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by Teresa Martin

Wow. We did it.

After three years of planning and collaborating and revising and consuming copious amounts of caffinated beverages, the announcement has been made.

Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded OpenCape Corporation a $32M American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) grant.

That string of initials there -- NTIA ARRA BTOP -- roughly translate into English as a federally funded program to to support America's economic health by building needed technology underpinnings.

And we're brought it to Cape Cod.

OK, so at this point I think a disclaimer is in order. In one of my lives, I'm a founder of the nonprofit OpenCape Corporation and currently sit on its executive committee along with Dan Gallagher (CIO Cape Cod Community College), Art Gaylord (Director Computer and Information Services, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and Gary Delius (IT Director, Truro).

When I talk about "we" I mean this awesome team of course, but not just this team.

The "we" who made today's announcement happen also means the hundreds of people across the region who were part of creating OpenCape.

You see, one of the really cool things about OpenCape is that it is what business likes to call "market-driven" and what government likes to call "grassroots." In other words, the organization and its plans were shaped by people with real needs and real points of pain who wanted real solutions.

No one came down from on-high and said "Boopty Boo - here's the network we think you need."

Instead the 350 or so miles of fiber optic network, the microwave network, and the regional data center that comprise the project were shaped and formed and revised by hundreds of voices chiming in about what they needed, what would and wouldn't work, and what the region had to have in order to compete in the 21st century.

And then, the process was supported by another hundred people who vetted the ideas and who talked about them and argued about them and ultimately supported them throughout the process.

It took the whole village to raise this broadband baby, if you'll pardon a little random metaphor borrowing!

Under today's BTOP grant, OpenCape will receive $32 million. It will then add $8M in matching dollars for a total project of $40M. This budget will build 350 miles of fiber optic network network, a wireless microwave network, and a regional data center.

Oh, I can hear the enquiring minds right now - where did that $8M come from, you say? One source was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts/Massachusetts Broadband Institute, which had set up a $40M fund to support broadband in the state. The Cape is receiving $5M in matching funds from that pool.

Second, funds came from private project partner RCN Metro Optical Networks.

Another important aspect of OpenCape is that it set aside conventional wisdom and thought about different ways of doing business. Why reinvent the wheel? Why not partner with a company that had expertise in the building and operation of a backhaul networks? We like the private sector!

And so during the summer of 2009 OpenCape conducted a Request for Information (RFI) process to identify potential partners. Dozens of exhaustive interviews later, RCN Metro Optical Networks was the clear choice. The company's focus is what is called "high-capacity transport services." In other words, it runs super-broadband networks.

In structuring the relationship, it agreed to invest directly into the project. It is a partner, after all, not merely a contracted vendor.

The third participant to the matching funds is Barnstable County.

Whoa! Before anyone starts to scream, what Barnstable County provides is something only Barnstable County had: the right building in the right location on the right power grid, sitting there empty, unused, and in need of a bit of TLC.

Instead of cash, the regional government is providing a long term lease on the building up there on the top of the hill in the county complex, the one that sits next to the big antenna. After some rehab work as part of the grant, it will house the regional data center.

The federal grant process was highly competitive. The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration received more than 1,800 applications for the first round of funding.

The total proposed projects added up to nearly $19 billion in requests. Only $7.2 billion in funding was available for round one.

OpenCape joins about two dozen other middle mile awards to date, including $30M to Florida, $33M to north Georgia, $126M to West Virginia, $16 M to southern Virginia, and $39M to upstate New York.

Elsewhere in there region, a consortium of Rhode Island's 71 public libraries received a $1.2M grant for public computing and the City of Boston received $1.9 million for public computing centers. UMass/Lowell also received $700,000 under the program for a sustainable broadband program.

The NTIA-funded OpenCape project contains three elements. The first element is the laying of about 350 miles of fiber optic cables. Optical fibers use light to transmit data. It is the fastest medium available and is the standard for supporting today's high bandwidth applications, smart phones, and multi-media uses.

The fiber forms a middle mile 'backhaul network." That means it is the highway or the water main that carries data between an offramp or a local pipe to and from the Internet. It is not the connection that comes directly to your doorstep.

However, a lack of open access middle mile capacity is one of this region's limiting factors to economic growth. Everyone from cellular carriers to potential last mile providers say they can't afford to invest in expensive middle mile given our low population density, and hence cannot offer a full range of services in this region.

By removing this barrier, the OpenCape project opens the region to digital development.

The second is a microwave wireless network. Like the fiber network, this wireless network plays a middle mile role, moving data between locations.

As a byproduct of our geographic location, the Cape is vulnerable to hurricanes and other natural disasters. The wireless microwave component of the network is a way of building in redundancy and emergency preparedness.

The third pieces is the afore-mentioned data center. A data center is a place where people can place servers, rent server space, and keep data in a safe and central location. Data centers have redundant power and are connected with very high bandwidth.

Currently, there are no data centers on the Cape. People who want to colocate a server or create a backup structure work with off-cape - in some cases far, far, far off-cape -providers. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but in many cases it is very helpful to have a nearby location as well.

The regional data center creates a place on this side of the canal where businesses can safely house servers and from which regional umbrellas services can be deployed.

Of course, today's news is only the start. It means we can begin building the network. The first pieces of the network will likely come on line before the end of the calendar year. Under the terms of the grant, the entire build needs to be completed in no more than three years.

Building is the easy part.

For the real challenge, we have to return to those hudnreds of people who make up our collective 'we.' For the real challenge we have is to use the network in smart, creative, and innovative ways.

Take regional umbrella services, for example. Can our towns save money or redeploy scarce resources for sharing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions? They sure can!

OpenCape delivers the infrastructure that make this possible. But things like this won't happen on their own. Some subset of those hundreds have to jump in and make it so.

Same is true for the economic potential. As a region, we need to brand ourselves and sell ourselves as a place where people do something more than lie on the beach.

With OpenCape, we'll have the infrastructure to support 21st century business requirements. Some subset of those hundreds have to jump in and be the catalyst to use it.

Today's announcement is exciting. Federal funds are coming to the Cape. We all worked together as a region to make it happen. It doesn't get much better than that.

Well, except for when our broadband baby starting bringing home friends and making a life of its own that we can all share in. That's the best of all.

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