Community Broadband Media Roundup - June 20

Florida

Polk Vision hosts Smart Communities Summit by John Ceballos, The Ledger

The key to giving everyone in Polk County access to affordable high-speed Internet has less to do with bandwidth and more to do with community leaders banding together to achieve that goal.

Idaho

Municipal fiber network will let customers switch ISPs in seconds by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

Ammon has completed a pilot project involving 12 homes and is getting ready for construction to another 200 homes. Eventually, the city wants to wire up all of its 4,500 homes and apartment buildings, city Technology Director Bruce Patterson told Ars. Ammon has already deployed fiber to businesses in the city, and it did so without raising everybody's taxes.

Louisiana

Reps from Cox, AT&T meet with city-parish officials to exporess concerns about broadband plan by Ryan Broussard, Baton Rouge Business Report

Massachusetts

Selectmen appoint group to study broadband by Marty Green, The Harvard Press

New Mass. broadband chair stresses 'flexible' solutions for each town by Shira Schoenberg, MassLive

Minnesota

More support needed for Austin Gig effort by Greg Siems, Austin Daily Herald

North Carolina

Against municipal broadband? That's just wrong by David Post, Salisbury Post

Citing Salisbury’s problems with Fibrant, they argue that municipalities should not have their own broadband systems and that the Federal Communication Commission was wrong when it ruled that North Carolina’s “level playing field” violated federal law. They are wrong. Not because Fibrant is losing money. But because municipal broadband is the right thing for small cities or towns where the big boys won’t build it.

Ohio

3 ways Ohio cities overcame the telecoms to set up broadband networks by Ben Miller, GovTech

Tennessee

Chattanooga - the high speed city by BBC World Service

Chattanooga credits its gigabit network for city's turnaround by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

Chattanooga's 'explosion' of tech growth driven by gigabit municipal fiber, mayor says by Samantha Bookman, FierceTelecom

General

How much do ISPs hate competition? They'll sue the FCC to prevent it by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

Broadband: 21st-century infrastructure by Tod Newcombe, GovTech

Net neutrality wins: Federal court upholds FCC open Internet rules by Sam Gustin, Motherboard

Small business broadband bill clears Senate committee by Kayla Nick-Kearney, FedScoop

"That would curb many abuses since most people only have one large ISP as an option for high quality Internet access," Christopher Mitchell wrote, "but it would leave many subscribers in smaller cities with only one option for high speed Internet — a smaller monopoly typically — and few basic protections."