We are pleased to announce our most recent Fact Sheet - Broadband 101! Most of the people following our work already know these key details but you also know people who are confused and perhaps intimidated by Internet issues.
Enter, the Broadband 101 Fact Sheet [pdf]!
We cover basic terminology, traditional technologies to deliver broadband, and common policy goals. We also explain why fiber optic connections are so popular lately and why neither we nor Wall Street expects robust competition in telecommunications.
This publication joins our previous fact sheets that explained how community owned networks have led to new jobs and tremendous savings for community anchor institutions.
Please share it with elected officials, local policymakers, friends, enemies, and those people you aren't sure you really know on Facebook. If you have some thoughts on what we missed or what should be included in Broadband 201, let us know in the comments below.
Schoharie County, New York officials have applied for a $30 million New York State ConnectALL grant with the hopes of eventually building a $33 million, county-wide fiber network. The shape and scope of the network has yet to be determined, but the county hopes to build a network that brings affordable access to the rural, agriculture-heavy county.
Driven by past successes with city-owned fiber and Wi-Fi, Newark New Jersey has announced the city is significantly expanding the availability of $20/month broadband service to numerous Newark Housing Authority (NHA) apartment buildings. A partnership with Adrena leans heavily on Newark Fiber, a 288-strand city-owned fiber network that has been a cornerstone of the city’s efforts to revitalize and assist many lower income – and long neglected – Newark neighborhoods.
Hoopa Valley PUD General Manager Linnea Jackson hailed as Connectivity Champion at 50th Anniversary Gala of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in Washington D.C.
Construction on a new city-owned fiber network in Cabot, Arkansas will soon bring affordable broadband access to every city resident and business in the state’s “Strawberry Capital.” The network comes courtesy of a partnership with Connect2First, the broadband subsidiary of local power company First Electric Cooperative Corporation, which continues to build on its significant presence across Arkansas.
Joplin, Missouri has announced a new broadband public-private partnership (PPP) with ALLO Fiber that should help boost competition and lower rates across the city of 52,000. The partnership poses a particular challenge to regional cable giant CableOne, which currently enjoys a monopoly over broadband access across a whopping 83 percent of the city.
As the municipal broadband movement continues to gain momentum, here is a new fact sheet that highlights the dramatic surge in the building of publicly-owned, locally controlled high-speed Internet infrastructure. We also unveil a new map of municipal broadband networks across U.S.