Battlo Creek and Fiber Optics

It is never appropriate to start a column with the word, “unfortunately,” and so I will not.  Economic development has been described as a “fad ridden” profession.  It seems as though a wave of activity comes along every fifteen years and states and communities everywhere climb on board even if they have not the slightest justification for doing so.  Life Sciences is one of those fads as over forty states and three hundred communities are somehow involved in attempting to foster a Life Sciences industry, even if the community happens to be located in north central Alabama.

This is not to denigrate what our colleagues in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Ann Arbor are trying to do in Life Sciences.  All three areas contain one or more of the necessary ingredients to implement a Life Sciences development strategy, such as a pool of scientific or research talent, a dedicated research institute or a research university. 

But economic development should also be a constant process of searching for the niche, of finding a gap in the global economy where a community can establish itself as the center for something.  Rapid wealth creation occurs when a community finds that niche and occupies the niche until other communities catch on and catch up.

Many communities have the additional task of setting the stage so that the niche can be found.  The emergence of global communications and subsequent location indifference for business has mandated the installation of advanced telecommunications as part of a community’s infrastructure.  Some would argue that an advanced telecommunications infrastructure is as important as modern municipal water and sewer.

The City of Battle Creek has been working to manage the transition from a last century traditional manufacturing center to the economy of the 21st century. As the home to Kellogg's, Post, and Ralcorp, Battle Creek has earned the moniker "Cereal City", producing a large share of the breakfast cereal consumed in the US.  As the home to units within the Defense Logistics Agency and several health care software producers, Battle Creek needs to sharpen its prowess as a suitable location for the processing and distribution of information.

The basis of the transition has been to create an atmosphere that is conducive to the needs of business today. Two major components necessary are transportation and communications. And they are strangely intertwined in today's world of fiber optic communications.

As a manufacturing center that produced bulk products and heavy equipment, transported by railroads, Battle Creek is crossed by two major rail lines. The former Michigan Central is a Detroit to Chicago east west line. The former Grand Trunk line runs from Port Huron to Chicago. And in today’s world, railroad right of way serves as a “Fiber Optic Superhighway”. Several national fiber optic network carriers have networks that pass through Battle Creek. Additionally, Battle Creek is located on I-94, a busy east-west interstate highway between Detroit and Chicago. North-South interstates are on either side of Battle Creek, I-69 and US-131. And like the railroads, interstate highways serve as “Fiber Highways”, as several other fiber optic routes follow the interstate highways routes.

Metropolitan Fiber Network

In order to provide “off-ramps” from these numerous fiber optic routes, the City of Battle Creek and Battle Creek Unlimited partnered with local service provider CTS Telecom. A thirty-five mile fiber optic backbone was constructed through the city and Fort Custer Industrial Park to provide redundant, advanced communications services. Services are provided using Cisco Sonet-based fiber optics systems. Sonet is short for Synchronous Optical Network, which is a physical layer network standard for redundant ring-based optical networks. Another 15 miles of fiber provides edge access deeper into the city. An additional downtown ring passes though the city center, serving the core business district with a Sonet Ring. A Sonet Ring at the airport can provide service to airport users and residents. The Battle Creek metro fiber system makes any communications service readily available to business from local service providers to national carriers. Currently, dozens of more miles of fiber are being constructed, or planned, to bring fiber access to the entire business community of Battle Creek.

This is part of the necessary infrastructure that can enable a community to foster and nurture a creative mix of old and new technologies leading to innovative products and services to fill that niche.

Understand also that it will take some time for the elements to knit together to form an entrepreneurial ecology.  Installation of the infrastructure is only a first step.  Finding ways to foster increased use, derive maximum benefit, and instill a continuous improvement approach to the technology are all part of the endgame.