Community Broadband Media Roundup - January 30

Colorado

One town's quest to join tech revolution - and what it says about digital inequality by Kyle Spencer, Christian Science Monitor

Newcomer exploring gigabit Internet service for city of Centennial by Tamara Chuang, The Denver Post

New York

FCC approves $170 million for New York broadband rollout by Andrew Dalton, Engadget

North Carolina

The digital divide is still way too wide by Scott McLeod, Smoky Mountain News

WNC officials seek rural broadband solutions by Davin Eldridge, WCQS

Ohio

Meigs, Vinton accessing broadband access by Sarah Hawley, My Daily Sentinel

Tennessee

Haslam snubs EPB with broadband expansion plan that won't include city-owned utilities by Andy Sher, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Virginia

Our broadband speeds are slower than Latvia by Roanoke Times Editorial Board

Google, Ting, Netflix dare to suggest that maybe giant, anti-competitive ISPs shouldn't be writing stat telecom laws by Karl Bode, TechDirt

Google, Netflix, Gov. Terry McAuliffe oppose Del. Kathy Byron's broadband bill by Carmen Forman and Jacob Demmitt, Roanoke Times

Google and Netflix join fight against municipal broadband restrictions by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

Salem council opposes broadband-limiting bill by Alicia Petska, Roanoke Times

Norfolk, Virginia Beach approve resolutions in opposition of bill that would limit broadband speeds, development by Amy Poulter, Southside Daily

Bill could halt local broadband initiative by Amber Galaviz, Orange County Daily Progress

Supervisors oppose broadband bill by Casey Fabris, Franklin News Post

Virginia Beach, Nofolk, Chesapeake concerned about broadband Internet bill in the General Assembly by Jordan Pascale and Stacy Parker, Virginian Pilot

Byron bill could negatively affect effort to expand Internet access locally by Alex Rohr, News-Advance

New protectionist Virginia law would keep residents from better broadband by Karl Bode, TechDirt

House lawmaker Kathy Byron has crafted the "Virginia Broadband Deployment Act" after receiving healthy campaign contributions from ISPs like Verizon and AT&T. But her proposal actually restricts broadband deployment -- or public/private partnerships like Google Fiber -- by preventing towns and cities from building networks if incumbent ISPs offer speeds of just 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up across 90% of their footprints.

McAuliffe promises to veto broadband bill by Alan Suderman, Sacramento Bee

Virginia governor threatens to veto muni broadband bill by John Eggerton, MultiChannel News

Byron revises bill, but municipal broadband boosters still critical of it by Carmen Forman, Roanoke Times

General

Trump's FCC pick bodes poorly for net neutrality, broadband competition, but communities can fight back by Christopher Mitchell, StateScoop

Hypothesis: if the market is competitive, cable companies cannot have high profits when their customers hate them because their customers would switch to one of the many other choices in the market.

And the hypothesis is proved wrong: Comcast's profit in one quarter of 2016 exceeded $2 billion and yet it was among the most hated companies in the country according to Consumer Reports rankings.

Analysis: Bills in Va. and Mo. would double down on banning municipal broadband by Craig Settles, The Daily Yonder

Trump voters need fast broadband and net neutrality too, Tom Wheeler says by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

"I think it would be tragic," Wheeler said of taking away the FCC's competition and consumer protection authority. "This is tragic for the American consumer and the competitive marketplace."

Picture of the cows at sunset courtesy of sneeze via pxaby.