Jessica Napier

For the state of Wyoming, high-speed broadband Internet access is more than a matter of convenience.

“This is part of the governor’s initiative to increase quality of life,” said the state’s CIO, Flint Waters. “We want to diversify our economy. In order to continue to expand the workforce and keep Wyoming students in the state, we have to increase broadband capacity.”

With access points located in eight communities and anchored at schools or state offices, the network will create more redundancy and reliability. Gov Mead’s (R-WY) proposal is intended to enhance private investment in broadband infrastructure without fear of the state as competition.

The state signed master service agreements with all statewide Internet Service Providers (ISP) interested in being a part of the network. Advanced Communications Technology (ACT), a company based in the state, was awarded two of the 100-gigabit backbone links.

CenturyLink, a national ISP, was awarded six of the 100-gigabit backbone lines. The $15.8 million initiative, projected to finish by Aug 30, 2015, is mostly backed by the state’s general fund with some education funding where the network is linked to school traffic.

Longboat Key (FL) is setting an example for fiscal transparency.

In 2012, when the town’s commissioners requested an online budget module to replace paper reports and documents, the finance and IT departments delivered. The town’s employees were quickly able to access a financial database using RedBack Ecommerce to view a live feed from the finance department’s reporting system. When the town experienced a change in leadership, there was a push to share the same information to the public.

In mid-February, the town launched an online graph, using fiscal data that feeds directly from the finance department’s database, to display revenues and expenses. The chart is publicly accessible. “We are providing a high-level executive overview in a simple way,” said Kathi Pletzke, the town’s IT director. “You don’t need a business degree to tell if we’re on track with our budget with the tool.” The tables and charts, which cost about 25 hours of development time, or approximately $2,500, provide the most current view of the town's budgeted revenues and expenditures, as well as year-to-date amounts.

The online tool, funded by IT’s professional services budget, includes five fiscal years of current and historical expenditure data along with graphing tools and the ability to export the data to Excel for further analysis.

When Martin County (FL) was faced with increased telecommunications cost, CIO Kevin Kryzda used the phrase “rubber chicken circuit” to persuade community leaders, business owners and elected officials to build a county-owned fiber network rather than leasing services with an impending cost increase.

Kryzda, anticipating a price jump, began researching how the county could build its own network. Determined to lower the initially estimated cost of $9.8 million, Kryzda began a conversation with the Florida Department of Transportation about merging pieces of their networks to share costs.

According to the Florida Fiber report, a local relationship presented itself with Indiantown Telecommunications Service (ITS), a rural exchange carrier. Between 2006 and 2010, ITS had installed fiber-optic cable in and around the county and offered a 43-mile fiber swap. ITS would use Martin County fiber to expand its service area, and the county would use existing ITS fiber to avoid higher costs.

The savings associated with the agreement brought the expected cost of building the network to $4.14 million. Construction for the project commenced in January 2011, and the county no longer required Comcast’s leased lines after July 31, 2011. Additionally, since the launch, unanticipated uses for the county network appear on a regular basis.

“We now use fiber optics to interconnect 133 buildings throughout the county and elsewhere for the purpose of voice, video and data communications,” Kryzda said.