As interest in publicly owned broadband network infrastructure increases, local communities seek out new ways to fund municipal networks. The Creative Funding Sources For Fiber Infrastructure fact sheet presents new approaches, pros and cons, and provides examples for further study.
News
California
Napa County worried about spotty cell, Internet service, especially in emergencies by Barry Eberling, Napa Valley Register
Georgia
Muni broadband provider Dalton Utilities/OptiLink launches $80 gigabit broadband by Phil Britt, Telecompetitor
Iowa
FCC says satellite connectivity is good enough for rural Iowans. It’s not. by Katie Kienbaum, Des Moines Register
When considering Iowa, what comes to mind? Open fields? Livestock? High-quality Internet access? According to the FCC, if you live in Iowa, your broadband problems are over. Of course, as ILSR Research Associate Katie Kienbaum points out in her recent piece in the Des Moines Register, the reality in the Hawkeye State is quite different than the FCC’s flawed stats report. The reason is the FCC’s infatuation with satellite Internet access — a view that has some real consequences for Iowa and its people. Read the piece in its entirety here or at the Des Moines Register:
FCC says satellite connectivity is good enough for rural Iowans. It’s not.
The Community Broadband Networks Initiative is only one of several research areas at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. It’s common for people who follow the work of one initiative to find overlapping interests in other initiatives at ILSR. In addition to the effects of concentration of power from large corporate entities, local power and how best to exercise it for the community are common themes in all our initiatives. That’s why the ILSR Building Local Power Podcast and our host, Hibba Meraay, occasionally take time to touch base with initiative directors. In October, Hibba interviewed Christopher for episode 57 of the podcast.
In the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel times of the year. Families and friends come together to catch up, to eat tons of food, and to appreciate their good fortune. It's a time to count our blessings and laugh at a few of the characters common to every family. This year, we've imagined some of those characters at Thanksgiving Dinner in the world of telecom...
Momma Greenlight
by Lisa
Ninety miles west of Boston, the small town of South Hadley, Massachusetts, will soon have a new, municipal option for Internet access. In October, the South Hadley Electric Light Department (SHELD) Board of Commissioners unanimously approved plans to build a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network throughout the town of 17,000.
California
Resilient rural communities built on upgraded infrastructure, faster broadband for all by Kevin Cann, California Economic Summit
Oxnard seeks input from local businesses as part of fiber optics plan by Wendy Leung, Ventura County Star
Colorado
Colorado voters continue to opt out of state's protectionist, ISP-written broadband law by Karl Bode, TechDirt
As LUS Fiber approaches it’s 10th anniversary of bringing fast, affordable, reliable connectivity to the community, there’s a growing interest in their story. We’ve spoken with Terry Huval about the network that beat back the incumbents determined to see it fall. Now that he’s retired, Terry has the time to talk to other media outlets to tell the story of the network. Joey Durel, the City-Parish President who worked side-by-side with Terry and who has since stepped out of that role, is also making sure to share his wealth of knowledge so other communities can learn from Lafayette’s experiences.
Hartford, Connecticut, was abuzz in early November with policy and tech experts discussing the connectivity situation there and in the region. If you weren’t able to attend, or didn’t have the chance to stream it live, you can now watch video from the event.
The day is divided into a dozen separate videos, so if you’re interested in a specific panel discussion or presentation, you can easily find what you’re looking for.
Next Century Cities hosted the event along with Connecticut’s Office of Consumer Counsel and they described the event:
Earlier this summer, we talked with Jase Wilson and Lindsey Brannon from Neighborly, the investment firm that uses online investing to allow individuals to invest in publicly owned infrastructure projects, including broadband networks. Jase and Lindsey described a program they had just launched, the Neighborly Community Broadband Accelerator.
A Boost for Local Broadband
This past summer, a group of Portlanders with digital equity as a primary goal, launched Municipal Broadband PDX. The grassroots organization seeks to mobilize folks from the Rose City to let their local leaders know that they’d like local government to take the lead in bringing fast, affordable, reliable connectivity to the entire city. At their official kick-off, our own Christopher Mitchell spoke to the crowd along with Commissioner Lori Stegmann, who pledged her support to the initiative. Now Municipal Broadband PDX is asking Portlanders to answer a call to action to move to the next phase.
Until November 6th, community leaders in Loveland, Colorado, vacillated between whether or not to hold a referendum for final voter approval on a muni project. Asking voters to make the final call can remove political uncertainty, but there are times when elected officials have to make the call themselves. When the city opted out of Colorado's restrictive SB 152 three years ago, 82 percent of voters supported the measure. On November 6th, Loveland City Council vacated a previous order to put the issue on the ballot and decided that it's time to move ahead on establishing a broadband utility.
California
Why San Jose kids do homework in parking lots by Sam Liccardo, New York Times
This year, we approved landmark deals with several carriers that called for San Jose to facilitate rapid permitting and installation of thousands of small cells — the largest deployment of them in the nation. In exchange, the companies agreed to pay millions of dollars into a Digital Inclusion Fund to pay for broadband connectivity in low-income neighborhoods.
Colorado
Editorial: Loveland should move forward with broadband, Reporter Herald