Inventory Assets

Many times communities embroiled in a broadband deployment fail to leverage assets that are readily available and obtainable. Taking time to inventory  (and quantify the value of) assets belonging to the community, or that are publically “influence-able” can have a dramatic (positive) effect on the amount of financing necessary to complete a network build-out as well as having the potential to extend the reach of the deployment with little/no incremental cost.

In addition to inventorying physical assets, much can be gained from identifying “soft” assets such as civic groups, educational institutions, and IT/GIS professionals that can provide invaluable assistance with labor intensive activities (mapping, customer surveys, network design) and building community awareness and acceptance.

Assets to inventory include, but are not limited to:

• Towers – if municipally owned, lease payments can be reduced/suspended to spur deployment.
• High Structures – silos, water tanks, buildings for placement of wireless equipment.
  -Visit the Virginia Vertical Assets Toolkit, developed by Virginia Tech's Center for Geospatial Information Technology (CGIT) in partnership with the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), to identify towers and high structures in your community.
• Rights of Way – can be used to expediate/reduce cost of conduit placement.
• Ongoing or Pending Capital Projects – water, road construction, new subdivisions, main street revitalization, etc.
• Municipally Owned Utilities – assets, customer base and back office operations can be leveraged for partnerships.
• Existing Vendor Relationships – existing relationships can often be leveraged to provide enhanced and expanded services.
• Land – that can be used for tower construction/locating points of presence, etc.
• Ongoing/Planned First Responder Communication Upgrades – many of these projects involve the construction of infrastructure and upgraded communication services.  If activities can be aligned it is often possible to achieve economies of scale.
• Franchise Agreements/Contracts – those nearing expiration or that can be re-negotiated can provide an outstanding platform for obtaining services.
• Commercial Carrier Construction – negotiate dark fiber or conduit during permitting or franchise negotiations.
• IT Professionals – source of project advisors and volunteers.
• Existing Mapping (GIS) Resources – to provide a visual representation of the current state and planned deployments.
• Educational Institutions – source of student labor and/or expertise.
• Civic Groups/Volunteers – source of support and labor for community oriented activities.