Community Broadband Media Roundup- November 27

Kentucky

Lexington, Home to the Kentucky Wired Middle-Mile Project, Seeks Municipal Fiber by Drew Clark, Broadband Breakfast

The power of municipal broadband isn’t going away. While competition benefits everyone, it’s undeniable that as the custodians of their rights of way, local government will play a role in the telecommunications infrastructure developments of the future.

Michigan

Ignored By Big Telecom, Detroit's Marginalized Communities Are Building Their Own Internet by Kaleigh Rogers, Motherboard

In a city that is rebuilding after a decade of economic turmoil, the internet can no longer be a luxury for the wealthy. Detroit’s renaissance won’t happen without each of the city’s diverse communities having access to the basic tools of modern work, education, healthcare, and communication. All of Detroit (or, certainly, more than 60 percent) needs access to the internet and the current structure established by Big Telecom hasn’t made this an easy goal.

“Communication is a fundamental human right,” Nucera said. “This is digital justice.”

Poor Detroit neighborhoods, abandoned by telcos and the FCC, are rolling out homebrew, community mesh broadband by Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

Minnesota

AT&T's Fake 5G is Coming to Minneapolis by Karl Bode, DSL Report

Area broadband projects held up as example at statewide conference by Brainerd Dispatch

New Hampshire

One small step for broadband: A new attempt to let communities bond to extend service represents progress, Editorial, Sentinel Source

General

To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet by Jason Koebler, Motherboard

In short, we must end our reliance on big telecom monopolies and build decentralized, affordable, locally owned internet infrastructure. The great news is this is currently possible in most parts of the United States.

FCC will also order states to scrap plans for their own net neutrality laws by Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica

Few Options Remain To Stop Trump’s FCC From Scrapping Net Neutrality by Sean Captain, Fast Company

“I don’t think states have the authority to require network neutrality, so once the Trump administration guts the open internet, it will be up to individual ISPs,” writes Christopher Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, in an email to Fast Company. He heads the organization’s Community Broadband Networks project, which encourages municipal-run networks as an alternative to major private ISPs such as Comcast and Verizon.

The FCC is having a terrible month, and consumers will pay the price by Gigi Sohn, The Verge

How Internet Co-ops Can Protect Us From Net Neutrality Rollbacks by Sammi-Jo Lee, Yes! Magazine 

Two, these small operators can protect open internet access from the handful of large ISPs that stand to pocket the profits from net neutrality rollbacks that the Trump administration announced Nov. 21. That’s according to Christopher Mitchell, who is the director of Community Broadband Projects, a project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Mitchell, who has been tracking and advocating community-owned broadband networks for a decade, hopes that this will be the moment when people rebel against the administration’s attack on net neutrality and expand rural cooperative and municipal ISPs.

“The FCC is basically taking the regulations off of big companies, but local companies can still offer high-quality internet access at good prices,” Mitchell says.