Community Broadband Media Roundup - October 31

More cities around the country are taking action and joining the Next Century Cities coalition. What started as a league of 32 is poised to double in size after the NCC launch, according to Jason Koebler with Motherboard. 

“The group includes cities that have built their own municipal broadband networks, cities that want to build their own, and cities that have worked with companies such as Google to bring fiber, gigabit-speed internet to their residents—the idea being that cities that don't have ultrafast internet can learn how to jump through legislative and logistical hoops from those who have been there before.”

Boston is one of the Next Century Cities founding members and the Boston Herald’s Jordan Graham writes that the city is facing some unique challenges.

“The city has been plagued by slow internet access for years — blamed in part on Verizon’s refusal to build its FiOS network in the city as well as the infrastructure challenges that any old city faces.” 

Meanwhile in Michigan, more than 400 policy makers, tech providers and broadband champions came together to talk about broadband strategies and implementation plans for Michigan communities. 

While cities and states are forming coalitions, individuals can make an impact as well. Andrew Banchich of Buffalo, NY is rooting for his city to get on the municipal Internet super-highway. The Buffalo native announced the creation of the “Free the Web” forum to help get the message out to local policymakers.

“Municipal Internet would provide Buffalo residents with faster, more reliable Internet speeds, at a lower cost. It would help stimulate Buffalo’s economy, improve the quality of life for our residents, provide service to some people who might not currently have access to the Internet, help attract people from other cities, promote healthy competition between other Internet providers, and support our booming medical campus, where scientists and researchers rely on fast Internet connections.” 

Many reporters seem to be hung up on trivial matters like how long it takes you to download a movie, but Claire Cain Miller with the New York Times gets it, she really gets it!

“America’s slow and expensive Internet is more than just an annoyance for people trying to watch “Happy Gilmore” on Netflix. Largely a consequence of monopoly providers, the sluggish service could have long-term economic consequences for American competitiveness.”

The Consumerist's Kate Cox thinks this kitty will help you understand why US consumers seem to be content to pay more for slower Internet. Spoiler Alert: even the cat doesn't get it.

Following the same story, Gerry Smith with Huffington Post, Anne L. Kim with Roll Call,  and Elizabeth Hagedorn with Cleveland’s News 5 and Newsy covered New America Foundation’s new Open Technology Institute report, that says very clearly: big US cities are falling behind, while (no surprise here) Chattanooga, Lafayette, and other smaller cities are the ones competing globally with the likes Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo and others. 

As Susan Crawford shows in an article this week, a new investigation reveals that your Internet Service Provider may already be intentionally slowing down Internet speeds.

 “M-Lab’s data suggests the logical conclusion that Verizon and Comcast, as well as Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, and AT&T, are intentionally squeezing data coming from some incoming networks in particular, networks associated with Netflix, which competes with these companies in video entertainment. Customers of these eyeball networks are getting degraded service that cannot be explained by anything other than business decisions.” 

Lots of questions surround building broadband networks, and this week, Chris Mitchell took part in a unique conversation on with Jon Brodkin of Ars Technica. As a follow-up to Brodkin’s coverage of cities taking control of their broadband futures, Mitchell joined former FCC official Blair Levin, Wilson NC broadband operations manager Will Aycock, and Ted Smith with the Civic Innovation Office in Louisville, KY for UNITE Live: a discussion on cities revolutionizing broadband. But, as Brodkin continued, it’s not quite time to uncork the champagne.

As always, we have much more work to do.