Southern Oregon Business Journal - October 2021 - Celebrating 25 years of Oregon Broadband

Proudly Serving Benton, Coos, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln & Linn Counties and Crook, Lake, Harney and Malheur Counties as well. Since 2015

The Journal for Business in Southern Oregon SouthernOregonBusiness.com

BROADBAND IN OREGON A REPORT OF THE OREGON BROADBAND ADVISORY COUNCIL

October 2021 OREGON CONNECTIONS 25 YEARS OF PUSHING OREGON BROADBAND ADOPTION FORWARD

Celebrating

IS RURAL ELECTRIFICATION THE MODEL FOR RURAL BROADBAND?

25 Years of

Oregon Connections

Broadband Special Edition

Sponsored by

A Few Words from Jim

The Southern Oregon Business Journal extends sincere thanks to the following companies for sponsoring the journal. Without their support we could not produce a FREE resource for Southern Oregon businesses.

The Oregon Connections Conference is celebrating 25 years of pushing and inspiring Oregon to be a leader in Broadband.

I have been a part of the internet industry since it started and I wanted to focus this issue on something we all take for granted.

Broadband.

The always on, always available internet service that we all use every single day and night.

But it just didn’t happen by itself. As this issue came together (I started collecting story ideas for it in March) I did a lot of re ection about my own experiences as we all went through this journey together.

I think Oregon is a pretty special place. Not only because of the natural beauty that surrounds us, but also the courage and tenacity of its residents.

When the internet started to become something important, it took crazy entrepreneurs all over the state to step up and say they could deliver the services required to get us online. That’s the Oregon way. We don’t wait for the big companies to show up and x our problems. We do it ourselves.

Everyday.

In the last 25 years, I have seen this spirit rst hand. These brave entrepreneurs entered into a race that would require almost daily upgrades to handle the growth and innovation being poured on them as everything in life changed. They invested, became self-taught about everything, climbed poles and towers, worked day and night in rain, sleet and scorching heat to build the network that was required to keep the communities they live in and love, connected and vibrant and relevant in the future they saw coming.

These nerdy tech heroes are a big part of what I focused on in this issue.

25 years is a long time. It was shaping up to be a great issue.

And then we lost two of us. As the issue was coming together Coastal Internet pioneer, Greg Palser, lost his battle with cancer and Southern Oregon Telecommunications Entrepreneur and community leader, Jeff Rhoden, lost his 2 week long battle with COVID. The passing of these two leaders in our industry shook me pretty hard. I wanted to honor them, and I do, but they deserve a full journal dedicated to each of them. They did so much and inspired so many. They both leave large holes in the communities they served and will be missed for a very, very long time.

So here you go. A special edition. It’s a peek behind the curtain to the dreamers that kept Oregon connected and into the communities, policy makers and one annual conference that brought us all together to celebrate and inspire.

SPECIAL BROADBAND EDITION PLEASE THANK OUR SPECIAL EDITION SPONSORS AMERITITLE - PAGE 4 DATA RUNS THROUGH IT - LS NETWORKS - PAGE 5 DOUGLAS FIBER NET - DFN IS ON A MISSION TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE FOR THE HOME AND OFFICE. PAGE 8 BETTER TOGETHER - PEOPLE’S BANK OF COMMERCE AND WILLAMETTE COMMUNITY BANK PAGE 9 MANAGED HOME NET - PAGE 15 OREGON CONNECTIONS CONFERENCE - PAGE 16 SOU - LEADERSHIP BEGINS AT SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY PAGE 28 UMPQUA BROADBAND - PAGE 32 ENERGY TRUST OF OREGON - BACK COVER

We aren’t done but we are getting older. It’s time to start focusing on the next generation of dreamers and doers. These young Oregonians that will show the world that Oregon is still a special place where we honor the past and always look forward to the future, we build for ourselves.

Founder

Onward.

Greg Henderson ghenderson703@gmail.com Greg started the Southern Oregon Business Journal in 2015 and retired in 2020.

Jim Jim@SouthernOregonBusiness.com

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COVER PHOTO : FUTURE WORLD PHOTO BY ROBYNNE HU ON UNSPLASH

5350 HWY 66, Ashland, Oregon 97520

www.SouthernOregonBusiness.com A JOURNAL FOR THE ECONOMICALLY CURIOUS, PROFESSIONALLY INSPIRED AND ACUTELY MOTIVATED

October 2021 - Table of Contents

BROADBAND BUILDERS

BROADBAND

PEAK INTERNET CLOSES DIGITAL DIVIDE FOR RURAL CUSTOMERS - PAGE 6

OREGON CONNECTIONS - 25 YEARS OF PUSHING OREGON BROADBAND ADOPTION FORWARD - PAGE 10

SOUTHERN OREGON COMMUNITIES RECEIVE FIBER TO THE HOME AS HUNTER COMMUNICATIONS CONTINUES INVESTMENT IN SOUTHERN OREGON, INCLUDING REBUILDING PHOENIX AND TALENT - PAGE 7

BROADBAND IN OREGON A REPORT OF THE OREGON BROADBAND ADVISORY COUNCIL PAGE 12 WHAT IS BROADBAND? - PAGE 14

BROADBAND PIONEERS

BUILDING BROADBAND ACTION TEAMS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES - PAGE 18

THE OPEN DOOR NETWORKS STORY - PAGE 20 MEET THE NWTA NORTHWEST TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION - PAGE 26 THE MAGICK NET STORY - PAGE 21 BROADBAND POLICY TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNET INNOVATIONS CONEXON RELEASES INTERACTIVE MAP TO SHOWCASE AREAS THAT ARE UNSERVED DEFINED BY THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN (ARP) ACT - PAGE 22

CONNECTING OREGON

BY CHRIS TAMARIN- PAGE 17 INTERNET INNOVATION - SOREDI SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATIVE INTERNET - PAGE 25

WHO IS CHRIS TAMARIN? PAGE 32

IS RURAL ELECTRIFICATION THE MODEL FOR RURAL BROADBAND? - PAGE 23 OUR DIGITAL IMPERATIVE - PAGE 24

OREGON CONNECTIONS : SOME OF MY FAVORITE PHOTOS THAT I HAVE TAKEN AT THE CONFERENCE OVER THE YEARS

BY JOHN IRWIN - PAGE 28

TRIBUTE

REMEMBERING GREG PALSER PAGE 30

SELLING WIDGETS- PAGE 34

REMEMBERING JEFF RHODEN - PAGE 31

DATA RUNS THROUGH IT

Just as the Rogue, Umpqua and Coquille Rivers form a latticework of fast flowing waters across the region, our 100% fiber optic network runs throughout Southern Oregon delivering ultra-high capacity Internet, Ethernet and Enterprise services to international carriers, ISPs, data centers, governments, healthcare organizations and businesses like yours.

When you contact us, your sales representative and dedicated sales engineer will provide a customized network solution specifically for your business and add it to our Southern Oregon expansion plan.

• Unmatched Bandwidth For All Things Business Digital • Unified Communications To Connect All Your Devices In Real Time • VoIP Telephone For Clarity And Cost Savings • Secure, Ultra-High Capacity Ethernet Links Multiple Locations

If you do business in Southern Oregon, we’re here to serve your business needs.

Internet At Light Speed

503.293.5300 LSNetworks.net Southern Oregon Business Journal (Data) BAD-j-21 © 2021 Light Speed Networks, Inc.

921 SW Washington Street • Suite 370 • Portland, OR 97205 • (503) 294-5300

Southern Oregon Business Journal September 2021 | 5

By Rick Petersen President / CEO PeakInternet.com

PEAK Internet closes digital divide for rural customers

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he way we use the internet has drastically changed as we navigate the pandemic. All areas of our lives from education to mental health, banking to the arts depend on fast, reliable internet more than ever before.

PEAK Internet recognized these new needs. More student households were distance learning than ever before, and rural counties were in need of expanded and strengthened service.

In response, PEAK found a way to deliver. They pursued and received funding through the Rural Broadband Capacity Program – Coronavirus Relief Fund. In less than 100 days, PEAK added one new wireless tower and built 30 miles of ber distribution to rural areas.

Realizing the need for better broadband in its territory and the change in usage from its customers, PEAK applied for and was awarded a 13.5-million-dollar loan/grant with the USDA Reconnect program. After clearing environmental reviews, they are underway to construct an additional 200 miles of ber in Polk and Linn counties.

“Funding from programs such as these is essential to close the digital divide for our rural customers. With an average density of seven homes per mile, additional capital is crucial in building a sustainable business model,” explained Rick Petersen, CEO of PEAK Internet.

Operating a carrier-grade network assures extreme reliability via their strong infrastructure, but PEAK’s secret sauce is its people. The culture at PEAK fosters commitment to on-going development, as this expansion demonstrates.

In addition to being a retail provider of broadband services, streaming TV, and voice, PEAK operates a 24/7 network operations and customer support center. PEAK serves companies throughout the United States with customtailored solutions that provide exceptional, white label services to their customers.

PEAK Internet began in 1986 in the Computer Science Department at Oregon State University.

Today, PEAK is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Consumers Power, Inc., or CPI, a member-owned electric cooperative serving 23,000 customers

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BROADBAND BUILDERS

over a 3,500 square-mile service area in the midWillamette Valley.

PEAK’s af liation with a member-owned coop (CPI) has been a win-win. Automation of the grid is essential for an electric utility and serving its members with fast and reliable broadband is becoming more important than ever. PEAK operates a hybrid broadband network using both xed wireless and ber to the home.

For the past 20 years, PEAK re-sold infrastructure owned by other companies. Now, they are able to focus on being a true facilities-based provider.

PEAK’s commitment to responding to the dynamic need for internet service is not new.

PEAK’s rst ber-based deployments were to schools, libraries and businesses. As a strong advocate and partner in economic development, PEAK’s next project connects several enterprise anchor institutions to its ber network.

To learn more about PEAK, visit www.peakinternet.com or stop by and visit us at the Oregon Connections Conference.

Southern Oregon communities receive Fiber to the Home as Hunter Communications continues investment in Southern Oregon, including rebuilding Phoenix and Talent

Hunter ber.com

I

t has been nearly 18 months since Hunter Communications was acquired by Grain Management, a private equity rm.

Since that time, Hunter has rolled out Fiber to the Home, providing the fastest residential internet in Southern Oregon. They have earned industry awards for their speeds, won several large contracts to build to unserved communities, increased employee headcount by 30%, and improved customer satisfaction levels to record numbers.

“With the support of Grain Management, we have been able to make investments to help people in our communities work more ef ciently at home by providing the fastest residential internet available,” says Carey Cahill, Hunter’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Hunter Communications, based in Central Point, offers 1 Gbps ber-optic internet for $69.99 per month. With two other tiers of service, each Hunter offer provides signi cantly better speeds than what consumers currently have. In some instances, Hunter’s upload speeds are up to 50 times faster while remaining much more affordable.

“Our customers love getting faster, more reliable internet with a price for life, no data caps, no

contract, free basic installation, and a free wirouter,” mentions Cahill.

He adds, “With so many people working from home, e-learning, streaming videos, and gaming online, increased upload speeds are more important than ever. Our end-to-end ber solution couldn’t be coming to the area at a better time.”

Neighborhoods in Medford, Jacksonville, and Central Point are currently enjoying Hunter’s ber-optic internet and service has recently become available in Phoenix and Talent. The company is planning to densify ber-optic service in existing neighborhoods and will expand to new neighborhoods and towns this fall and throughout next year.

Cahill says, “Demand has been tremendous customers like to pre-register on our website to get on the installation list even before we complete construction in their neighborhood.”

Hunter is currently working with contractors and homeowners to rebuild areas in Phoenix and Talent that were affected by the Almeda Fire in 2020. Their plan is to proactively lay ber underground where construction is taking place.

The company is offering 90 days of free ber-

optic internet service to new residential customers who lost their homes due to the re.

Hunter was recognized for its fast recovery of services during last year’s re. Despite the efforts of the re ghters last September, about 20 miles of Hunter’s ber-optic network was damaged, and outages were reported from Ashland to Phoenix. Tim Smith, Vice President of Network Services, said: The res severed multiple key north-south arteries of our network. The Network and IT teams worked around the clock to mitigate the damage, quickly rerouting, and restoring service to the vast majority of customers affected by the res, even though several of these employees were physically displaced from their homes themselves.

On behalf of all other Talent and Phoenix residents who sign up for their residential ber internet service, Hunter will be making nancial donations to the Phoenix High School All Sports Booster Club and the Talent Elementary School Parent Teacher Association For more information about Hunter Communications and their Fiber to the Home expansion plans, please visit Hunter ber.com

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8 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021

Better Together People’s Bank of Commerce and Willamette Community Bank are pleased to partner together in a merger and continue to deliver exceptional community banking services across Oregon, as well as deliver long-term value to our community.

Now that we are one organization, our customers can bank at any of our nine locations in Southern Oregon and the Willamette Valley.

WILLAMETTE COMMUNITY BANK LOCATIONS

PEOPLE’S BANK LOCATIONS Medford Branches

Klamath Falls Branch

Albany Branch

1528 Biddle Road Medford, OR 97504 541-776-5350

210 Timbermill Drive Klamath Falls, OR 97601 541-273-2717

333 Lyon Street SE Albany, OR 97321 541-926-9000

Grants Pass Branch

Lebanon Branch

1311 East Barnett Road Medford, OR 97504 541-622-6222

509 SE 7th Street Grants Pass, OR 97526 541-955-8005

1495 South Main Lebanon, OR 97355 541-223-7180

Central Point Branch

Ashland Branch

Salem Branch

1017 East Pine Street Central Point, OR 97502 541-665-5262

1500 Siskiyou Boulevard Ashland, OR 97520 541-482-3886

315 Commercial Street SE Suite 110 Salem, OR 97301 503-468-5558

Southern Oregon Business Journal September 2021 | 9

BROADBAND

Oregon Connections 25 years of pushing Oregon Broadband Adoption Forward

The Oregon Connections conference has been an important event held throughout the state for 25 years celebrating and inspiring the rapid adoption and upgrading of internet services throughout the state.

O

regon Connections was started in 1996 by the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, under the leadership of Andrew Spreadborough.

demonstrates standard communications capabilities, scalable solutions to accommodate growth in demand, and/or adaptability to new applications and opportunities.

Throughout the conferences history it has been held in 4 locations around the state.

Bend 1996 through 2005 (ten years) Newport 2006 through 2009 (four years) Hood River 2010 through 2018 (nine years) Ashland 2019, 2021, 2022 (planned)

Chris Tamarin became involved in 2002 and served as the Chair of the Planning Committee since 2006.

2017 : Shawn Irvine, City of Independence 2015 : Greater Oregon Behavioral Health, Inc. (GOBHI) 2012 : Oregon Health and Science University 2011 : LS Networks 2011 : Bend Broadband Vault 2009 : Don Westlight of Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon Health Network 2007 : Oregon Association of Hospital and Health Systems Research and Education Foundation 2006 : Central Oregon Independent Practice Association 2005 : One-Economy Corporation 2004 : Telehealth Alliance of Oregon 2003 : Frank Miller, Oregon Trail Internet 2002 : Pioneer Library System (La Grande), Patricia Cutright 2001 : Tom Cook, Oregon Public Education Network

Chris retired this year so this will be his last year as chair and it’s also the 25th year since it started, so we thought it would be a good time to look back at the conference and how forward thinking it was, as it engaged the Oregon business community, local and state elected of cials and service providers in conversations about the future and how the internet was important to the state.

One facet of the conference are the awards.

Below are the awards presented to people or organizations in different categories that helped shape Telecommunications in Oregon.

Oregon Connections Excellence in Telecommunications Awards and Recipients Category #1: Excellence in Telecommunications Applications Individual, organization or company that has developed and/or successfully implemented an innovative telecommunications application that

Category #2: Excellence in Telecommunications Projects Individual, organization or company that has developed innovative projects or strategies to provide better access, reliability and/or affordability to telecommunications services for underserved and rural regions.

2019 : BendTel 2018 : Mid-Columbia Economic Development District 2018 : Dan Bubb, Gorge Networks 2018 : Eastern Oregon Net, Inc. 2016 : City of Eugene, EWEB, TAO, and LCOG

2016 : Innovate Oregon, Dayton School District, and Online NW 2015 : Sherman County 2014 : Hunter Communications 2014 : Lane County Area Public Agency Network 2014 : Chris Burns, Charter Communications 2013 : NetCity, Inc. 2013 : Steve Noel, SWIC, State of Oregon 2012 : David Crowe, Network for Education and Research in Oregon (NERO) 2012 : SandyNet, City of Sandy 2011 : Keith Grunberg, Charter Communications 2011 : John Irwin, J Irwin Community Informatics Consulting 2011 : Oregon Health Network 2010 : Oregon Municipal Audit Review Committee 2009 : Hunter Communications, Central Point, Oregon 2008 s: City of Lebanon, Phillip Barker of Curry County, and Verizon 2007 s: Keith Grunberg and Bradley Kuhnert, both of Charter Communications 2006 : John Stadter, ComSpanUSA 2005 : City of The Dalles/Q-Life Project 2004 : Century Tel 2003 : Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs 2002 : Ben Doty, NoaNet Oregon 2001 : Dave Sabala, Douglas Electric Cooperative Category #3: Excellence in Telecommunications Partnerships Individual, organization or company that has developed an innovative telecommunications partnership for the purpose of providing improved access, reliability and/or affordability for underserved and rural communities.

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2019 : Windwave 2018 : Digital Inclusion Network 2018 : Q-Life, City of Maupin, and LS Networks 2016 : Duke Dexter 2014 : MINET 2012 : Derek Abrams of Oregon State University and Sean McSpaden of State of Oregon 2012 : Warm Springs Telecom 2011 : Tamer Kirac 2010 : Rio Networks 2009 : Marsha Spellman and Adam Haas of Converge Communications 2008 : Michael Weidman of LS Networks 2006 : Greg Palser, CoastCom 2005 : Agnes Box, Oregon Institute of Technology; and Bob Hensley, Cal-Ore Telephone Company for the Klamath Falls/ OIT Open Access Hut project.

2004 : Rich Ryan, Hunter Communications 2003 : Ed Parker, ORTCC and CoastNet

Category #4: Excellence in Telecommunications Legislation or Policy Individual or organization that has participated in writing and advocating for legislation that will have a signi cant impact on rural telecommunications. Legislator or elected representative that has effectively introduced or advocated for innovation in legislation or policy that has positively impacted access, reliability, and/or affordability of rural telecommunications services.

2019 : Oregon State Representative Pam Marsh 2017 : Governor Kate Brown 2015 : Senate Bill 144 Work Group 2013 : Oregon State Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward 2011 : Oregon State Representative Phil Barnhart 2007 : Telehealth Alliance of Oregon 2006 : Mary Beth Henry, City of Portland/Mt. Hood Regulatory Commission 2005 : Rob Myers, Tri-County Communications and the Oregon Telecommunications Coordinating Council 2003 : Representative Laurie Monnes-Anderson, Gresham; and Alice Nelson, Pendleton 2001 : Senator David Nelson, Pendleton

Category #5: Outstanding Telecommunications Advocate Individual that has made a signi cant contribution or gone beyond the call of duty to advocate for improved access, reliability and affordability of telecommunications.

2019 : John Huffman, State Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture RUS 2017 : Matt Hie eld, Beaverton School District 2017 : Commissioner Ken Kestner, Lake County 2016 : Eric Rosenberry 2015 : Jeremy Pietzold, City of Sandy Council President 2013 : Eric Schmidt, Association of Oregon Counties 2012 : Rich Bader, EasyStreet Online Services 2011 : Bob Jenks, Citizens’ Utility Board of Oregon 2010 : Shay Dakan, Oregon State University 2010 : Milo Mecham, Lane Council of Governments 2009 : Ray Baum of the Public Utility Commission of Oregon 2008 : Pam Berrian of the City of Eugene 2007 : Jack Crider, President of Tillamook Lightwave 2006 : Onno Husing, Oregon Coast Zone Management Association 2005 s: Link Shadley, ANKI Solutions and Chris Tamarin, Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.

2004 : Shayne Maxwell, Southern Oregon EAS Region 2003 s: John Irwin, ORTCC and SOTTC; and Ron Trullinger, Qwest 2002 : Cathy Britain, RodeoNet 2001 : Cindy Weeldreyer, Lane County Commissioner/ Fiber South Consortium Chair

Category #6: Edwin B. Parker Enduring Achievement Award This award is presented to individuals whose contributions in telecommunications have been rendered with the greatest civility, who serve as a role model and mentor to many, and who have provided a lasting legacy in uencing for years to come the course and future of telecommunications in Oregon.

2019 : Don Patten 2018 : Joseph Franell 2018 : Todd Way 2017 : Jim Teece 2016 : Greg Palser 2016 : Richard Ryan 2015 : Milo Mecham 2015 : Chris Tamarin 2014 : Pam Berrian 2014 : John Irwin 2014 : Dave Sabala 2013 : Cathy Britain 2011 : Ray Baum 2011 : Keith A. Mobley 2010 : Amy Tykeson 2009 : Curt Pederson 2009 : Ginny Lang 2009 : State Senator David Nelson Other Awards: 2015 20th Anniversary All-Stars: Mike Dewey 2015 20th Anniversary All-Stars: Steve Eldrige 2015 20th Anniversary All-Stars: David Olson 2009 Economic Development through Telecommunications: Chris Tamarin of the Oregon Business Development Department 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award: Agnes Box, Oregon Institute of Technology 2005 Enduring Achievement Award: Ben Doty, Telecommunications Advocate; Q-Life, CoastNet 2004 Enduring Achievement Award: Ed Parker, Parker Telecommunications and Oregon Telecommunications Coordinating Council 2004 Enduring Achievement Award: Mike Johnson, Deschutes National Forest, COTel Chair and Founder 2004 Legislative Champion Award: Bill Penhollow, Association of Oregon Counties 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award: PUC Chair Joan Smith 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award: Terry Edvalson, Edvalson and Associates 2001 Excellence in Telecommunications Opportunities and Initiatives: Eric Alexander, Connecting Oregon Communities Board/ St. Charles Medical Center (Bend)

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 11

Broadband in Oregon

By the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council

A Report of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council The Oregon Broadband Advisory Council publishes a report on the state of Broadband in Oregon every two years.

This is the executive summary from the 180 page report (link at end) published at the end of 2020.

Photo by JJ Ying on Unsplash

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his is the sixth 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 business, healthcare, energy management, education and government. The 2020 report will also present information on the role of broadband in local, regional and state economies, economic development, public policy issues, and key broadband related challenges and opportunities facing the state.

In its last report to the Legislative Assembly in 2018, OBAC stated that it believes that Oregon’s broadband public policy needs to be focused on the future, be more aggressive, be more nancially supportive, be more speci c, and have a renewed sense of urgency. The Council reaf rms these beliefs in 2020, and is submitting its report during a pandemic that has served to underscore the essential nature of broadband telecommunications infrastructure, the

applications it enables, and the value of having the skills and access to use them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a hyperaccelerator for broadband public policy, applications, adoption, utilization and infrastructure deployment. It has created a new sense of understanding, urgency and commitment to address the long-standing challenges of the Digital Divide. The stage is set, and it is time to act.

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Cyber Security: The security of data and communications systems continues to be a critical risk exposure for government, public organizations, private sector businesses, and for individuals that is widely unrecognized and under managed. Oregon needs to follow-through on its 2017 cyber security legislative initiatives www.cyberoregon.com. Expanded and proactive cyber risk management is needed.

Key Broadband Challenges and Opportunities OBAC has identi ed the following key broadband challenges and opportunities facing Oregon.

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Education: Oregon’s K-20 educational institutions are positioned to realize signi cant economic, work force and community development bene ts for the state through the utilization of broadband networks and applications. State level support and technical assistance is needed.

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Public Safety: Oregon’s rst responders are at a transition point for migration to new broadband Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. Support is needed for

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Digital Inclusion: Oregon needs funded state-level strategies and programs to ensure that all individuals and communities have access to affordable state of the art broadband communications services, and the skills, knowledge and technical support needed to use them.

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Oregon Broadband Advisory Council Members - 2020

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Oregon’s three 911 centers and rst responders to migrate from legacy systems to Next Generation 911 and to interoperable wireless broadband communications systems.

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Promote and support scalable broadband infrastructure deployment.

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Reduce barriers to broadband infrastructure deployment.

Agriculture is emerging as an important application and may become the largest driver for broadband infrastructure deployment in rural areas of the state. State level engagement, support and technical assistance is needed.

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Promote and support digital inclusion and cyber security initiatives.

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Require that broadband infrastructure components be included for all state funded infrastructure projects including roads, bridges, water, and wastewater projects.

Local Community Broadband Planning: Local community engagement in broadband development, adoption and utilization continues to be a low cost highreturn “game-changing” activity that needs to be promoted and supported.

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Federal Funding Programs: Federal broadband programs are a key source of available nancing to be leveraged for new infrastructure. State support in the form of technical assistance and matching funds is needed for eligible applicants.

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Network Interconnection: Oregon needs to develop strategies to improve the state’s connectivity to national and global networks, improve network resilience and support the growth of network enabled data centers and e-commerce businesses.

To address these challenges, OBAC offers the following recommendations

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Provide and expand state funding for grant, loan and loan guarantee programs for broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved geographic areas, for technical assistance and for matching funds to leverage federal funding programs.

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Encourage public-private partnerships in broadband infrastructure that leverage limited state resources.

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Remain technology and provider neutral. Information and communications technologies have been the most disruptive and transformative technologies of the past one hundred years. Oregon’s information and communication technology infrastructure and the capacity of Oregon to utilize these technologies for economic growth, community development and public safety is an important public policy issue. It will determine the state’s future economic growth and development. The internet has become the platform on which the world works, and broadband connectivity is becoming a universal common denominator that is important and essential for all sectors of the economy.

“Competitive high-speed access to the internet and telecommunications networks is essential, statewide, for Oregon’s schools, libraries, businesses, agricultural producers, governments, rst responders, healthcare providers and individual residents.”

- Oregon Broadband Of ce Strategic Plan, January 2020

Provide support to low adopter underserved populations and community anchor institutions.

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The full 180 page report can be found at https:// www.oregon4biz.com/Broadband-Of ce/OBAC/Reports/ BroadbandRpt2020.pdf Visit the Oregon Broadband Of ce website at https:// www.oregon4biz.com/Broadband-Of ce/

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 residents 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 Katie Latimer Cox Kurtis Danka Chief Technology Of cer Of ce of the State Chief Information Of cer Miles Ellenby Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Medical Director, Telemedicine Program Doernbecher Children’s Hospital / Oregon Health and Science University Joseph Franell (Council Chair) General Manager and CEO Blue Mountain Networks Michael Heffner Assistant Chief Deputy Oregon Of ce of State Fire Marshall Wade Holmes Vice President of Technology TDS Telecommunications (BendBroadband) Lonny Macy Planner Akana Pam Marsh Representative Oregon House of Representatives Galen McGill System Operations & Intelligent Transportation Systems Manager Oregon Department of Transportation Rick Petersen President and Chief Executive Of cer PEAK Internet Jeremy Pietzold (Council Vice-Chair) City Council President City of Sandy Cheri Rhinhart Information Technology Director Intermountain Education Service District Dave Sabala Economic Development Arnie Roblan Senator Oregon State Senate Mark Thompson Commissioner Oregon Public Utility Commissioner David Yamamoto Commissioner Tillamook County www.broadband-oregon.org

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 13

What is Broadband?

By the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council

B

roadband 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 of cial de nition 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:

The next increase in the standard will likely be to 100 Mbps down and 12 or 25 Mbps up.

Tiers 3 through 8 re ect the range of service speeds available and expected to become available from providers.

Many different technologies are employed to deliver broadband services in Oregon including Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable-Modem, wireless (mobile 3G / 4G, 5G, xed, geostationary and low-earth-orbit satellite), and optic ber-to-the-premises (FTTP). These service technologies range in transmission performance from 200 thousand bits per second (Kbps) up to 1 billion bits per second (Gigabits per second Gbps) and beyond.

In its National Broadband Plan, the FCC proposed 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.

What constitutes “standard broadband” will continue to be a moving target.

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Photo by Ales Nesetril on Unsplash

Tier 1 is characterized as “First Generation Data.” 768 Kbps is now the minimum data transmission rate for “Basic Broadband.”

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, and it will be raised again.

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Broadband services in Oregon are available from a wide mix of service providers including telephone companies, cable companies, competitive access providers, xed and mobile wireless providers, municipal and consortia providers, and satellite service providers.

Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 15

Jonathan Chambers Conexon

Rey Ramsey

Centri Tech

Thank you to our sponsors: Wave Business, Hunter Communications, EnerTribe, Oregon Cable Telecommunications Association, LS Networks, InfoStructure, Zayo, Calix, Ziply Fiber, AT&T, the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council, PEAK Internet, Cascade Poly Pipe+Conduit, Spectrum Business, Structured, GenXsys, Zyxel, Walker & Associates, Lumen Technologies, Dura-Line, Northwest Telecommunications Association (NWTA), Palo Alto Networks, City of Eugene, DAVEY Inc., the Southern Oregon Business Journal, Q-Life Network, Link Oregon, Windwave, Business Oregon, and SOREDI.

16 | Southern Oregon Business Journal February 2021

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Connecting Oregon

By Chris Tamarin

disruptive COVID-19 pandemic. It has impacted every sector of our economy and almost every aspect of our professional and personal lives. Our strategic response to the pandemic has been to rely on telework, telehealth, ecommerce, distance learning, and social media, all forms of telecommunications. The pandemic has been a hyper-accelerator for broadband public policy, applications, adoption, utilization and infrastructure deployment.

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he Oregon Connections Telecommunications conference is in its twenty- fth year.

It is a conference that was ahead of its time in recognizing the essential nature of state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure to Oregon. Over this span of time, the internet has emerged as the global platform for communication, business, government, education, healthcare, energy management, information storage and distribution, public safety and entertainment. It has grown from use by less than 1% of the World’s population in 1995, just 26 years ago, when it was commercialized as the World Wide Web, to use by over 50% of the world’s population this year (over 3.8 Billion users).

2020 was an extraordinarily challenging and pivotal year due to the hugely

The forced adoption of telework, telehealth, distance learning, cloud based, network “Tele” applications of all types has been a proof of concept for many organizations, institutions, leaders and policy makers that had previously resisted them. This has further enhanced the importance of this conference.

Over the years, Oregon Connections has focused on many topics and issues demonstrating its relevance and foresight. Themes have included the Network Economy, the New Age of Broadband, the Power of Adoption, the Broadband Ecosystem: Living with the Cloud, the Age of Big Data and the Internet of Things, Mobility, Digital Inclusion, and Smart Communities. In 2021, the conference will examine the impacts of the pandemic on broadband telecommunications and look forward at developing public policy, broadband funding, emerging 21st century schools,

libraries, health care systems, digital homes and workplaces, smart/precision agriculture, and smart transportation systems all enabled by communication and information technologies.

Broadband telecommunications continues to be a work in progress. The pandemic has created a new sense of understanding, urgency and commitment to address the longstanding pre-pandemic challenges of the Digital Divide. The Digital Divide continues to exist in Oregon and may well be contributing to the economic divide that exists between urban and rural areas of our state. The future will be greatly impacted by Oregon’s ability to take advantage of the current funding opportunities and public policy support to realize what Oregon Connections has been advocating for twenty- ve years, equitable statewide access to quality broadband.

Join us.

Oregon Connections: Onward!

October 28 and 29, 2021 Ashland, Oregon

Register online at www.oregonconnections.info

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 17

Building Broadband Action Teams in Rural Communities

By Rachael Maddock-Hughes Principal and Founder Sequoia Consulting www.sequoiaconsulting.org

B

roadband is a foundational tool for rural communities to ensure their residents are able to participate in economic and workforce opportunities, telehealth, distance learning, and to help overcome social isolation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, rural communities have been rapidly challenged

Rural cities, counties, and non-pro ts have long struggled with limited capacity to pursue new funding opportunities and launch innovative programs that help to create thriving communities—from

2020, I decided to create Sequoia Consulting to boost rural jurisdictions’ and non-pro ts’ capacity for resource development and launching new initiatives. Our team has over 40 years of fundraising experience combined, as well as senior-level leadership and program creation expertise. In just 18 months, we

to rapidly connect their residents with broadband services. While programs

broadband to childcare and housing initiatives. As the Deputy Director for

have brought in over $7M for clients—from emergency housing projects (Project

through schools and other public entities offer short-term solutions, many regions are now trying to gure out how to create

Cascades West Council of Governments from 2018-2020, I saw this struggle rsthand with our member communities. In

Turnkey, emergency shelter programs), to broadband, childcare, economic

lasting broadband solutions to support recovery from COVID-19 and build longterm resiliency.

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BROADBAND

development and emergency COVID funding.

One of our clients in 2020 was Lincoln County. We were tasked to help the county “build back better”. County leadership recognized that broadband was a critical tool, not only for emergency COVID-19 response, but for long-term recovery. In response, Sequoia Consulting formed the county’s rst Broadband Action Team, or BAT. We modeled our work after Washington State University’s Extension model that focuses on local leadership. BATs are diverse, multi-stakeholder groups that discuss broadband challenges and opportunities, leading to greater awareness, access, and adoption.

Lincoln County’s BAT initially consisted of the local school district, internet service providers, Oregon State University’s Extension program, the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County, LINK Oregon, Business Oregon, representatives from Oregon’s congressional delegation, NW Oregon Works (local workforce investment board), Oregon Coast Community College, Oregon Broadband Advisory Council, Oregon Broadband Of ce, and more.

The BAT now includes a diverse group of partners from across the four-county region, including Lane Council of Governments, Linn, Benton ESD, the Cities of Florence and Eugene, and non-pro t partners such as Siuslaw Vision, etc. The BAT welcomes new members on a regular basis.

The BAT’s goals are threefold: improve knowledge of broadband issues and opportunities across the region; advocate for rural communities at the State and local level; and liaise with other regional BAT’s around Oregon. The BAT meets monthly with members, and there is a bi-weekly meeting of BAT leadership from around the state, which includes the Oregon Broadband Of ce and the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council.

The successes of the four-county BAT includes:

Multiple BATs statewide have: Advocated with the Ways and Means committee to approve the Governor’s 2021-2023 proposed broadband budget of $120M. This involved working with multiple BATs to highlight the challenges that are particular to rural communities as well as proposing programmatic focus areas for spending.

Identi ed a mapping tool, used by partners in Washington State, that can provide critical insight for rural jurisdictions about their current broadband coverage for under $100k (total, state-wide). This information can be used to inform where to spend ARPA funding, which internet service providers to partner with to deliver better coverage, and more. The BAT leadership group is in the process of identifying funding and implementation partners for this project.

•

Securing a $250k+ Economic Development Administration grant to provide feasibility studies in each county. This project involved securing match and identifying a scope of work that was responsive to local needs.

•

Providing guest speakers from the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council, Willamette Internet Exchange, Onward Eugene and more, to help educate BAT members on topics such as the basic infrastructure of the internet (understanding the function of longhaul, middle mile and last mile ber); understanding the Internet Exchanges and how they can serve public entities with faster, cheaper service and the role

Broadband Action Teams have an important role to play in supporting local leadership and collaboration in the broadband sector.

BATs can be led by any number of public or non-pro t entities, and I encourage rural jurisdictions to take advantage of this wellestablished model to ensure your communities have the building blocks for long-term resiliency.

they could play in securing redundant emergency communications.

I can be contacted at rachael@sequioaconsulting.org.

However, we quickly realized that the broadband challenges facing Lincoln County had shared geography with neighboring counties. We expanded the BAT to include partners from Benton, Linn, and Lane Counties.

With a history of working together through both the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments, as well as through the Cascades West Economic Development District, these communities had a solid track record of working on common challenges.

such as Business Oregon’s emergency broadband funding, and recent opportunities through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and United States Department of Agriculture.

•

Discussing and sharing information on broadband funding opportunities,

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 19

BROADBAND PIONEERS

The Open Door Networks Story

By Alan Oppenheimer

Alan Oppenheimer

Screen shot of the OpenDoor.com website from 1996 - Courtesy of the Way Back Machine - Archive.org

I

left Apple in late 1994 to move to Ashland and start an Internet provider (ISP). I had worked on dial-up networking at Apple, and the Internet was just starting, so a dial-up Internet company for Macs seemed like a good idea. I started Open Door Networks here at the same time as some SOU graduates started InfoStructure.

Open Door had an amazingly fast 56Kbps “frame relay” Internet connection which we parceled out to a bunch of 9.6K dial-up modems. Eventually we upgraded to a blazingly fast T-1 line at 1.5Mbps. My wife Priscilla kept her “real” job working for Cisco, doing much of that work remotely through a similar “high speed” line.

A couple years later, we heard about a cityled effort to investigate building a beroptic based broadband Internet and TV network, and signed up right away to help.

Challenges with both technical and political, but we were ultimately able to bring broadband to the city of Ashland years before the big providers would have

ever gotten around to it. A 1Gbps ber optic ring with multi-megabit cable modem connections (now multi-hundred-megabit), the Ashland Fiber Network we help build in turn jump-started a large number of Internet and technology-based businesses years before those would have started here otherwise (if at all).

AFN is an “open” network, and it was a natural for Open Door Networks to become one of the ISPs providing Internet service using it. No more dial-up modems for us.

We focused on what we knew, and thus were one of the rst Macintosh broadband ISPs in the country. We helped the city with the initial rollout through early 2000. At the same time, Apple and others were just coming out with high-speed wireless networking, now universally known as WiFi. In concert with Project A, we used AFN to install a free wireless Internet connection in the downtown Starbucks, creating perhaps the rst wireless Starbucks anywhere. AFNbased WiFi took off, and a few years later we used that WiFi to stream the July 4

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20 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021

parade live from a oat in that parade. Too much fun.

Open Door Networks went on to do a whole lot more with broadband, including creating a rewall to keep people safe as more and more of the city got onboard.

When the iPhone came out in 2007, the whole game changed again, and we transitioned most of our development to that platform and the iPad that followed.

The result was our app and e-commerce company, Art Authority. Our AFN broadband work had positioned the city for the Internet wave, and the Internet wave has positioned our Ashland-based company, and many others, for past, present, and future success.

We’re really looking forward to seeing that future.

BROADBAND PIONEERS

The Magick Net Story

By Harold Miller harold.p@miller.org

Peter, Paul and Mary), Roger Harding and several of the Magick Net employees as board members.

Harold Miller

Screen shot of the Magick.Net website from 1996 - Courtesy of the Way Back Machine - Archive.org

I

n September 1995, there were several of us at Rogue Community College who were actively involved in Bulletin Boards.

You had to pay long distance charges back then to dial into a server, even if it was in the next county. Together we formed the Josephine County Internet Council and met at RCC once a week to gure out how we could get the Internet into Josephine county.

Several members of JCIC, along with an unexpected $5,000 gold VISA card, came together in a 'perfect storm'. RCC allowed us to use a small closet in the basement of the downtown Grants Pass Small Business Development Center building for our equipment. I purchased 10 2400 baud modems, and a 486-DX4/100mhz PC that

we used as our main server running Linux.

My wife JC ran the of ce, taught Web design, and even created web pages for our customers. Next we came up with a business plan. If we had 100 paying customers, splitting 10 customers to each modem, we could get free internet!

US West (the phone company) leased us a 64K frame relay connection. The race was on.

We started in the garage with a few volunteers who just wanted to be a part of the internet. All of our employees' email addresses were the characters from the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon show.

Business took off a lot faster than we expected it to. In the last week of 1995 we knew we had to turn this into a real company. Working with Roger Harding from the SBDC, we drew up a business plan and started selling Internet access. In early 1996 I woke up in the middle of night with the name, Magick Net. Magick stood for Medford, Ashland, Grants Pass, Illinois Valley, Central Point and Klamath Falls which were the communities we wanted to serve. Magick Net, inc. was set up as “C” corporation with Noel Paul Stookey (from

Over the next two years we added “pops” (point of presence, where the modems lived) to expand from Grants Pass, to Cave Junction, Medford, and Klamath Falls. I hired Sales people, including Cal Calhoun our main SysOp in March 96. We did yearly company customer appreciation picnics and it was fun for our customers to meet Boris, Natasha, Rocky and Bullwinkle.

In September of 1997 each employee was given a block of stock, and the rest sold to Wizzards Internet in Roseburg who merged the two companies together as Wizzards/ Magick Net. Since then they have been acquired by Peak Internet. Magick Net had 7 full time, 5 part time employees and 6 volunteers at the time I stepped down. We had grown rapidly to about 1,500 customers.

We were serious about getting the internet to everybody, especially rural Oregon. Those were interesting times, and I got to meet wonderful people here in Southern Oregon.

Later, I continued with my consulting rm "Solid Solutions'', did some stuff for the DoD, and then decided to be in SOU's Computer Security program. I earned my degree (Class of 2005) and worked with folks like Priscilla Oppenheimer, afterwards even teaching a few classes. Next my wife and I lived on a sailboat for a couple of years, sailing to Mexico on the 40 ft. sloop Sea Bear. Upon my return I worked at Red Hat, supporting the same Linux that gave us our start at Magick Net (OPEN SOURCE!) Today I’m fully retired in Kentucky and loving it.

Life is good.

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 21

BROADBAND POLICY

Conexon releases Interactive Map to showcase Areas that are unserved defined by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act

By Jonathan Chambers Conexon conexon.us

W

e have created a state map, county by county, displaying unserved and underserved as well as areas where there has been CAF and RDOF funds, and the cost of building ber to every unserved home in the state. We’ve also estimated the amount of funding that will be allocated to Oregon under the Senate Infrastructure broadband formula, which is more than the cost to build ber everywhere.

This interactive map has been prepared to engage policymakers and the public on the cost to build ber optic networks to every unserved home in the nation. We are using FCC data by technology type and reported speeds for the display of unserved and underserved census blocks. Underserved are those census blocks lacking cable or ber optic service. Unserved are those census blocks without cable or ber and where no ISP reports DSL service of at least 25

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22 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021

Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. Our approach approximates the unserved/ underserved de nitions currently in use by the federal government for the American Rescue Plan funds. The map also displays areas where funding was auctioned by the FCC through the Connect America Fund and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auctions. We recognize that the FCC data has shortcomings and that the FCC is preparing new, more granular maps. We will use updated data as it becomes available, but at present the FCC is the source for the only consistent, publicly available national database.

We have estimated the cost to construct ber networks, based on a regression analysis we developed using the cost of constructing ber networks that we experience in our business.

We currently construct over 1000 miles per week, which is ever increasing as we have under

contract to build ber networks in approximately ten percent of the geography of the country. These are our cost estimates. We would welcome others to make their cost estimates public so that policymakers can base their decisions on publicly available data.

Finally, we have calculated the state allocation for funding that may become available through the infrastructure bill making its way through Congress. Since the legislation requires as yet to be prepared maps, ours is an estimate based on the best data we have available. In short, we project that in addition to American Rescue Plan broadband funds, Oregon will receive over $500 million for broadband from the infrastructure bill and that it will cost less than $500 million to build ber networks to every unserved home in Oregon. This is a unique opportunity in our nation’s history to eliminate the digital divide.

Is Rural Electrification the Model for Rural Broadband?

By Jonathan Chambers Conexon conexon.us

As a nation, we can and should build ber to every rural home, farm and business. A New Covenant.

I

t has become fashionable of late to reference the rural electri cation movement of the 1930s and 1940s as a template for closing the digital divide in rural America. That is a great testament to the hardworking men and women who built electric networks to two-thirds of the country and sustained rural communities for over eighty years. Yet, most references to rural electri cation miss the fundamental principles that guided electric co-ops since their founding – the principles of local ownership and control, of economic sustainability, and of equal access to services at the same prices.

The digital divide in the country is not a consequence of rural network economics; it has been the consequence of speci c decisions by Congress, and by state and federal government agencies. Congress codi ed the digital divide in 1996, the FCC quanti ed the divide in 2010, and subsequent Administrations spent nearly $100 billion to solidify the divide. If you think spending another $100 billion will close the divide, without changes in government policy, you haven’t been paying attention.

To ip the rural electri cation analogy on its head, had the nation taken the telecommunications industry’s approach to rural electri cation, electric service in rural America would have been stepped down from 120 volts to 12 volts, powered by generators in some places and simply unavailable in other places.

And, it would have been deemed “better than nothing” electric service. What is the real difference between the nation’s commitment to rural America in the 1930s and that of today?

Leadership, vision, grit, or perhaps we have simply resigned ourselves to being two nations.

If Congress, the Administration and state government bodies wish to emulate the success of rural electri cation, I suggest the following three changes to federal policy:

Amend Section 254 of the Communications Act by striking the lawyerly, weaselly word “reasonably.” Section 254 states that low-income consumers and consumers in rural, high-cost areas should have access to services “that are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas” at reasonably comparable rates. In my experience with state and federal agencies, the words “reasonably comparable” have been interpreted as not comparable. Is 4 Mbps service in a rural area reasonably comparable to Gigabit service in an urban area? Over the past decade, every FCC Chairman has voted to spend public money for 4 Mbps rural broadband. The Wheeler FCC squandered over $25 billion for sub-par copper networks in rural areas. Amend the statute and direct federal and state agencies to spend the public’s money only on services that are comparable and affordable.

Require that public spending be restricted to long-term, proven assets with a life of at least 30 years. Stop investing public money in short-term solutions that are out of date before the money is spent. Rural electric co-op networks have lasted for over eighty years because the vast majority of federal loans were devoted to long-term infrastructure. The Biden Administration has articulated this concept correctly by proposing investment in “future proof” broadband infrastructure. The easiest way to realize the “future proof” concept is to invest in assets with a proven life of at least 30 years. Let the private sector invest its own money on novel, speculative technology. Public money should be restricted to

the only transmission medium that meets the “future proof” criteria: ber optic networks.

Direct 25% of broadband infrastructure funding to the electric division of the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The Rural Electri cation Act created the Rural Electri cation Administration, whose successor agency is the RUS. While the Biden Administration recognizes the import of electric grid modernization, it is missing two-thirds of the country in its electric proposals, the geography covered by rural electric cooperatives. We won’t achieve grid modernization without building ber in electric distribution networks for distributed energy generation and other smartgrid applications. The Rural Utilities Service already has an excellent smartgrid loan program.

By supplementing the loan program with a grant program, electric cooperatives will address both the Administration’s climate and rural broadband objectives. If such a program were implemented, the nation could build ber to every rural home and business served by an electric cooperative for less than $25 billion.

One nal political point: Cooperatives were built on a covenant, an echo of the original American covenant of “We, the People.” Covenants bind people together and lift them all up. There has been a tendency in past funding decisions to pit rural against urban, to pit rural interests against those of the urban poor. I believe the 1996 Telecommunications Act meant for those interests to be aligned. Combining the FCC High Cost program for rural areas and Lifeline program for low-income Americans would align rural and urban interests. To truly follow the rural electri cation model will require a new covenant.

Jonathan Chambers was Republican Staff Director for the Senate Commerce Committee from 1992-1995 and Chief of the FCC’s Of ce of Strategic Planning from 2012-2016.

Between 1995 and 2012, he worked for companies in the U.S. and Europe building broadband and wireless networks.

He currently works with rural electric co-ops building ber networks.

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 23

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BROADBAND POLICY

BROADBAND POLICY

Our Digital Imperative

By Rey Ramsey Founder and CEO centri-tech.com

and social sectors were to provide every American with access to connectivity and devices, we would still have an intolerable opportunity divide.

It is only through our intentional application of technology that we will address poverty and improve the lives of many. The digital imperative is to move beyond the static vision of a divide to build a movement focused on digital advancement.

I

n this Digital Age, Americans must decide whether we want an economically inclusive society where all people have the essential assets to sustain and advance themselves, or the status quo, that allows so many to fall outside of the economic mainstream. In an informationdriven society, everyone needs the capacity to engage in matters that affect their health, economic welfare, and civic participation.

We have the technological capacity to expand our horizons to live longer, better, more sustainable lives. We can transcend the traditional access barriers of time and place with 24/7 availability of services and information. The danger, however, lies in a paradox created by societal uses of this very same technology. Steady technological adoption by all sectors actually widens the already existing information divide between the haves and have nots; and, in a digital age, creates a larger chasm between people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and geographies.

If we make the right choice to move beyond the status quo and its resulting disparities, we should seize this moment to go beyond the narrowcasting of the digital divide. In fact, we should abandon the term “digital divide” because it implies that the problem is simply one of access to tools. It’s not. Even if the public, private,

America now has the best opportunity ever to mobilize the resources—the nancial and human capital—to address these ends. We are seeing enormous federal investment in areas hit hardest by the pandemic. And in response to America’s recent increased focus on addressing racial disparities, the private sector is committing billions of dollars to communities they’ve long overlooked. This is a moment to not just build physical infrastructure, but also to mobilize the creativity and capacity of tens of millions of marginalized Americans who want to help build a world where everyone can thrive.

Three Principles As we think about comprehensive digital advancement, there are three important principles that I want to be our guide: imagination, innovation, and investment.

Imagination is the act of reconsidering what something can be. What if we chose to put people rst and to view low-income individuals as engaged consumers and producers, rather than passive clients and constituents existing only to receive pre-packaged services? What we call “broadband-adoption problems” would fade.

Adoption is not a program; it is a mindset. If we want better and more meaningful utilization, we should think in terms of culture, comfort, convenience, and relevance. Imagine if the people at the center of adoption efforts were also part of the human capital that designs, delivers, and integrates new customer products and services to enhance their communities—and, better yet, receives economic bene ts from that

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24 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021

work. Imagine if we viewed affordable housing as more than just shelter or a human warehouse.

When will we decide that affordable broadband and technology-enabled services are essential infrastructure in affordable housing?

Innovation is the development of new solutions. America must apply its full capacity of brainpower and technology to empower the poor and underserved. With broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT), we have great power that to date goes underutilized for social purpose. An example: our population is growing older and seniors overwhelmingly want to age in their homes. Improved quality of life and health outcomes can be obtained by bringing technologies into the home with culturally connected content and training. Medicaid ought to be a larger nancing partner with nancial institutions, municipalities, and state agencies as these solutions support the ef ciency and effectiveness of that program.

Investment and capital expenditures are never value-neutral. Investors have pioneered new ways of seeking returns that are socially bene cial, not just nancial. The potential for expanding impact investment from niche to norm is enormous. But to seize this potential, we need to repurpose existing funds, support new government policies and allocations, and create new investment models that internalize the value creation from converging various interests. Technology investment that is inclusive of human capital is a 21st century imperative.

The Urgency of Now With all of this said, America has a choice to make. By design or by default, we will decide the contours of our society. Will we seek to expand opportunities for all of our citizens or will we tolerate signi cant economic and quality-of-life disparities? We have the tools. And with the right mindset, we can advance the human condition for all.

Ramsey is founder and CEO of Centri Tech.

SOREDI Spotlight on Innovative Internet

By Abigail Skelton Project Manager soredi.org

S

OREDI Spotlight on Innovative Internet

to organized, multiplayer video game

Stull. With the ‘Exohand,’ which attaches to the

In late 2019, SOREDI (Southern Oregon

competitions, usually between professional

forearm and uses a pneumatic grip to apply 160

Regional Economic Development Inc.) and

players or teams. The activity originated in the

pounds per square inch of force, the inventors

numerous partner agencies participated in the

1970s and today is a billion-dollar industry

hope that such a tool could be used to prevent

creation of a robust and updated regional strategy

re ected around the globe. As with traditional

hand injuries—which are often severely expensive

for the bene t of all Southern Oregon. One of the

sports, esports players train, employ coaches, and

to treat. In June of 2022, the statewide nal for

tactics outlined in this One Rogue Valley

are professionally traded among teams. By

InventOR will commence—in Southern Oregon!

Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy

offering esports as a minor, it is the University’s

RCC is honored to host the competition and

(CEDS, 3.4) is: Support expanded technical

hope that some of the students who might

welcome inventors from across the state to the

education and higher education programming,

otherwise skip school to practice esports can

Redwood Campus in Grants Pass. The college also

especially for in-demand elds, such as

maintain their chance to compete—while still

invites guests to attend and see the creative ideas

healthcare, high tech, and engineering.

pursuing their higher education.

of today’s students.

Last year, Rogue Community College (RCC) was

SOREDI is committed to championing a business-

SOREDI is proud to highlight some of the region’s

part of InventOR, a statewide competition in

friendly region by helping companies and

innovative thinkers who are bringing expanded

which college and university students can pitch

entrepreneurs launch, relocate, and prosper.

technical education to beautiful Southern Oregon.

their invention ideas—and compete for $30,000

SOREDI coordinates startup pitch contests and

In the past academic year, Southern Oregon

in cash prizes. Two local students, Cesar Naverette

industry tours, publishes business pro les,

University (SOU) in Ashland became one of the

and Landon Hunter, received attention for an

facilitates business conferences, and has a loan

exoskeletal hand invention which could be used

program which provides gap nancing. If your

(pronounced e-sports) minor—which not only

to protect industrial workers from painful

business is seeking to grow or locate here, we

provides an opportunity for students to enjoy

aliments like carpal tunnel. “I used to work in

look forward to assisting you with complimentary

competition, but also to learn ethics, psychology,

irrigation and as a plumber, and after years of

services.

and organization in the video gaming world.

doing that, I was having issues gripping stuff,”

Please visit https://soredi.org/ or call

Esports (not to be confused with ‘exports’) refers

said Naverette in an interview with Jonathan

541-773-8946.

rst schools in the nation to launch an esports

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 25 fl

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INTERNET INNOVATION

Meet the NWTA

BROADBAND

By Jim Teece Past President NWTA.biz

Northwest Telecommunications Association Find out more at NWTA.biz.

T

he NWTA (Northwest Telecommunications Association) is an industry association created by small competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) in Oregon with the intent to serve CLECs in Oregon, Washing and Idaho.

It was formed in 2010 as a 501(c)(6).

The NWTA telecommunication provider members deliver service over wireless, copper, coaxial and over 6,000 miles of ber optic cables.

Their networks pass over 275,000 businesses and 200,000 residences in more than 549 communities.

They serve a majority of the rural markets where the incumbent operators have been slow to bring innovative & advanced telecommunications.

The members serve rural markets without the subsidies the incumbents say are necessary just to survive.

The current president is: Todd Way 541-673-4242 tway@dfn.net

At Fatbeam, we place a lot of emphasis on being the best provider of pure ber-based network solutions, at speeds of 1G to 400G, in the Western US.

Providing internet, cable TV, Phone Service to the citizens of Ashland via the Ashland Fiber Network. ashlandhome.net CASCO Communications/Peak Internet Corvallis, Oregon PEAK Internet delivers reliable xed wireless or ber Internet with the option for optimized premium Wi-Fi to many previously underserved areas in Linn, Lane, Benton, Polk and Marion counties. peakinternet.com

Douglas Fast Net (DFN) was founded in 2001 to bring advanced telecommunications to Roseburg and the surrounding areas of Douglas County.

Since then, we have become an innovative leader in ber optic voice and data services, being one of the rst providers in Oregon to offer internet speeds up to 1 gigabit dfn.net

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Ashland Home Net Ashland, Oregon

to the residential market.

26 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 fi

Fatbeam Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Douglas Fast Net Roseburg, Oregon

The NWTA members provide services to more than 900 schools, government facilities, libraries, public safety centers, hospitals, clinics and churches.

The provider members include:

fatbeam.com Gorge Networks Hood River, OR Gorge Networks was founded in 1994 as the rst local company to provide Internet service in Hood River, Oregon. Since then, we have established ourselves as the local service provider of choice for businesses and residents of the midColumbia region. We offer a comprehensive suite of voice, data, and telecom consulting services by leveraging our enterprise-class network and engineering resources. gorge.net

Hunter Communications Medford, Oregon Hunter Communications provides ultra-high-speed ber optic broadband internet, data and voice services to business and residential customers in communities throughout southern Oregon and northern California. With Gig speeds, no data caps, and competitive pricing, Hunter’s 2,000+mile ber network is nationally recognized for performance

Founded in 1994, Hunter is headquartered in Medford, Oregon where the company established a legacy of service excellence and commitment to local communities.

Hunter Communications was acquired in 2020 by Grain Management, LLC. Hunter ber.com InfoStructure Talent, Oregon Based in Southern Oregon, infoStructure is a new generation telecommunications provider. The company began as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the college town of Ashland, Oregon in 1994. In 2003, the company was acquired by Prime Time Ventures, LLC, which is owned by Jeff Rhoden, Scott Hansen and Chad Cota. Jeff and Scott are operating partners and together have over thirty years of operational experience in telecommunications. infostructure.biz LS Networks Portland, Oregon LS Networks operates the largest ber-optic network in the Paci c Northwest, serving rural, urban, and underserved communities with highspeed connectivity and marketleading bandwidth that is transforming the regional telecommunications landscape for customers and partners. Our Mission is to provide rural communities with local service and ber-based infrastructure that enables them to maintain and advance lifestyles that

support family, growth, and sustainability. We strive to be the most trusted provider through our focus on quality, innovation, and investment in our communities. lsnetworks.net Mammoth Networks Wyoming (Serving Washington and Idaho) Mammoth Networks was created in November, 2004 to provide regional Service Providers with a footprint outside of their traditional coverage areas. The company quickly grew into a wholesale data aggregator, combining services such as DSL, Frame Relay, ATM, TDM and Ethernet onto a single platform for Service Providers. By September of 2009, Mammoth had become the rst company to tie together all 27 Qwest LATAs by building out interfaces for DSL, Frame relay and ATM. The company then set its sights on building out a national private-line network. mammothnetworks.com

services over wireless and ber. EONI is based in La Grande, OR and primarily serves business and residential customers in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties. In 1999, the founders of EONI created PriorityONE Telecommunications, Inc. (PriorityONE) which is a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) – a competitive telephone company. eoni.com Windwave Communications Hepner, Oregon Windwave and Inland Development Corporation were founded in Morrow County, Oregon in 2004 for the express purpose of bringing cutting edge technology and ber optic infrastructure to rural Eastern Oregon. Windwave and Inland remain committed to providing ber optic technology to our schools, hospitals, and communities to improve the education of our children, the safety and health care of our citizens, and the advancement of economic development. windwave.org

OnlineNW McMinnville, Oregon At OnlineNW, we are committed to providing the best possible internet experience in the Mid-Valley region.

We offer multiple internet solutions and service availability is based upon geographical location.

Wireless, DSL,Fiber onlinenw.com Priority One Telecommunications / EONI La Grande, Oregon Eastern Oregon Net, Inc. is better known as EONI. Established in 1996, EONI provides Internet and voice

Associate Members include: Adtran Clear eld Ditch Witch West General Paci c, Inc. Graybar Inteserra Consulting Group, Inc. KGP Logistics Metaswitch Miller Isar, Inc. Moss Adams New Basis OFS Oregon Connections PICS Telecom Spligitty UNITEL Walker and Associates

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Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 27

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and reliability. BroadbandNow recognized Hunter with four 2020 Internet Service Provider Awards, including for fastest business internet speeds in Oregon and among the top 10 nationwide.

BROADBAND

Oregon Connections : Some of my favorite photos that I have taken at the conference over the years

By John Irwin Oregon Connections Conference Historian

28 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021

Leadership Begins at Southern Oregon University.

“SOU encourages leadership that starts with being inclusive.

Diverse people and ways of thinking create and nurture innovative leadership.”

Precious Yamaguchi, PhD Associate Professor, Communication

sou.edu

• 855-470-3377 Southern Oregon Business Journal March 2021 | 29

By Ed Parker

Remembering Greg Palser 9/12/1952-7/12/2021

G

reg Palser was a smart entrepreneur who pioneered the way to use public ber-optic cable to expand broadband services to rural Oregon communities. He started an internet access company in Newport Oregon in the early 1990s. He understood the limitations of dial-up internet access and the bene ts of broadband for rural economic development.

He started two broadband companies, one a ber optic cable installation company and the other a communications carrier to provide broadband service. He was a key participant in setting Oregon legal precedents that allowed municipal governments and local entrepreneurs to provide broadband services to rural communities that monopoly telephone companies were unable or unwilling to provide.

He proved that entrepreneurial competition was vastly superior to established monopoly for achieving economic development goals.

His company, Coastcom, was the commercial contractor for Coastnet, which won regulatory approval to make public sector ber optic cable available for commercial use and persuaded the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) not to regulate the lease of dark ber.

Central Lincoln Peoples’ Utility District (CLPUD) transferred dark ber rights to Lincoln County for economic development purposes. Lincoln County delegated the management of the ber to the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County, a non-pro t corporation supported by county

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30 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 fi

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TRIBUTE

tax dollars. The Alliance obtained grant funds suf cient for the electronics needed to light the dark ber and contracted with Coastcom to operate the network to provide broadband service to local businesses.

That complicated path was not a smooth one. The Oregon PUC initially ruled that the Coastnet plan required both Lincoln County and the Alliance to be licensed by the PUC to transfer rights to Coastcom. Then, after opposition from major telephone companies, the PUC denied both license applications.

Rob Bovett, then a young attorney who was deputy county counsel for Lincoln City who now is legal counsel and legislative director for the Association of Oregon Counties, took on the challenge. He led a court appeal to the PUC decision that, if granted, would have restricted the PUC’s discretionary powers. He then successfully negotiated with the PUC to settle the case by reversing their decision and granting the license applications.

Two telephone companies who didn’t want the legal precedent of allowing municipalities to compete with them appealed that decision. Rob won that court case. One of the telephone companies accepted that decision and became a Coastnet customer for dark ber because they had run out of ber capacity needed to serve one of their commercial customers on the Oregon coast. The other telephone company continued the appeal process.

The outcome was a ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court that it was legal for Oregon municipal governments to become telecommunication service providers both within and beyond their jurisdictions. That legal precedent was the key permission needed for Oregon municipal governments to provide telecommunication services themselves or join public-private partnerships to achieve their economic development goals.

Along the way, Coastnet and a major telephone company also persuaded the PUC that a party leasing dark ber was analogous to the seller of the electronic equipment to light the ber and that neither supplier needed a PUC license for the transaction. That ruling permitted Coastcom to lease dark ber directly from the CLPUD. The path of early telecommunications entrepreneurs, like many start-up businesses, was not smooth. But Greg Palser had the smarts and the perseverance to succeed. His work in the 1990s made the path easier for governments and businesses that followed in his footsteps.

By Jeff Rhoden via his LinkedIn Pro le

Remembering Jeff Rhoden 7/24/1972-8/4/2021

After a two week battle with COVID, 49 year old Jeff Rhoden passed away. He is survived by his wife and 4 children and left a huge hole in southern Oregon. Jeff was a community minded Telecommunications Business Entrepreneur and will be greatly missed. Below is his self bio from his LinkedIn pro le.

service offerings which has transitioned from traditional copper based telecom services to SIP/ VoIP, Hosted PBX and SDWAN.

I

was raised in the Rogue Valley, graduated from Ashland High School and went on to earn a BA in Business Administration/Marketing from Southern Oregon University (SOSC at the time) in 1994.

After graduating, I teamed up with longtime friend, Scott Hansen, to form a telecommunications brokerage, GCW Communication Consultants. GCW had expanded at this point to encompass a full suite of telecom products for our customers and was continuing to grow. In 2000 we additionally accepted positions with Rio Networks, a completive local exchange carrier (CLEC). Rio was at that time, one of the rst statewide facilities based private phone companies in Oregon.

InfoStructure has grown into a ourishing telecom and internet service provider and in July of 2013 completed the acquisition of Rio Networks – the same company which inspired our endeavor into the telecom industry. Serving thousands of customers throughout Oregon as well as across the US, we've grown steadily and pro tably, even through economic downturns, to become the reputable telecommunications enterprise we are known as today.

After nearly a 3 year stint with Rio, we joined together in 2003 with longtime friend and NFL veteran Chad Cota to form Prime Time Ventures, LLC and purchased InfoStructure, a longstanding and reputable ISP in Southern Oregon and began its transformation into a CLEC. We still maintain GCW and some of its agent channel activities, but our primary focus is building InfoStructure, its client base and

I've also partnered with Scott and Chad in other endeavors - most recently the drivethru specialty coffee business, where together we own and operate The Human Bean of Reno with three successful locations in Reno, NV. Chad and I bought out Scott’s Human Bean shares at the end of 2017 and are currently building two new locations – one in Reno and one in Sparks, NV. Plans are currently in place to build an

additional 4 locations in and around Reno over the next 3 years.

Through perseverance and dedication with ample doses of integrity and faith, I've accomplished a high level of success in business and still have the drive and ability to continue in that success and strive for more.

My most recent venture, is EvoBird Apparel & Design - an athleisure focused clothing company focusing on athletes and sports fans alike. Check it out at www.evobirdapparel.com CLEC Operations Management Business Development Relationship Building https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrhoden, retrieved: August 10, 2021

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Who is Chris Tamarin?

By Jim Teece, Joe Franell and Kim Tamarin

I asked Joe Franell what he thought about Chris and his contributions and he said “I’ve known Chris almost as long as I have been in Oregon. I remember the rst time he and I met. He was staf ng the Oregon Telecommunications Coordinating Council (ORTCC), the predecessor of our current Oregon Broadband Advisory Council (OBAC). I remember thinking, “Wow, this guy has got it all together.” He was so very organized and professional in how he staffed the meeting.

When I was rst appointed to OBAC and was elected as Vice-Chair, I started to interact more with him and continued to be blown away with how effective and organized he was. He did the work of three or four normal people and made it look effortless. And, he held in his head what seemed to be an unlimited knowledge of the world of telecommunications and broadband.

Normally, you see people do that for a short period of time and then implode because of the workload. Not Chris. In the subsequent decade plus, while I have been serving as the Chair of OBAC, Chris never missed a beat and never once acted with anything less than as a perfect gentleman.

One other thing. In a world where people have adopted an overly casual and sometimes unkempt appearance as the accepted normal, Chris has never wavered from displaying the style and grace you would expect from a 19th century British gentleman. I love that about him. He religiously writes with a fountain pen and I always expect to see him pull out a pocket watch to check the time. He is so cool!“

C

hris Tamarin is a very private man. “He is quiet”, yet since at least 2006, he has blessed those of us in the audience with a booming and powerful voice as he moderates parts of the Oregon Connection Conference.

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32 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021

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BROADBAND HERO

He retired from his job as Telecommunications Strategist at the Oregon Broadband Of ce at the end of 2020 and this will be his last conference as chair so I wanted to do a story on him and thank him for his decades of service to Oregon and its citizens.

They married and moved to Reno, Nevada the following week where he went to the University of Nevada for his MBA in Business Administration.

They were in Reno for three years.

Chris has been a great resource in the state to help all of us in the industry navigate and grow.

He has been the “voice” of cause in Oregon Telecommunications.

He worked in an independent home supply store after graduation and then he got a job teaching at Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande, Oregon. He taught business marketing there for a couple of years.

I asked around to those of us that have worked with him for years, but none of us really knew his entire background.

Then they moved back to Portland to work for Ma Bell and then back to La Grande where he taught for a couple more years.

So I reached out to his wife, Kim, and we had a very nice chat about Chris and his life before we all got to work with him and what their plans are now. We both knew that Chris would not enjoy this article and be a little upset about it but we thought it was important to thank him for his service this way.

He saw teaching as a stepping stone. He was wanting to get a masters in telecommunications.

Note: Chris was a big help to me putting the special edition of the journal together. I sent him proofs of every story. Every story except this one. Surprising Chris is half the fun.

This is how she remembers it.

“Chris was born and raised outside the Philadelphia area, in the Jenkintown area and graduated from Abington Senior High School.

He went to a small college a couple of hours outside of Philadelphia called Elizabethtown and got his bachelor of science degree in Business Administration and Management. He was also heavily involved in Drama Club. He did a lot of theater.”

OK. That’s a fun fact and explains why he has such a fantastic stage voice.

Kim and Chris met in Philadelphia. Their grandmothers hooked them up when she was back there for a visit when she was 16.

Kim is a native Oregonian from the Portland area.

She recalls that he graduated in 1972 and they were married in 1975.

They ended up in Boulder, Colorado where he got his Masters of Science in Telecommunications. She recalls that was in 1986 or 87.

And then they moved back to Portland where he went to work for US West in large accounts.

US West became Qwest and that is when Chris got a job with the state. He has been with the state for 19 years.

They just celebrated 46 years of marriage on August 9th.

They have two children. Joshua is in Philadelphia. He went to college back there and stayed.

Their daughter Erin also went to school in Philadelphia but saw Mount Hood one day while driving home and decided she was going to stay in Oregon.

They haven’t gured out what ’s next yet, but she is trying to get him to go back and do a little theatre. If he does, I know every one of us will ll every seat in the house.

Congratulations on your retirement Chris. Thank you for your service and for all the help over the years. Every Oregonian bene ts from your decades of service.

Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 | 33

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houses, or donations, it must be able to pay the bills to keep the operation going.

How often have you thought all you have to do is to make a better product than the competition to bring in the customers? How often have you spent hours, days, or months making your service better, broader, cheaper, and faster only to discover that sales (or donations) are still not enough to sustain the business? It happens everywhere, every day.

Have you known someone who is the best at a craft who is convinced to go into business by well- meaning friends and family, and is unable to make the business succeed? Just because you are a good baker doesn’t mean you should open a bakery. Being friendly and talkative won’t guarantee you will be a successful car salesman. Knowing the contents of the bible won’t ll the pews if you don’t know how to minister to the congregation. Even schools and cities will struggle to lead adequately without knowing how to market the needs of the tax paying public.

Hang your shingle on your company door and watch the business come owing in. Dream on.

“Work smarter, not harder.” Heard that before?

Of course you have. Have you also found that working smarter isn’t always easy? Most times working harder is the rst thing we do, because its easier. But it can kill your business and you.

Smarter means sell rst on paper as a proof of your business concept.

Selling rst sounds crazy if you have yet to produce a product or service plan. Creating a product or service that has no desired need in the market is also an expensive waste of time and effort.

The reason you are in business is to capture revenue by making a sale. Sales mean cash ow. Without cash ow the business will fold, even non-pro ts, schools and churches can’t operate without suf cient revenue. Whether the cash ow is generated from the sale of shoes,

If there is a pain point that can be cured by the purchase of your service or product, you may be

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34 | Southern Oregon Business Journal October 2021 fi

Selling Widgets

Photo by Pavel Neznanov on Unsplash

our favorite hobby may be the worst business idea you’ve ever had.

There are times when every businessperson gets so hung up on the product or service he/she is selling that the object of business is forgotten. I’ve been there many times. It becomes a trap.

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by Greg Henderson

on the right path to succeeding. Before the operation begins, however, there must be a thorough study that your interest is correct. The study will include a step-by-step process beyond the idea stage. Be careful that your idea is more than a dream. A goal without a plan is just a dream. Dreams can be lled with mistakes where budgets, demographics, competition, and hobbies are nothing more than an exciting game with no realistic chance of success.

Key performance indicators, or KPI, are the gauges useful in tracking progress. Relating to sales and revenue generation the KPI may be used interchangeably regardless of the product or service responsible for the revenue stream.

Using the “Widget” in place of your product name could help to keep mindsets logical and less emotional.

Greg Henderson is the retired founder of the Southern Oregon Business Journal. A University of Oregon graduate and a six year U.S. Air Force veteran, he spent nearly 30 years in banking and nance. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications concentrating on some 20 industry sectors. Contact him at ghenderson703@gmail.com

Sponsors The Southern Oregon Business Journal extends sincere thanks to the following companies for their continued presence as important cogs in the wheels of industry in southern Oregon.

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Thank you to John Irwin and Chris Tamarin for many hours and many emails over the months as we put together this issue.

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