Community Broadband Media Roundup - January 2

Colorado

City of Longmont Receives Community Broadband Award by Sergio R. Angeles, Longmont Observer

Can Colorado Lawmakers Create State-Level Net Neutrality? Some May Try by Sam Brasch, Colorado Public Radio

Boulder-owned broadband has advantages by Joseph T. Priestley, Boulder Daily Camera

In the case of the proposed city-owned broadband network, the city could give any citizen who wanted to participate the option to make a pre-payment of $1,000 (or some other set amount) toward their eventual monthly internet bills. The incentive for the citizen would be that he/she could influence getting internet service sooner than might otherwise happen. That is, the city would build out the internet infrastructure sooner in those neighborhoods that had the higher pre-payment participation.

The advantage to the city would be to make city-ownership of the network much more feasible by significantly lowering the amount of the bond issuance necessary. Also, it would be a great way to gauge the city's interest in this project.

New Jersey

Newark commits to keeping its fiber network net neutral by Kim Hart, Axios

The mayor of Newark, NJ, is taking a stand against the recent FCC decision to overturn net neutrality rules. Ras Baraka will announce today that the city's high-speed fiber optic network will continue to prohibit blocking, throttling and fast lanes on its network even after the FCC rules go away. The city's contracts with third parties that connect its network will also include net neutrality clauses.

New York

New York City Broadband RFI Generates Strong Response by Theo Douglas, Government Technology

Oregon

City of Independence preps for Smart City technology project by Andy Giegerich, Portland Business Journal [Subscription Required]

Tennessee

Tennessee Co-Op Broadens Rural Gigabit Reach by Dave Flessner, Government Technology

Virginia

ESVBA: Four new 'Fiber to the Home' locations open in Accomack and Northampton Co. by Tahja Cropper, WMDT - ABC 23

Washington

Letter: Cities can step up internet service by Rory Bowman, Vancouver Columbian

City Council sends ‘clear’ and timely signal in support of Click net neutrality. By Matt Driscoll, The News Tribune

General

What Net Neutrality Really Means For You (And For Us) by Paul Blumenthal, HuffPost

Because of this sort of consolidation, much more of the internet — and access to it — is dominated by just a handful of companies, less than even a few years ago. Soon those internet service providers that havevertically integrated media empires will be able to operate much like the old closed system of television — controlling both the production of media and the means of distributing it, warned Mitch Stoltz, a senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Without Net Neutrality, Is It Time To Build Your Own Internet? By Eileen Guo, Inverse Innovation

What It Means to Fight for Technology Users in 2017 by Cindy Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Comcast claims it’ll spend $50B because of net neutrality repeal and tax cut by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

But based on previous years, Comcast's spending likely would increase regardless of whether the net neutrality repeal and tax cut happened. In the 12 months ending September 30, 2014, Comcast's capital investments were $7.2 billion. Over the next 12 months, leading up to September 30, 2015, the spending rose to $8.1 billion.

The net neutrality rules took effect in June 2015. Though Comcast and other ISPs claim in some public statements that the rules suppressed investment, Comcast's annual capital expenditures continued to increase, hitting $9.2 billion in the four quarters ending September 30, 2016.

In wake of net neutrality decision, should cities build internet networks? By Patrick Sisson, Curbed

Fiber Broadband Sees Record Growth by Karl Bode, DSL Reports