Establishing a world-class broadband network will create thousands of jobs and dramatically improve educational opportunities, economic development and general quality of life throughout cities. However, each city and civic leadership team faces unique requirements, challenges and issues. This panel offers insight from municipal leaders at work today in the gigabit city movement, and provides insight and perspective about the varying business models, partnership structure and more.

Early adopter gigabit cities have demonstrated that an important component of the gigabit network is the development of an ecosystem of suppliers, software platforms, entrpreneurs, and innovators -- all of whom conspire in a myriad of ways to drive value, interest and ultimately new applications that utilize high-bandwidth networking. The focus of this session is in Ecosystem Development, and how leaders from national, government and communities were able to attract talent, investment and enterprise for a wide variety of specific applications?

Beyond Gigabit Networks: IoT Platforms to Enable Smart City Applications: Gigabit network infrastructure connectivity enables new and transformative business environments and ecosystems to emerge. Many of these early environments include a sensor-networks connecting city and municipal infrastructure into an connected, intelligent, "Internet of Things" network. This session details platforms and network planning that deliver on the promise of the smart city made possible by interconnected urban infrastructure and applications.

Learn from experienced network operators as they highlight the struggles and successes they had in their implementations. Presenters will discuss best practices and strategies for overcoming obstacles in your deployment plan.

The economics of network design and deployment are different than the politics. This session discuss important realities to any Business Plan formation of a broadband network. Whether you are a civic leader, communications carrier, anchor institution of a State Agency -- the fundamentals stay the same: Who will be served by the network? Where will the revenue come from? Is a gigabit-per-second speed truly what is required? And most importantly, how do you design for today while keeping an eye on future needs.

The choices in fiber standard in the network matter. The different fiber technology and deployment models have different costs, operating characteristics and potential for future application support. An all-fiber network that can serve the needs of all customers in a given area is fundamentally more efficient than a network with multiple overlays that add cost and complexity. Examine in this session the right layer to generate the highest revenue at the lowest ongoing operational and capital cost.

Learn key information and analysis of state, federal, and local resources available for network operators and community leaders, from assistance with business model development to funding the project, and gain an understanding of the array of resources, where to find them, and how to best choose the right ones for their project.

Adding capacity to the mobile network is as important as gigabit connectivity to homes and businesses. Small cells and WiFi technology are both instrumental in meeting the anticipated  increase in data demand, especially in cities with ultra-high speed broadband connectivity. These Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) incorporate all kinds of small cells solutions, in addition to the macro cells on rooftops and towers. Planning mobile infrastructure is a key component of a comprehensive and holistic network project architecture.

This panel session focuses on Open Access broadband networks, the provision of infrastructure to competing carriers that serve end users. Open Access is one of the most talked-about concepts in the broadband and gigabit city community today. Panelists will provide insight into open access models and the treatment of passive broadband infrastructure as a mechanism to encourage competition on the local level, and spur economic investment and development. This includes successful public-private partnership structures, various models of open access including structural separation and the results of early Open Access network developments in North America. Does Open Access ultimately deliver a vibrant, competitive marketplace for broadband access?

Cities are increasingly considering community wireless networks an option to achieve any of a number of goals, as detailed in a recent report, “Toward an Understanding of Best Practices in Community Wireless Networks: A Survey of Select Networks.” This panel will bring together leaders in cities that have implemented community wireless projects toward a variety of those goals. The panel will feature a moderated question and answer session covering topics such as using community wireless networks to promote growth in business districts, bridge the digital divide, provide Internet access in the field for city employees, reinforce city resiliency programs, and enable digital sensor capabilities for smarter cities. Panelists will also discuss lessons learned in building the network, including identifying the goals of the network, developing a sound business model, and measuring success.

Generating Adoption with High Definition Face-to-Face Communication & Collaboration Services: From telehealth to remote monitoring services to enterprise communications, this session provides insight into the types of applications high definition services that will spur adoption and innovation from high-speed networks.

Once communities decide to move forward, they must follow up their business case, RFP, and solicitation of support with an implementation plan to manage the project—to be on time, on budget, and deliver what is needed. Participants will learn how to deploy a tight implementation strategy, including contract and oversight.

Demand Generation: Promoting the GigCity Network for Success: The key to all successful implementations is identifying a champion and then working through community organizations to gain support and build demand for the network as the process evolves. This panel will explore strategies for building community support, refining pricing and promotion strategies and more.

With the rollout of the next-gen DOCSIS 3.1 specs, cable operators will be able to compete in the emerging Gigabit Era with download speeds as high as 10 Gbit/s and upload speeds of 1 Gbit/s or more. Cable providers will also gain higher capacity, greater efficiencies, better quality control, and lower operational costs without ripping up their HFC networks. But what will it take to prepare for D3.1? How long will it take the industry to roll out the new spec? And how will cable providers use their new broadband capacity? This panel will tackle these questions and more.

Gigabit connectivity is not the end, but the means to the end of improved economic development, job growth, increased entrepreneurialism and innovation. This session focuses on the methods civic leaders need to undertake to ensure that economic development agencies, local leadership and other stakeholders at the local level generate the demand and adoption that is necessary to fulfill the promise of the gigabit network.

Explore how to use the CNXchange Platform to manage how and under what terms internet companies use city owned assets for network improvement. Included in this summary and overview is the environment made possible by CNX for private sector investment as well as the creation of a revenue stream for the city that can help fund future investments in the city’s fiber infrastructure.

CIO Cary Cavin of Columbus outlines his experience in the CNX platform, and the results to date from the network operator and carrier community for use of city-owned infrastructure. Mr. Cavin will provide a detailed Use Case Scenario that any civic leader from any size municipality can apply to their unique business case.

Participate in a wide-ranging discussion among your civic peers and the management of CNX.