Community Broadband Media Roundup- October 16

Colorado

Letter: Municipal broadband connects us all by Zach Shelton, The Coloradoan

Broadband is the glue that connects all of us in the medical field and has increasingly become an equally important tool in our doctor bag. Please vote yes on 2B to ensure we have the opportunity as a city to improve our internet infrastructure to meet the needs of our clinic and many other businesses and individuals in Fort Collins.

Letter: Broadband represents Fort Collins' future by David Austin-Groen, The Coloradoan

FAQ: Fort Collins broadband on the November ballot by Kevin Duggan, The Coloradoan

Florida

Commentary: Cable competition? Winter Park considers it, and Spectrum gets nervous by Scott Maxwell, The Orlando Sentinel

For consumers, though, fear and competition can be good.

Don’t take it from me. Take it from consumer-advocate groups like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which is cheering on Winter Park and other cities, encouraging them to invest in technology and become less reliant on cable and internet providers that have near-monopolies in many markets.

Of course the cable companies will protest, said Christopher Mitchell, the president of the Minneapolis-based Institute. “They’ve fought it in every single city,” he said. “But this is like Starbucks telling a city they shouldn’t have their own coffee machines.”

Idaho

SDN Streamlines Virtualized Open Access Network for Idaho Municipality Ammon Fiber by Joan Engebretson, Telecompetitor

Massachusetts

Milton to study town broadband service by Fred Hanson, The Patriot Ledger

“Comcast, with its market power, is able to charge whatever they want” and provide subpar service, subpar speed and capacity,” he said….The town could provide the service cheaper because they would not need to make a profit, Chamberlain said. It could also lease out portions of its system to third parties for additional revenue.

North Carolina

Officials boost innovation economy by Brie Handgraaf, Wilson Times

Pennsylvania

Our view: Push needed for high-speed rural internet by The Editorial Board, Go Erie

Tennessee

How Chattanooga used fiber to buoy the rest of its tech community by Anna Hensel, Venture Beat

Virginia

King George survey looks at internet gaps by Cathy Dyson, The Free Lance Star

Washington

Who wants a fiber network? City asks residents to take survey by Joan Pringle, Go Anacortes

Another Shot for Municipal Broadband in Seattle by Heidi Groover, The Stranger

West Virginia

Commission to hold broadband hearing by Hampshire County Commission, Hampshire Review

Broadband co-op begins to take form by Tina Alvey, Register- Herald

General

Comcast Is Abandoning Customers In The Name Of Free Speech by Susan Crawford, Wired

FCC’s claim that one ISP counts as “competition” faces scrutiny in court by John Brodkin, ArsTechnica

Led by Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC's Republican majority voted in April of this year to eliminate price caps in a county if 50 percent of potential customers "are within a half mile of a location served by a competitive provider." That means business customers with just one choice are often considered to be located in a competitive market and thus no longer benefit from price controls. 

Electric co-ops eager to expand broadband connections to rural areas by Dave Flessner, Times Free Press

ISPs don’t want to tell the FCC exactly where they offer Internet service by John Brodkin, ArsTechnica

"Rural areas may have large census blocks in which only a few people have access to Internet service," the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) told the FCC. Address- or street-level data would be the most useful for analyzing rural areas, the advocacy group said.

"For rural census blocks, at least knowing which road segments Internet Service Providers can reach will help with estimating how much of the population in a rural census block actually has access," the ILSR said.

The ILSR also suggested an alternative to address-level data that might be easier to compile. ISPs could report which road segments they can reach in rural areas, the group said:

"This information should be easier to compile than geocoding addresses and can be compared to locations of small towns and other roads. Most state and local governments have information on their road networks publicly available, and providers can use that as a starting point."