeland Security have recognized

Mt. Hood Community College as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense

Education Two-Year (CAE2Y) beginning June of 2015 through 2019, making MHCC the only

institution of higher education in the state of Oregon to hold such a designation. More

information about Mt. Hood Community College's Cyber Defense program may be found at

mhcc.edu/cis or email Dr. Wayne Machuca at wa[email protected] /

http://www.mhcc.edu/news.aspx?id=3852

New Cyber-Security Commission

The White House has announced a new cybersecurity commission tasked with helping the

country better defend itself against and withstand cyber-attacks. The Commission on Enhancing

National Cybersecurity will be led by former White House national security adviser Tom

Donilon along with former IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano. The commission will include

12 members, including technologists, business people, and others appointed by the president.

And, will reside within the Department of Commerce.

http://fortune.com/2016/02/18/former-ibm-chief-obama-cybersecurity-team/

In August 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced $40 million

in federal funding for a new DHS Center of Excellence (COE) for Homeland Security

Quantitative Analysis. The proposed Center will conduct research to enhance the application of

analytic tools that support real-time decision making and address homeland security-related

cyber security threats and hazards. The overarching goal of the Center will be to develop the next

generation of mathematical, computational and statistical theories to advance quantitative

analysis capabilities of the homeland security enterprise. DHS is open to receive proposals from

accredited U.S. colleges and universities.

https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2016/08/08/news-release-dhs-announces-

40m-funding-opportunity-homeland

OBAC proposed Joint Resolution 2017

Joint Resolution

Whereas the Legislative Assembly has declared that it is the policy of the

State of Oregon to promote, facilitate, and encourage activities, projects,

and businesses that improve Oregon’s Internet Protocol (IP) network

infrastructure, performance, and connectivity to the Internet backbone

network and “World Wide Web” for the benefit of Oregon’s commercial,

educational, governmental, and individual users; and

Whereas the Internet and Internet Protocol (IP) networks and

technologies are emerging as an infrastructure necessary for the conduct

of commerce and communication and necessary to establish and maintain

Oregon’s global competitiveness; and

Whereas, there is a growing threat and risk of the theft of data and

personal identity through cyber-attack, now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:

That it is the policy of the State of Oregon to promote, facilitate, and

encourage activities, initiatives, projects, and businesses that improve the

security of data and electronic communications and increase the

awareness of cyber-security risks and the need for proactive risk

management for the benefit of Oregon’s commercial, educational,

governmental, and individual users.

Governor Kate Brown’s cybersecurity order

Governor Kate Brown has ordered state agencies to update their cybersecurity systems and to

work with the state’s Chief Information officer, Alex Pettit, to unify cybersecurity protocols. At

least eight state agencies have been hacked in the past two years. The order comes ahead of an IT

security audit conducted by the Secretary of State's Office scheduled to be released on December

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/34800571-75/oregon-orders-cybersecurity-

improvements.html.csp

In summary, the good news is that cyber security issues are being engaged at the federal and

state levels, the bad news is that risk exposures are increasing and a lack of public awareness

remains.

K-12 Schools Broadband Access / Broadband Standards

The Council believes that coordinated action to address the challenge of statewide broadband

access in its K-12 Schools is needed to meet the state’s educational goals as well as to build a

foundation for workforce development. Standards recommended by the State Educational

Technology Directors Association (SETDA) www.setda.org have become the defacto standards

nationwide and would be excellent standards for Oregon to use for planning and to meet.

Public Safety

FirstNet

The Council believes that FirstNet, a national long-term initiative to build a nationwide

broadband public safety network, provides Oregon with an opportunity to achieve interoperable

public safety communications and enhance wireless broadband systems statewide.

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) was created by the Middle Class Tax Relief

and Job Creation Act of 2012 (Act). The law gives FirstNet the mission to ensure the building,

deployment, and operation of the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network with

spectrum dedicated to public safety. FirstNet will provide a single, interoperable platform for

emergency and daily public safety communications. This broadband network will fulfill a

fundamental need of the public safety community as well as the last remaining recommendation

of the 9/11 Commission.

FirstNet held its initial consultation meeting with Oregon in October 2014. With more than 90

state and local public safety representatives in attendance. Oregon has continued to work closely

with FirstNet and has been engaged in state outreach education efforts, and has developed a

tactical reference guide on FirstNet.

As a result of FirstNet’s data collection effort in 2015, information and data has been gathered to

establish each state’s coverage objectives. This was a collaborative exercise for states and

territories to identify public safety’s needs for coverage.

In January 2016, FirstNet issued an objectives-based request for proposal (RFP) to solicit

innovative, private sector solutions to build and deploy the network. Proposals are due on May

31, 2016, and FirstNet’s goal is to award a contract by the end of 2016 and begin to offer

services in 2018. Following the award of the FirstNet contract for the network, FirstNet and its

partner(s) must deliver individual State Plans detailing the proposed network deployment. Each

Governor will have 90 days to make the following decision:

Opt-In: If the State opts-in or takes no action, FirstNet will issue a task order to its partner(s)

to begin deployment of the Radio Access Network (RAN) portion of the FirstNet network in

the State at no cost to the State.

Opt-Out: If the State affirmatively opts-out, it must develop and complete an RFP and

submit an alternative plan to the FCC within 180 days for the construction, maintenance,

operation, and improvement of the RAN in the State. Before deployment can begin, the FCC

must approve the alternative plan, and the State must apply to the NTIA to enter into a

spectrum capacity lease with FirstNet. The state/territory will also be responsible for related

maintenance and future upgrades.

FirstNet’s objective through consultation is to work together to deliver a wireless broadband

public safety communications plan for Oregon.

911 Centers

Oregon’s 911 Centers face significant challenges regarding broadband networks. 911 Centers are

currently in a transition period. The Centers are largely operating with legacy systems,

technology that has been in place for many years, and do not interface well or at all with the

Internet. Data, voice, radio, and computer-aided-dispatch communications are changing from

analog to digital.

Many County dispatchers currently sit in front of multiple monitors for the Internet access, for

computer-aided-dispatch, for information sharing, and for phone system information. Each

monitor is for access to separate systems that are not interconnected except for the human

interface – the dispatcher.

Centers are attempting to move to Next Generation 911 under mandates from the FCC that

require the capability to receive not only voice 911 calls, but also receive text, video and images.

As the public has moved to new technologies, to mobile wireless and broadband, the nature of

incoming requests for help have changed. To illustrate, about 70% of incoming 911 calls

received by Clackamas County are now from cell phones without actionable location

information. A related issue in this environment is “butt-dials” or unintentional calls from cell

phones with no caller on the line. These butt-dials can represent up to 35% of incoming calls,

and the 911 Centers are obligated to clear the calls and confirm that there is not an emergency.

Another ongoing change is the different security requirements for police and fire. Two factor

authentications for police, and one for fire emergencies driving separated and “siloed” treatment

for police and fire. When 911 calls are transferred to the Oregon State Police, often any data that

has previously been collected may be lost and the State Police dispatcher has to begin again with

the caller. Current issues include the need to provide for text 911 contacts.

As incoming 911 calls increasingly come in from cell phones and via text, 911 Centers are

actually losing the ability to automatically obtain location information as was previously

provided by landline calls with Caller ID information. Additionally, laws and regulation

requiring the registration of locations behind PBXs or for VoIP systems have poor compliance.

VoIP calls often have no reliable location information provided, and several VoIP service

providers are not located in the United States, which sends 911 calls to other countries. This

requires callers to communicate their location to the center, which takes added time, and may not

be accurate or effectively communicated.

A key issue of concern is funding and the ability of 911 centers, particularly in rural areas to be

able to make the technology upgrades needed in this new communications environment. 911

centers need integrated systems to improve information management, sharing and

communication and to replace legacy stand-alone systems that are not interconnected. Systems

also need to be robust with very little to no down time.

911 Centers fall under the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. Public Safety Answering

Points (PSAPs) are organized through the Association of Public-Safety Communications

Officials (APCO) https://www.apcointl.org/.

Eight agencies in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington began text-to-911 message

service at the end of August 2016, though voice calls remain the preferred way for

communications for emergency services. Text-to-911 service is now operational in Clackamas

County, Lake Oswego, Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications for Multnomah County,

Astoria 911 for much of Clatsop County, Columbia County, Washington County, and Marion

Emergency Telecommunications, which covers northern Marion County around Woodburn. The

service is not yet available state wide, according to Oregon Emergency Management. More

information on these websites: www.nwtext911.info / www.wccca.com

Local Community Broadband Planning

The Council believes that there are significant benefits to be gained by engaging in broadband

strategic planning at the local community level. The process establishes vital communications

and relationships between community leaders and establishes a valuable focus on the assessment

and utilization of broadband assets.

One lesson from the last year is that in a few years, the gigabit divide

will NOT be about wealth or density; it will between those communities

that had a plan and those who didn’t.

- Blair Levin

Disaster Recovery Planning

The Council believes that telecommunications and electric power systems are key to the state’s

ability to respond to and recover from major disasters. Joint-planning and coordination between

federal government, state government, and service providers needs to be a priority.

Oregon needs to engage in an ongoing process of hazard identification, risk assessment,

stakeholder engagement, risk prioritization, and risk mitigation. Oregon needs "resilience" in its

infrastructure to minimize damage and enable a more rapid recovery from disasters. Electric

power and telecommunications will be key to the success of emergency response and recovery

efforts.

Oregon needs the discipline to actively engage in sustained and ongoing disaster recovery

planning. The top three hazards facing Oregon are flood, earthquake, and tsunami. These hazards

are low frequency, but can have a high impact. The probability of a major Pacific Northwest

event is 100%. The last major quake was in January 1700 and there is evidence of many others

over the past 10,000 years.

Following the Japanese Subduction Zone earthquake and associated tsunami in March of 2011,

scientists were able to apply the data collected from that event and model probable impacts from

a Cascadia Subduction Zone event in the Pacific Northwest.

In June of this year, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in coordination with

FEMA, hosted Cascadia Rising, an exercise to help prepare for a Cascadia Subduction Zone

event and tsunami. First on the published list of exercise objectives for the event was

“Operational Communications - Ensure restored communications with local operations centers

and coordinate effective public messaging during a major disaster.”

OEM specifically was focused on backup modes of communications when primary modes were

unavailable. Although there was some discussion on restoration of primary services, it focused

more on time frames when services may be restored in different areas of the state, and not on the

process of restoring services.

Preliminary lessons learned from the event cause the Council continued concern that the majority

of communications infrastructure on the coast may be severely damaged and inaccessible for

repair. Facilities along the immediate coastline will likely be destroyed by the force of the

tsunami wave. Communications in these areas may be limited to radio frequency and satellite

phones.

As detailed in the following chart, the Oregon Coast and Willamette Valley will likely be the

hardest hit and Eastern Oregon will need to serve as the staging area for recovery efforts.

Damage State Projections

There are over a thousand telecommunications facilities in the impacted area of Washington and

Oregon. Roughly two-thirds of these facilities may suffer medium to high damage from the

initial earthquake. The shaking may rattle equipment off of cell towers, dislodge central control

boards and damage central communications offices. Communication facilities that suffer no or

low damage may also be un-operational due to antennae being thrown out of alignment or the

breaking of cables connecting these facilities.

While most of the communication facilities in eastern Oregon may suffer less physical damage

from the earthquake. However, the reduced availability of power may limit the capability of

these facilities to provide service. Additionally, the vast majority of U.S. connectivity to the

Internet for Oregon flows through communications hubs such as the Pittock Block in Portland

and long haul transport runs North and South along the Interstate 5 corridor. There is limited

connectivity coming from the Eastern U.S. (Denver and Salt Lake City) meaning that even if

infrastructure in Eastern Oregon survives, there may not be adequate connectivity to the Internet

initially for recovery operations.

Underground landslides and the shifting of the ocean floor may sever undersea cables that

traverse the offshore regions of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. These cables connect the Western

U.S. to Asian and other Pacific Rim markets. The remaining cable systems on the northern

transpacific routes landing in Puget Sound and the Oregon coast may see some disruptions, but

the southern routes through California may remain functional.

With the loss of undersea cable capacity, communications systems may face abnormally high

congestion. While alternative routes using satellite microwave communications may exist, the

bandwidth is limited. The restoration of these cables may take months.

Additionally, the restoral of telecommunication systems are dependent on other infrastructure

resources including electric power, transportation, as well as the availability of skilled

technicians. These resources are all likely to be limited following a major disaster event as

described in the 2013 report to the Legislative Assembly in the Oregon Resilience Plan

http://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEMlosspac/docs/Oregon Resilience Plan Final.pdf submitted by

the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission.

While completion of the Cascadia Playbook and Cascadia Rising are significant steps toward

preparedness, The Oregon Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency

Management Administration (FEMA) need to continue to plan for and establish post-event

channels of communication to the Oregon's telecommunications service providers so that these

agencies will be in a position to know the status of the telecommunications networks statewide to

effectively support recovery efforts. See Appendix D for an assessment of broadband

communications following a Cascadia Subduction Zone event.

Effective disaster preparedness requires planning, personnel training, and plan implementation

exercises. Cascadia is not the only disaster that Oregon should plan for. Disaster events may be

natural, technological or human (accidental or intentional).

Training individuals and companies that might be involved in recovery operations should get in

advance of a disaster includes FEMA training on the National Incident Management System

(NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS) (which is a part of NIMS). NIMS is a

systematic, proactive approach to guide departments and agencies at all levels of government,

nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together seamlessly and manage

incidents involving all threats and hazards—regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity—

in order to reduce loss of life, property and harm to the environment.

Training on NIMS and ICS prepares individuals and organizations to effectively participate in

recovery efforts. An introductory course can be accessed at:

https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-100.b

Having a plan in place, personnel trained in the plan, and practiced in putting the plan into action

serves to reduce confusion in an emergency, support the efficient use of resources, and improve

safety, coordination, and communication.

It should also be noted that for employees of organizations to be prepared to respond effectively

to an emergency at work, they must be prepared at home. It is valuable to create a culture of

emergency preparedness and awareness organizationally and individually.

Federal Funding Programs

Oregon needs to fully utilize and leverage the expanding broadband related federal initiatives

and funding programs available to help meet its broadband needs.

In January 2015, President Obama announced steps to help more Americans get access to fast

and affordable broadband, stating that high-speed, low-cost broadband is needed to support

economic revitalization.

The Obama Administration is:

•

Calling to End Laws that Harm Broadband Service Competition: Laws in 19 states —

some specifically written by special interests trying to stifle new competitors — have

held back broadband access and, with it, economic opportunity. As a first step, the

Administration is filing a letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

urging it to address barriers inhibiting local communities from responding to the

broadband needs of their citizens. Aimed at municipal networks.

•

Expanding the National Movement of Local Leaders for Better Broadband: As of today,

50 cities representing over 20 million Americans have joined the Next Century Cities

coalition, a nonpartisan network pledging to bring fast, community-supported broadband

to their towns and cities. They join 37 research universities around the country that

formed the Gig.U partnership to bring fast broadband to communities around their

campuses. To recognize these remarkable individuals and the partnerships they have

built, in June 2015 the White House will host a Community Broadband Summit of

mayors and county commissioners from around the nation who are joining this movement

for broadband solutions and economic revitalization.

•

Announcing a New Initiative to Support Community Broadband Projects: To advance

this important work, the Department of Commerce is launching a new initiative,

BroadbandUSA, to promote broadband deployment and adoption. BroadbandUSA will

offer online and in-person technical assistance to communities; host a series of regional

workshops around the country; and publish guides and tools that provide communities

with proven solutions to address problems in broadband infrastructure planning,

financing, construction, and operations across many types of business models.

•

Unveiling New Grant and Loan Opportunities for Rural Providers: The Department of

Agriculture is accepting applications to its Community Connect broadband grant program

and will reopen a revamped broadband loan program, which offers financing to eligible

rural carriers that invest in bringing high-speed broadband to unserved and underserved

rural areas.

•

Removing Regulatory Barriers and Improving Investment Incentives: The President is

calling for the Federal Government to remove all unnecessary regulatory and policy

barriers to broadband build-out and competition, and is establishing a new Broadband

Opportunity Council of over a dozen government agencies with the singular goal of

speeding up broadband deployment and promoting adoption for our citizens. The Council

will also solicit public comment on unnecessary regulatory barriers and opportunities to

promote greater coordination with the aim of addressing those within its scope.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/13/fact-sheet-broadband-works-

promoting-competition-local-choice-next-gener

FCC seeks to expand rural broadband access

The FCC has established rules for allocating over $2 Billion in Connect America Fund Phase II

Support through competitive bidding. It plans to use an auction that will harness market forces

to expand broadband in targeted rural areas. The auction seeks to expand service to census

blocks unserved by broadband delivering speeds of 10 Mbps downloads/1 Mbps uploads in 20

states where the price cap carriers declined last year’s Connect America Fund offer. Also

included in the auction are locations across the country with extremely high deployment costs.

Office of Media Relations: (202) 418-0500 www.fcc.gov/office-media-relations

Broadband Opportunity Council

On March 23, 2015 a Presidential Memo on Expanding Broadband Deployment and Adoption by

Addressing Regulatory Barriers and Encouraging Investment and Training was issued. The

memo established the Broadband Opportunity Council (BOC) to be chaired by the Rural Utilities

Service (RUS) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

All Executive Branch Departments and Agencies are members of the Council. The Council was

given the charge to consider steps that Federal Departments and Agencies can take to help

promote broadband deployment, adoption and competition.

The President’s Broadband Opportunity Council issued a report on September 21

with its

recommendations to increase broadband deployment, competition and adoption through

executive actions within the scope of existing Agency programs, missions and budgets.

The Broadband Opportunity Council presented four overarching recommendations:

• Modernize Federal programs to expand program support for broadband investments.

• Empower communities with tools and resources to attract broadband investment and

promote meaningful use (adoption and utilization for economic and community

development)

• Promote increased broadband deployment and competition through expanded access to

Federal assets (Lands and structures)

• Improve data collection, analysis and research on broadband.

The full report may be viewed at:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/broadband_opportunity_council_report_final.pdf

Broadband USA Program

NTIA has launched its BroadbandUSA initiative to assist communities in securing the broadband

capacity they need to advance economic development, education, health care, and public safety.

http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/new_BroadbandUSA

HUD ConnectHome Program

ConnectHome is an initiative to extend affordable broadband access to families living in HUD-

assisted housing. Through ConnectHome, Internet Service Providers, non-profits and the private

sector will offer broadband access, technical training, digital literacy programs, and devices for

residents in assisted housing units in 28 communities across the nation. HUD’s ConnectHome

initiative strives to ensure that students can access the same level of high-speed Internet at home

that they possess in their classrooms. The President and HUD Secretary Julián Castro announced

that HUD has selected the twenty-seven cities and one tribal nation to participate in

ConnectHome program launch. None are in Oregon. For more information and a complete

listing of private sector commitments for ConnectHome visit:

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2015/chomefa

ctsheet

HUD focuses on broadband

On May 18, 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed

two sets of rules that are targeted at closing the digital divide for low- and medium-income

families. HUD proposed to require state and local governments to analyze and assess broadband

access, adoption, and competition as part of their comprehensive consolidated public housing

plans, which serve as the basis for funding many HUD programs, including the Community

Development Block Grant program.

HUD has also proposed to require that all new public housing construction and substantial

rehabilitation funded by HUD include the installation of high-speed broadband facilities (such as

cabling and conduit).

These proposals could help bridge the digital divide faced by many households that benefit from

HUD housing programs. This initiative could also benefit low- and middle-income

neighborhoods generally, as the proposed change to the HUD planning process will include

direct community engagement and an assessment of general community needs for digital

inclusion. Public comment on these proposed rules is due July 18, 2016.

http://www.connectednation.org/sites/default/files/bb_pp/05242016_hud_broadband_rules.pdf

FCC Rural Broadband Experiments Program - Douglas FastNet is an awardee

Douglas Services (Douglas FastNet) in Roseburg has been provisionally selected by the FCC for

rural broadband experiments funding. Douglas Services is one of twelve bidders selected

nationwide and may receive $2,375,000 in funding under the program.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0310/DA-15-288A1.pdf

FCC Connect America II funding

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it is launching Phase II of the

Connect America Fund by offering “carriers nearly $1.7 billion to expand and support broadband

service in rural areas where market forces alone cannot support deployment.” The program aims

to expand broadband to over 8.5 million rural Americans. The carriers have four months to

decide whether to accept the funding on a state-by-state basis. CenturyLink has a subsidy offer of

$514.3 million and Frontier Communications has a subsidy offer of $283.4 million.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0429/DA-15-509A1.pdf

OBAC maintains an inventory of broadband related federal funding programs and contacts

which is posted on the Council website at www.broadband-oregon.org.

Smart Cities / Internet of Things national campaign

The White House also announced a national campaign to boost the research, development and

deployment of systems to support smart cities and the Internet of Things. The National Science

Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology are contributing $45 million; a

group of five federal departments and agencies are adding another $115 million; 20 cities are

partnering with local higher education institutions; and a cornucopia of organizations are issuing

challenges and conducting their own, smaller projects to support the larger campaign.

http://www.govtech.com/fs/Obama-Places-160-Million-Bet-on-Smart-Cities-Internet-of-

Things.html / https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/14/fact-sheet-

administration-announces-new-smart-cities-initiative-help

Lifeline Universal Service Program

In March 2016, the FCC voted to expand its Lifeline program which currently subsidizes voice

telephone service for low-income households, to also subsidize the cost of broadband service for

low-income households. The Lifeline program is available to eligible low-income consumers in

every state, territory, commonwealth, and on Tribal lands. The expansion to broadband will

make the Lifeline program the largest federal broadband adoption program in history. The FCC

established an annual budget for the Lifeline program at $2.25 billion per year. Today, over 10%

of American households (12.9 million) participate in the program for discounted dial tone or

mobile voice service. https://www.fcc.gov/general/lifeline-program-low-income-consumers

Tier 1 Peering

The Internet is not one single network but instead thousands of separate networks that must

interconnect. These interconnections happen primarily in these key buildings in the United

States:

• The Westin Building 2001 6th Ave, Seattle

• Equinix SV1 11 Great Oaks Boulevard, San Jose

• One Wilshire 624 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles

• The InfoMart 1950 N Stemmons Fwy, Dallas

• Equinix Chicago 350 East Cermak, Chicago

• Telx Atlanta 56 Marietta St, Atlanta

• NAP of the Americas 50 NE 9th St, Miami

• Equinix Ashburn 21715 Filigree Ct, Ashburn

• 111 Eighth Avenue 111 8th Ave, New York

Peering is the interconnection of separate IP networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic

between the networks. According to Wikipedia, “a network that can reach every other network

on the Internet without purchasing IP transit or paying settlements” is a Tier 1 provider, so a Tier

1 network is a “transit-free” network that peers with every other Tier-1 network. They do not pay

a third party for a network connection to any other network. Examples include AT&T, Cogent

Communications, CenturyLink, Deutsche Telekom, NTT, Tata, Sprint, Zayo, Verizon, Level 3,

Telefonica, and Telia.

Currently, there is no Tier 1 peering in Oregon. There is, however, a growing peering exchange

that provides public peering exchange services to about 80 member networks. The Northwest

Access Exchange (NWAX) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation www.nwax.net. NWAX was

created in 2001 and operated by Oregon Health and Science University, Portland State

University, and the Oregon Graduate Center. It transitioned to an independent non-profit January

1, 2014 and was modeled after the very successful Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX). Its

operations are supported by a volunteer board, officers, engineers and technicians. NWAX is

growing (36 members in 2013 to 80 members today). Its service capacity is also growing and

now delivers 60 Gbps peak traffic nightly up from four in July 2013 with 7x sites up from one in

July 2013. NWAX is currently the 14

largest Internet exchange in the U.S.

If Oregon can raise its position on this hierarchy, there are potential economic development

benefits. The next two years will be critical in determining Oregon’s future position in the

Internet hierarchy, and Oregon has some valuable assets that may be leveraged to improve its

position and pursue Tier 1 peering within the state including:

• “Long Haul” Fiber routes

• Portland North to Seattle

• Portland South to San Jose and Los Angeles

• Portland to points East is more limited, but routes are available

• Undersea fiber cables

• This is a key differentiator (especially with focus on the Pacific Rim)

• Cable landing stations

• Hillsboro Datacenter Fiber Ring to undersea cables

• Established Carrier Hotels

• Major Datacenters

• Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple

• Wholesale Datacenters

• InfoMart, ViaWest, Telx/Digital Realty Trust, EdgeConneX, T5 Datacenters,

Adobe

• NWAX

• Seven locations linking Portland and Hillsboro

• Carrier neutral

Netflix Servers are now located in Oregon

Netflix is now serving content over NWAX from servers in the Portland metro area. Previously,

their connection to NWAX was via backhaul to their Seattle POP. According to NWAX

president Eric Rosenberry, this is significant in a number of ways:

• Serving content locally reduces the dependency of the region on Seattle

• Many regional NWAX member networks are dual homed to both Portland and Seattle.

With Netflix having independent content POP's in both cities, dual homed networks are

more reliable

• This investment on Netflix's part exemplifies the growing network ecosystem in Oregon

In other NWAX news, Yahoo has joined as a member.

What Oregon can do to improve its position

• Evangelism with existing ecosystem players and prospects

• Include network requirements when giving economic development incentives

• Add the requirement to exchange traffic locally

The Council will continue to explore strategies regarding this opportunity with the

telecommunications carrier and data center community.

Concluding Remarks

OBAC believes that access to competitive high-speed IP telecommunication networks and the

Internet is becoming essential for Oregon’s institutions, businesses and individual citizens. And

that action is required to ensure that our state’s and our nation’s broadband needs are met and

that broadband benefits are realized.

OBAC submitted a set of national public policy recommendations to the Federal Broadband

Opportunity Council, and believes that those recommendations may also, and should be, applied

to state and local public policy.

• Mandate that state government agencies incorporate broadband into their planning

efforts.

• Create a “fast-track” approval process for rights-of-way access and co-use of existing

facilities on state lands for broadband infrastructure.

• Encourage state, local and tribal governments to incorporate broadband into local

planning efforts for community and economic development.

• Encourage state, local and tribal governments to proactively plan for the migration to the

next generation of public safety broadband communications.

• Utilize the Oregon Universal Service Fund to help bring high-speed broadband

infrastructure to all areas of the state.

• Promote the development of local and statewide strategies to increase and accelerate the

adoption and utilization of broadband.

• Support efforts at the state level to standardize the process for physician credentialing to

provide telehealth services and provide reimbursement for appropriate health care

services delivered via telecommunications.

• Promote access for educators and students and to reliable and robust broadband

connectivity in both the school and at home.

• Promote ongoing professional development for educators to ensure effective quality

implementation and utilization of broadband technology and practice in the classroom

• Support Oregon applicants in the application process for broadband related federal

funding programs so that eligible applicants may fully utilize and leverage those

programs to help meet Oregon’s broadband needs

• Promote cyber-security of broadband communications systems to mitigate the growing

challenge and significant risk exposure facing institutions, businesses and individuals

• Establish performance metrics for the deployment and utilization of broadband

Oregon has recognized and has been working on telecommunications as essential infrastructure

as a matter of public policy for over twenty-five years through a series of task forces,

committees, commissions, and councils. The state has benefitted from its long standing

deliberations and has codified broadband public policy in statute and resolution. This discussion,

these efforts, and the continuing formulation of proactive broadband public policy are more

important today than ever before.

Appendix A

What is Broadband?

Broadband is a general term used to represent a wide range of telecommunications technologies

and services which utilize a faster data transmission rate than that available over the standard

voice grade telephone line, which is 56 Kbps and usually less. Broadband is also widely referred

to as “high-speed” Internet access service.

Until 2008, the FCC’s official definition of broadband was a transport service offering a

minimum data transmission rate of 200 Kbps in one direction. That year, the FCC established a

set of Broadband Tiers:

Tier Rate

1 200 Kbps up to 768 Kbps

2 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps

3 1.5 Mbps to < 3.0 Mbps

4 3.0 Mbps to < 6.0 Mbps

5 6.0 Mbps to < 10.0 Mbps

6 10.0 Mbps to < 25.0 Mbps

7 25.0 Mbps but < 100.0 Mbps

8 100.0 Mbps and beyond

FCC Broadband Service Speed Tiers

Tier 1 is characterized as “First Generation Data.” 768 Kbps is now the minimum data

transmission rate for “Basic Broadband.” Tiers 3 through 8 reflect the range of service speeds

available and expected to become available from providers.

In its National Broadband Plan, the FCC proposes a goal that every household and business

location in America should have access to affordable broadband service with actual download

speeds of at least 4 million bits per second (Mbps) and actual upload speeds of at least 1 Mbps

with the further recommendation that the FCC review and reset this target every four years. On

January 29, 2015, the FCC raised the benchmark for broadband from 4 megabits per second

(Mbps) down and 1 Mbps up to 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up.

Many different technologies are employed to deliver broadband services in Oregon including

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable-Modem, wireless (mobile 3G / 4G, fixed, satellite), and

optic fiber to the premises (FTTP). These service technologies range in transmission

performance from 200 Kbps up to 1 billion bits per second (Gbps) and beyond.

Broadband services in Oregon are available from a wide mix of service providers including

telephone companies, cable companies, competitive access providers, fixed and mobile wireless

providers, municipal and consortia providers, and satellite service providers.

Appendix B

Oregon Broadband Advisory Council Members – 2016

The mission of the council is to encourage coordination and collaboration between organizations

and economic sectors to leverage the development and utilization of broadband for education,

workforce development, government and healthcare, and to promote broadband adoption by

citizens and communities. The council members represent Oregon’s cities, counties,

telecommunications service providers, tribes, educators, economic development organizations,

public safety agencies, healthcare providers, E-Government, the Public Utility Commission, the

State House of Representatives and the State Senate. Members of the Council were appointed by

the Governor, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate.

Council Members

Stephen Bloom

Commissioner

Public Utility Commission of Oregon

Anne Carloss

Director of Special Education

Hood River County School District

Brian Clem

Representative

Oregon House of Representatives

Miles Ellenby

Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Medical Director, Telemedicine Program

Doernbecher Children’s Hospital / Oregon Health and Science University

Ted Ferrioli

Senator

Oregon State Senate

Joseph Franell (Council Chair)

General Manager and CEO

Eastern Oregon Telecom

Mary Beth Henry (Council Vice-Chair) through June 30, 2016

Deputy Director, Office for Community Technology

City of Portland / Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission

Wade Holmes

Vice President of Technology

BendBroadband

Lonny Macy

Community and Economic Development Planner

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

Julie Pearson (retired 2016)

IT Governance Lead

Oregon Department of Administrative Services

Dave Sabala

Douglas Electric Cooperative, Economic Development

Michael Smith

Commissioner

Sherman County

Michael Weidman

President and CEO

LS Networks, Inc.

Tom Worthy

Major

Oregon State Police

Staff:

Christopher Tamarin

Telecommunications Strategist

Oregon Business Development Department

121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 205

Portland, Oregon 97204

503 508-0178 Phone / Cell

503 581-5115 Fax

[email protected]

Council Website URL: www.broadband-oregon.org

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Appendix C

Oregon Broadband Advisory Council Activity Summary 2010-2016

The Oregon Broadband Advisory Council (OBAC) was created in the 2009 Legislative session

to help ensure the implementation of statewide broadband strategies. The mission of the council

is to encourage coordination and collaboration between organizations and economic sectors to

leverage the development and utilization of broadband for education, workforce development

and telehealth, and to promote broadband utilization by citizens and communities. The council

members represent Oregon’s cities, counties, telecommunication service providers, Tribes,

educators, economic development organizations, public safety agencies, healthcare providers, e-

government experts, the Public Utility Commission, the State House of Representatives and the

State Senate.

OBAC began meeting in January 2010. In 2015, the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed, and

Governor Kate Brown signed a bill to extend the Council’s sunset date to January 1, 2020. As of

November 1, 2016, the Council has convened sixty-eight times to discuss, deliberate, and report

on broadband issues, economics, technologies, and public policy as they relate to the interests of

Oregonians. OBAC presenters (in chronological order) are listed below, and OBAC meeting

attendees have represented the organizations listed below.

The Council prepared and submitted Broadband in Oregon reports to the Legislative Assembly

and the Governor in November of 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. It also produced the Gas &

Electric Utilities Broadband Deployment Report in 2012 and Broadband Outreach Survey

Report in 2014.

OBAC participated several State Broadband Data and Development Program grant projects

administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the

Oregon Public Utility Commission.

•

OBAC participated in the Oregon Broadband Mapping Project and the 2010

Oregon Broadband Adoption Survey

•

OBAC was a grant sub-recipient and directly supervised the Oregon Broadband

Outreach and Strategic Planning Project and the 2014 Oregon Broadband

Adoption Survey.

OBAC reports and projects are posted on the Council website at

www.broadband-oregon.org.

101

OBAC presenters (in chronological order) have included:

2010

Rep. Jefferson Smith

Ray Baum, Oregon Public Utility Commission

Roger White, Oregon Public Utility Commission

Dawn Bonder, Oregon Health Information Technology Oversight Council

Milo Mecham, Lane Council of Governments

Barbara Young, CenturyTel

Frank Miller, BendBroadband

Michael Weidman, LS Networks

Brant Wolf, Oregon Telecommunications Association

Fred Ziari, EZ Wireless / IRZ Consulting / OnSmart Technologies

Doug Cooley, Comcast

Phil Garrett, MINET

Mike Dewey, Oregon Cable Telecommunications Association

Judy Peppler, Qwest

Vicki Walker, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development

Joe Bradley, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development

Scott Lazenby, City of Sandy

Dudley Slater, Integra Telecom

Cobi Jackson, One-Economy Corporation

Eddie Choi, One-Economy Corporation

Rebecca Yalch, Opinion Research Corporation

Bryan Conway, Oregon Public Utility Commission

Adam Grzybicki, AT&T Wireless

Mary Beth Henry, City of Portland

2011

Renee Willer, Frontier Communications

Rich Bader, Easystreet Online Services

Eric Schmidt, Association of Oregon Counties

Michael Lainoff, Lane Community College / Small Business Development Center Network

Mark Gregory, Lane Community College / Small Business Development Center Network

Doug Cooley, Comcast

Steve Noel, Oregon Department of Transportation / Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network

Andrea Crosby, Citizens Utility Board

Rebecca Yalch, Opinion Research Corporation

Cobi Jackson, One-Economy Corporation

Brant Wolf, Oregon Telecommunications Association

Sean McSpaden, Oregon Department of Administrative Services

Wally Rogers, Oregon Department of Administrative Services

Bill Casale, iLinc

Heather Burks, Oregon Department of Administrative Services

102

Roger White, Oregon Public Utility Commission

Carla Wade, Oregon Department of Education

Mary Beth Henry, City of Portland

Kristi Wilde, Oregon State Interoperability Executive Council (SIEC)

Kim Lamb, Oregon Health Network

Rebekah Dohrman, League of Oregon Cities

Carol Robinson, Oregon Health Information Oversight Council

Doug Cooley, Comcast

Jeff Nicol, Gorge Technology Alliance

Tom Potiowsky, Portland State University

Marilyn Harbur, Oregon Department of Justice

Linda Blacklock, Oregon Department of Justice

Rebecca Yalch, ORC International

2012

Shelley Jones, Oregon Public Utility Commission

John Horvick, Davis Hibbitts and Midghall, Inc.

Tom Lauer, Oregon Department of Transportation

Paul Baldwin, Fortune Data Centers

Brant Wolf, Oregon Telecommunications Association

Barbara Young, CenturyTel

Michael Lainoff, Lane Community College /

Small Business Development Center Network

Mark Gregory, Lane Community College / Small Business Development Center Network

Carla Wade, Oregon Department of Education

Steve Noel, Oregon Department of Transportation / FirstNet

Albert Gauthier, Oregon State Police

Steve Viotolo, Oregon Department of Transportation

Renee Willer, Frontier Communications

Peter Trnavskis, Oregon Health Network

Dr. Miles Ellenby, Oregon Health & Scienc

e University/ Doernbecher Children’s Hospital

Michael Seelig, Oregon Education Investment Board

Will Saunders, Washington State Department of Commerce

Ed Arabas, Oregon Department of Administrative Services

Philip Woods, Oregon Department of Administrative Services

2013

Zach Holander, NetCity Inc.

Michael Lainoff, Lane Community College / Small Business Development Center Network

Laura Cleland, Association of Oregon Counties

Carla Wade, Oregon Department of Education

Amy McLaughlin, Oregon Department of Education

Michael Seelig, Oregon Education Investment Board

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MaryKay Dahlgreen, Oregon State Library

Steve Noel, Oregon Department of Transportation / FirstNet

Brant Wolf, Oregon Telecommunications Association

David Bell, Fibersphere

Rock Rakosi, Myrtle Point Police Department / SIEC

Nancy Jesuale, NetCity Inc.

Yumei Wang, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries

Michael Curri, Strategic Networks Group

Craig Settles, Gigabit Nation

Vicki Walker, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development

2014

Steve Noel, Oregon Department of Transportation / FirstNet

Neil Grubb, Freewire Broadband

Shawn Irvine, City of Independence

Don Patten, MINET

Ben Tate, Oregon Department of Education

Gillien Duvall, Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Bob Duehmig, Telehealth Alliance of Oregon

Cathy Britain, Telehealth Alliance of Oregon

Rick Williams, Leidos

Steve Boespflug, Pivot Group

Dave Nieuwstraten, Pivot Group

Laura McKinney, Oregon University System

David Childers, Compli

Ann Steeves, Portland General Electric

Dave Sabala, Douglas Electric Cooperative

2015

Laura McKinney, Oregon University System

David Childers, Oregon Engineering Technology Industry Council (ETIC)

Carla Wade, Oregon Department of Education

Sidra Metzger-Hines, Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Terry Knight, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Dan Runcie, Education Super Highway

Cheryl Bledsoe, Clackamas County 911 Center

Amy McLaughlin, Oregon Department of Education

Rob Kaye, Providence Health & Services

Steve Noel, FirstNet

Cheryl Hiemstra, Oregon Department of Justice

Bob Duehmig, Telehealth Alliance of Oregon

Monica Koiv, OCHIN

Courtney Stennick, OCHIN

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John Windhausen, Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB)

Galen McGill, Oregon Department of Transportation

David Soloos, Office of the Oregon CIO

Thompson Morrison, Innovate Oregon

Dana Shaffer, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Craig Settles, Gigabit Nation

Bruce Roton, Level(3) Communications

Theresa Masse, Port of Portland

Matt Modarelli, State of Washington

Program Coordinator (name withheld by request), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

2016 (through October 19)

Mark Tennyson, Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Steve Noel, FirstNet

Brant Wolf, Oregon Telecommunications Association

Amy McLaughlin, Oregon Department of Education

Shawn Irvine, City of Independence

Cheryl Hiemstra, Oregon Department of Justice

Barb Young, CenturyLink

Karen Stewart, CenturyLink

David Trepp, Info@Risk Inc.

Wade Holmes, BendBroadband

Carla Wade, State Educational Technology Directors Association

Meredith Guardino, Oregon Office of Rural Health

Don Bonker and Kristin Harrison, Portland Metro STEM Partnership

Mary Beth Henry, City of Portland

Thompson Morrison, Innovate Oregon

Kathy Tate, OnlineNW

Debbie Moller, Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Vanessa McLaughlin, Welcome Home Health

Eric Rosenberry, Northwest Access Exchange (NWAX)

Kirk Lee, Frontier Communications

Susie Strangfield, Oregon Department of Education

John Webber, Allion USA

Craig Settles, Gigabit Nation

Mike Wells, Oregon Department of Justice

Michael Curri, Strategic Networks Group

105

OBAC meeting attendees have represented:

Allion USA

Ashland Home Net

Association of Oregon Counties

AT&T

AT&T Wireless

Azimuth Communications

BendBroadband

BroadMap

Central Lane 911

CenturyLink

CenturyTel

Charter Communications

Citizens’ Utility Board

City of Eugene

City of Independence

City of Portland

City of Sandy

City of Springfield

CJSpeaks / Gigabit Nation

Clackamas Community College

Clackamas County 911 Center

Comcast

Compli

ComSpan USA

Comstructure Consulting

Converge Communications

Dale Hines Consulting

DAS-CIO-Economic Recovery Exec. Team

Davis, Hibbits & Midghall, Inc.

Day Wireless

Douglas Electric Cooperative

Douglas FastNet

EasyStreet Online Services

Education Super Highway

Electric Lightwave

EZ Wireless

Fibersphere

FirstNet

Fortune Data Centers

Freewire Broadband

Frontier Communications

Gigabit Nation

Gorge Technology Alliance

Greenwire Broadband

Hermiston School District

High Desert ESD

Hood River County School District

Hunter Fiber

iLinc

Individual citizens representing themselves

Info@Risk, Inc.

Integra Telecom

Intel

Intermountain ESD

IRZ Consulting

J. Irwin Consulting

Keenwire

Lake County

Lane Community College / Oregon Small

Business Development Center Network

Lane Council of Governments

League of Oregon Cities

LS Networks

MiddleGate

MINET

Motorola

Northwest Access Exchange (NWAX)

OCHIN

Level(3) Communications

Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission &

Office for Community Technology

Multnomah ESD

Education Super Highway

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Emergency Management Agency

(FEMA)

Frontier Communications

Gigabit Nation

Innovate Oregon

NetCity, Inc.,

NWAX

Office of the Oregon Attorney General

Opinion Research Corporation

ORC International

106

Oregon Cable Telecommunications

Association

Oregon Connections Academy

Oregon Department of Administrative

Services

Oregon Department of Education

Oregon Department of Geology and

Mineral Industries

Oregon Department of Revenue

Oregon Department of Transportation

Oregon Economic Recovery Executive

Team

Oregon Engineering Technology Industry

Council (ETIC)

Oregon Education Investment Board

Oregon Governor’s Office

Oregon Health Information Technology

Oversight Council

Oregon Health and Science University

Oregon Health Network

Oregon Legislative Assembly

Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office

Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Oregon Office of Rural Health

Oregon Public Utility Commission

Oregon Department of Administrative

Services

Oregon Department of Justice

Office of the Oregon CIO

Oregon Department of Justice

Oregon Department of Transportation

Oregon State Interoperability Exec. Council

Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Oregon State Library

Oregon State Police

Oregon Telecommunications Association

Oregon University System

One-Economy Corporation

OnlineNW

OnSmart Technologies

Opinion Research Corporation

PACE Engineers

Pivot Group, LLC

Port of Portland

Portland General Electric

Portland Metro STEM Partnership

Portland Public Schools

Portland State University

Project A

Providence Health & Services

Qwest

SAIC / Leidos

Salem-Keizer Public Schools

Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband

Coalition (SHLB)

Sherman County

SNGroup.com

State Educational Technology Directors

Association

State of Washington

Strategic Networks Group

Telehealth Alliance of Oregon

TRACER

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural

Development

Verizon

Verizon Wireless

Washington Department of Commerce

Broadband Office

Wave Broadband

Welcome Home Health, Inc.

Western Independent Networks (WIN)

WiFi Now Networks

Willamette ESD

107

Appendix D

Broadband Communications Following a Cascadia Subduction Zone Event

Cascadia Rising

The focus on communications during Cascadia Rising was on backup modes of communications

when primary modes were unavailable. Although there was some discussion on restoration of

primary services, it focused more on time frames when services may be restored in different

areas of the state, and not on the process of restoring services.

Cascadia Rising Scenario

The Cascadia Rising scenario document was created by Western Washington University and

contains estimates of earthquake impacts using loss estimation modeling software based on

current scientific and engineering knowledge. There are uncertainties inherent in any loss

estimation technique, so damages from an actual event may differ from those represented in the

scenario document.

Communications Systems

Definition: Communication systems consist of central offices and broadcasting stations,

transmission lines connecting central offices, and cabling. A communication facility consists of a

building, unanchored or anchored central switching equipment, and backup fuel or battery

generators.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, all forms of communication may be disrupted – at

a time when they are needed most. Survivors and responders may have limited access to internet,

cell phone, landline phone, and television services due to the combination of communication and

power disruptions.

Intergovernmental communication capabilities may be significantly degraded, which may limit

their ability to coordinate. Responders may be unable to collect information and provide

situational awareness, which may delay the delivery of lifesaving and life-sustaining assistance.

Survivors may have limited access to news, social media, and other informational outlets that

could help them determine what to do and where to go. Rumors may fill the void created by the

absence of traditional information channels.

There are over a thousand telecommunications facilities in the impacted area of Washington and

Oregon. Roughly two-thirds of these facilities may suffer medium to high damage from the

initial earthquake. The shaking may rattle equipment off of cell towers, dislodge central control

boards and damage central communications offices. Communication facilities that suffer no or

low damage may also be un-operational due to antennae being thrown out of alignment or the

breaking of cables connecting these facilities.

In areas experiencing power outages, communications facilities may be forced to operate on

backup generators. However, these backup power systems typically last for only eight to twelve

hours. Refueling these systems may be a challenge; damaged roadways may make it difficult for

108

crews to reach communications towers. Personnel shortages may also limit the number of teams

sent out to repair facilities. As facilities running on backup power begin to go offline,

communications may further deteriorate. The accumulation of numerous points of failure may

result in widespread failure far beyond the impacted area.

Long-haul Fibers and Cables

Underground landslides and the shifting of the ocean floor may sever undersea cables that

traverse the offshore regions of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The remaining cable systems on

the northern transpacific routes landing in Puget Sound and the Oregon coast may see some

disruptions, but the southern routes through California may remain functional.

With the loss of undersea cable capacity, communications systems may face abnormally high

congestion. While alternative routes using satellite microwave communications may exist, the

bandwidth is limited. The restoration of these cables may take several months.

On land, regional long-haul fiber optic cables may be severed by landslides or the collapse of the

bridges they span, which may cause regional and nationwide delays in internet and long-distance

services as the network attempts to reroute around the impacted area.

Oregon Communications Systems

The majority of communications infrastructure on the coast may be severely damaged and

inaccessible for repair. Facilities along the immediate coastline will likely be destroyed by the

force of the tsunami wave. Communications in these areas may be limited to radio frequency and

satellite phones.

Most of the communication facilities in eastern Oregon may suffer less physical damage from

the earthquake. However, the lower availability of power may limit the capability of these

facilities to provide service.

109

Backup Communications

When primary communication modes, (phone, internet, primary radio systems) are down,

emergency services rely heavily on backup modes, such as Amateur Radio voice & data modes,

Satellite phones, and portable repeaters, all of which have limitations. Amateur Radio lacks the

bandwidth (throughput) required for the large amount of traffic that is expected after a

catastrophic event, due to current FCC restrictions, and may also not have the needed volunteers

following an event. Handheld satellite phones require the user to be outdoors and still offer

spotty coverage. Other satellite voice and data systems that offer better service can be cost

prohibitive to most agencies. Portable repeaters used to connect first responders need to be

transported to areas they are needed and require fuel to run their generators. All of which require

a viable transportation network to get them to where they are needed. Many agencies will utilize

the GETS/WPS (Government Emergency Telecommunications Service/Wireless Priority

Service) capability when basic initial services are restored. And state responders may request

restoration or temporary assistance through the TSP (Telecommunications Service Priority)

program to receive priority treatment for vital voice and data circuits or other

telecommunications services.

Conclusion

All modes of communications in the coastal regions will be severely damaged. Telephone and

broadband may be non-operational for months or even years due to lack of access to repair

systems. Some radio systems may still be usable but will lack long range connectivity due to

broken landline services and misaligned microwave systems. Lack of local personnel to repair

systems may be extremely limited due to the effects of the event. Access to mountaintop

repeaters may not be possible for some time due to changes in topography and possible weather

events, depending on what time of year the Cascadia event takes place. Repair and alignment of

services will require a large personnel force from outside the affected area and viable

transportation routes to get into affected areas.

Although our backup communications capabilities should survive the event, there will still be

personnel shortages for operating the equipment as well as a shortage of equipment needed to

respond to a region-wide event. Bandwidth limitations of our backup modes will also extremely

hamper the amount of information needed to be transmitted during a large scale event.

110

Appendix E

Legislative Concept 904

DRAFT

2017 Regular Session

Summary

Declares policy of State of Oregon concerning cybersecurity risks and need for proactive

cybersecurity risk management.

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas the Legislative Assembly has declared that it is the goal of the State of Oregon to

promote access to broadband services for all Oregonians in order to improve the economy in

Oregon; and

Whereas the Legislative Assembly has declared that it is the policy of the State of Oregon to

promote, facilitate, and encourage activities, projects, and businesses that improve Oregon’s

Internet Protocol (IP) network infrastructure, performance, and connectivity to the Internet

backbone network and World Wide Web for the benefit of Oregon’s commercial, educational,

governmental, and individual users; and

Whereas the Legislative Assembly has declared that the Internet and Internet Protocol (IP)

networks serve as infrastructure necessary for the conduct of commerce and communication, and

also necessary to establish and maintain Oregon’s global competitiveness; and

Whereas, there is a growing threat and risk of the theft of data and personal identity through

cyber attack, now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:

That we, the members of the Seventy-ninth Legislative Assembly, declare that it is the policy

of the State of Oregon to promote, facilitate, and encourage activities, initiatives, projects, and

businesses that improve the security of data and electronic communications, and to increase the

awareness of cyber-security risks and the need for proactive cybersecurity risk management for

the benefit of Oregon’s commercial, educational, governmental, and individual users.

111

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113

Acknowledgements

Pam Berrian

City of Eugene

Craig Honeyman

League of Oregon Cities

Amy McLaughlin

Oregon Department of Education

Steve Noel

FirstNet

Andrew Phelps

Oregon Office of Emergency Management

Wally Rogers

Manager Oregon E-Government and Transparency, Enterprise Shared Services, OSCIO

Eric Rosenberry

President, Northwest Access Exchange (NWAX)

Dan Runcie

Education Super Highway

Patrick Sieng and Laura Cleland

Association of Oregon Counties

David Soloos

Office the State CIO

Oregon SWIC

David Trepp

Info@Risk Inc.

Carla Wade

Oregon Department of Education

John Windhausen, Executive Director

Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB)

Brant Wolf, Executive Director

Oregon Telecommunications Association