While I am as excited as the next person about the buzz around the Laurentien progress, I think that we should not lose site of the importance of small business and entrepreureship in our region. When we completed the CBN Connect needs analysis project last September, we confirmed that the majority of businesses in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties have 20 or less employees.  It is these businesses that have been the backbone of our local economy for quite some time and we should continue to look at this market for economic growth in our region as well. While Plattsburgh and some of the other, perhaps larger,  communities look to attract large companies, many of our regions communities want to grow their economy by attracting small businesses and entrepreurs as well as finding ways to keep and attract young people who have great ideas. 

Of course, high speed broadband is a requirement if these small businesses or entrepreneurs are to succeed in our region. While businesses such as Laurentien should be able to get the broadband that they require and even have choice or provider, many of the small businesses in the region are not able to take the next step by competiting globally or even regionally because of the lack of broadband for their rural businesses. Are you a small business owner or budding entrepreneur that is facing some challenges with broadband or other issues associated with establishing a competitive business in rural NY? Are you part of a community that is looking at growing the ecomomy in interesting ways? Please share your ideas on this topic!

The presentation that I gave last Thursday morning to the Franklin County Legislature on the CBN Connect "Wireless Pilot Project" that will be done in Franklin County over the next few months was well received.

The Franklin County areas of Chateaugay and Burke were selected for this pilot due to the fact that Franklin County had already begun to plan for pandemic preparation in the county, these communities have been engaged over the past several months in strategic planning which, with the help of Fuller Communications produced the "Foothills 2020 Report" and that by working with Franklin County in this area allows us to work with many types of users such as farm owners, libraries, rural residents, government and small business owners to test the idea of using wireless as part of a larger fiber based network to reach the most remote areas.

We will use this opportunitiy and funding that we received through HUD to test our operational assumptions and to learn the best way to approach internet education as we move forward with the overall CBN Connect network. We will also learn what service providers are interested in providing services through wireless broadband.

We have received many comments regarding the use of wireless as a part of the CBN Connect project. Some people feel that this makes a lot of sense due to the expense involved in using fiber and the reality that we will not be able to afford putting fiber everywhere in our region. Others feel that wireless is not something that will be a good solution for the future. What are your thoughts on using wireless as part of larger community broadband networks?