Southwestern Community College and Drake Enterprises of Franklin announced last week the formation of BalsamWest FiberNET, a public/private partnership created to facilitate the deployment of a high-capacity fiber-optic network ring through Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham, Clay and Cherokee counties.

BalsamWest was formed to ensure that the southwestern region of the state can participate fully in a global economy by providing open and affordable access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, according to SCC's Laura Pennington.

"BalsamWest FiberNET will give the region the tools it needs to educate and train the work force of the future, support advances in health care, improve the ability of local businesses to succeed, and create opportunities to generate good jobs for the future," said Pennington.

"Our region must have adequate infrastructure in order to be part of the 21st century economy," David Hubbs, director of Internet Services for Drake Enterprises and manager of Dnet Internet Services said. "By the end of this decade nine out of 10 jobs will require the use of computing and communications technologies.

"Business, education, law enforcement, government and the medical community will depend more and more on access to affordable and reliable high speed data transport," he continued. "Without it, our region will not be able to compete. A fiber-optic ring will fulfill this need with virtually unlimited capacity and maximum reliability."

According to Pennington, BalsamWest will bring virtually unlimited capacity to, from and through the area.

The network is to be deployed in five segments connecting the six westernmost counties of North Carolina.

Construction of the first segment is under way, connecting Jackson and Macon counties with a "fiber-optic backbone."

As for SCC, the fibers will be used to connect the college's campuses in the three-county area, she said.

"Right now were are leasing infrastructure," she said. "It's very expensive and not always reliable."

While SCC plans to offer Internet service to its students and faculty, neither the college nor BalsamWest will be in the business of Internet service provider, Pennington said.

"We will be making the fiber available to anyone in the region," she said. "But we are not selling service; that's important to note."

Both Pennington and Hubbs pointed out the collaborative four-year effort to bring high-speed fiber to WNC instead of relying on large service providers like Verizon and BellSouth to provide the service.

"If we wait for the telecommunications giants to determine when our region merits the investment, it will be too late," said Hubbs. "With a public/private partnership such as BalsamWest Fiber
Net, our community can do this now. Drake Enterprises is proud to be part of this effort."

When the first phase of the project is completed in mid-November, business and homeowners could begin to experience the benefits of faster, more reliable Internet service when local ISPs like Drake offer the service to its customers. Business-to-business digital transactions, which are quickly becoming the norm, will also be easier over the new fiber-optic lines, she Pennington.

BalsamWest has selected the Education and Research Consortium's Asheville MetaPoP as its upstream connection to the Internet. BalsamWest's network will connect the area west of the Balsams to the Asheville MetaPoP, a second tier Internet network access point funded through the efforts of Congressman Charles Taylor.

"In a new model of innovation and collaboration, BalsamWest FiberNET is creating an open infrastructure available to the public, private and non-profit sectors - a model other rural regions might want to consider," said Pennington. "The availability of this network promises to help rural Internet service providers to better serve home and business customers through better access, lower prices and higher quality."

"Western North Carolina has much to offer high tech companies but will be overlooked unless it has access to this type of high-speed network at prices comparable to metropolitan areas and a highly-trained labor force," said Hubbs.

SCC's commitment to education and community development has driven its involvement in improving telecommunications infrastructure in the region - with the new Macon campus being connected in the initial deployment, said SCC President Cecil Groves.

"Infrastructure like this will allow the college to tap into advanced teaching tools, provide education virtually anytime, anywhere, and help our public partners (such as the schools and libraries) access resources anywhere in the world," said Groves.

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, which have an interest in the southwest region and a technological vision for the future, have taken formal steps to be part of this enterprise. Increased government efficiency will be the Eastern Band's first goal, said tribal planner Brandon Stephens.

As a partner in the corporation, the tribe will also concentrate on using the availability of high-speed fibers as an economic recruiting tool, Stephens said.

"It used to be that if you built water and sewer into an area, industry would come," he said. "That's not the case anymore. Now you need the high-tech infrastructure."

Tribal leaders would also like to prevent out-migration of area residents, he said.

"Right now people are getting high-tech degrees and they are leaving us to find work," said Stephens.

BalsamWest is also exploring ways it can support the work of AdvantageWest, which received funding from the Rural Internet Access Authority for middle mile infrastructure deployment in Jackson, Macon and Clay counties. The $1 million grant was awarded to AdvantageWest based upon strategies developed through the Appalachian Access initiative, a three-year effort led by SCC, the WNC Knowledge Coalition, Appalachian Regional Commission, N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and AdvantageWest.

BalsamWest invites companies from anywhere in the world to tap directly into the ultra-high-speed capacity of its fiber backbone and its connectivity to the high performance supercomputing capacity of the Asheville MetaPoP, said Groves.

"We can connect their employees in our area with others anywhere in the world, allowing them to work together in real-time just as if they were in the same room," Groves said.