Community Broadband Media Roundup - June 5

Florida

Commentary: Spectrum says, if I cut my service, my bill goes...up? by Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel

Maine

Franklin County group snags $43,000 grant to study broadband access by Kate McCormick, Morning Sentinel

North Carolina

Crowdsourced broadband mapping helps North Carolina clean its data by Colin Wood, StateScoop

"[There are] a lot of opportunities with [municipal networks] and co-ops but the Legislature seems unable to comprehend that the big national firms don't care about rural North Carolina," Mitchell said.

Pennsylvania

Extending broadband Internet service to rural areas remains a challenge by Kery Murakami, Eagle Tribune

Tennessee

High-speed chase: Nashville drives toward an ultrafast Internet future - despite potholes by Linda Bryant, Nashville Post

“Legal games are part of the problem in Nashville,” Mitchell adds. “What’s really frustrating is that normally it would be difficult to build a network in a city as large as Nashville. But when you are also facing AT&T or Comcast holding things up, getting things done becomes really hard.”

Virginia

The Internet started in Virginia. So why is broadband access is spotty? by Peter Galuszka, Washigton Post

General

Communities, not telcos, should define success of municipal broadband networks by Craig Settles, Daily Yonder

They stole our beautiful decentralized Internet, now we want it back by Giulio Prisco, Crypto Insider

Lawmakers seek to restore Internet privacy after repealing it by Paul Merrion, The Augusta Chronicle 

Hard data on municipal broadband networks by Sarah Barry James, S&P Global Market Intelligence

According to Mitchell, Yoo's study captured the Chattanooga network when it was still ‘small and growing,’ but misses ‘what's going to happen for the rest of the life of the network, which I think is the more important part.

Report discredits municipal fiber financials - but experts balk by Colin Wood, StateScoop

The methodology used in this research is "garbage," said Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, because the researchers took data from an early period in development and assumed that things would continue at that same rate.

Institute for Local Self-Reliance questions conclusions of recent muni fiber network study by Laura Hamilton, CED Magazine

Local advocates push back on municipal broadband funding study by Mariam Baksh, Morning Consult

“They are using phantom costs,” said Christopher Mitchell in a phone interview with Morning Consult. Mitchell, who runs the broadband project for the Institute for Local Self Reliance, said the life of the fiber is up for debate. More importantly, he added, factoring that sort of depreciation is not appropriate for determining the prospect of the projects going forward.