Community Broadband Media Roundup- October 9

Arizona

Contentious broadband meeting by Alexis Bechman, Payson Roundup

Colorado

County agrees on plan to finish broadband project by Niki Turner, Herald Times

Idaho

Unique Model Makes Citizens A Funding Partner In Broadband Network By Craig Settles, The Daily Yonder

The Ammon Model by Bryan Clark, Post Register

Participants in Thursday’s conference praised a revolutionary model that uses upfront public investment in order to create a marketplace where residents benefit from intense competition between private internet service providers, competition that’s rarely seen elsewhere in the market.

“Ammon has inspired many other communities around the country,” said Chris Mitchell, policy director of Next Century Cities. “… Ammon has one of the most replicable models (for municipal fiber-optic systems).”

Pennsylvania

Slow internet plagues rural areas of Erie County by David Bruce, Go Erie

Virginia

Orange County Broadband Initiative Moves Forward by Jennifer Walker, NBC 29

This grant will lay the foundation for future internet plans in the Orange community and act as an additive to programs that are already in place.

“Through the partnership that we’ve been able to establish with the county, we can expand that service out beyond the schools to the community and that’s what’s really important about this project. We reached out to the county early on to ask if they were interested in partnering with us when we knew that we had this opportunity and we think that it’ll expand way beyond the classrooms to the community and that’s what’s going to be very important for Orange county,” said Brenda Tanner, Orange County Public Schools superintendent. 

General

Hill Democrats Unveil Broadband 'Better Deal' by John Eggerton, Multichannel News

The future of the internet is up for grabs — theoretically by Ryan Barwick, The Center for Public Integrity

Changing Broadband Definitions by Martha Buyer, No Jitter

For the good of all, Congress must ensure net neutrality by Jimmy Lee, Crain’s Chicago Business 

Defining Digital Down by Tom Wheeler, The Brookings Institution

Ajit Pai Is Preserving A World Where The Digital Divide, And ISP Profits, Can Grow by Maya Wiley, Fast Company

Our View: FCC plan leaves rural America in Internet slow lane, Editorial, Press Herald

Categorizing those 19 million Americans as “unserved,” as the FCC does now, is a reminder to policymakers and service providers that rural parts of the country are being left behind on one of the basic necessary components of modern life.

But under the new administration, the FCC is considering a change. Wireless internet accessed over a phone would be counted as broadband, and many of those unserved Americans would instantly become “served.” That would remove any requirement for the federal government to act on their behalf, but it would also leave them stranded with substandard technology.

The U.S. Has Shocking Internet Access Disparity, But That Can Change, Next City By Marybeth Seitz-Brown and Rakeen Mabud, Next City