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PUC Gives Lake Communications Authority to Offer Broadband on Minnesota North Shore
When last we looked in on the Lake County FTTH project connecting rural areas north of Lake Superior, the County had just ditched its original management team and Mediacom star
Chattanooga Creates Subscriber Testimonials for City Owned Broadband
Chattanooga, with the nation's fastest citywide broadband network, offers lessons to many other communities who have built or are building their own networks. Chattanooga is regarded as one of the most successful muni networks in terms of a smooth operation with good advertising and a great back office approach.
Charles County Library Implements Wifi with La Plata
The Southern Maryland Independent reports the Charles County Technology Council brought together local innovators in technology and environmental sustainability on September 10.
Fibrant Buys More Set-Top Boxes
Salisbury's Fibrant network, a muni FTTH network in North Carolina that is approaching its one year anniversary, has decided to celebrate by ordering 5,000 set-top boxes.
Citibank Finally Files Suit Against Burlington Telecom
After more than a year of expecting Citibank to file suit against Burlington, they finally did. Burlington Telecom, a muni FTTH network, now illustrates the worst case scenario for muni broadband.
4G Wireless for Rural America? Not Nearly Good Enough
The good folks at Public Knowledge have released a report (with a fun video, embedded below) appropriately titled, "4G + Data Caps = Magic Beans." These are the fraudulent version of magic beans - don't expect any beanstalks to data clouds.
AT&T&T Merger and DOJ: What is Happening?
In the aftermath of AT&T accidentally admitting they have nothing but a smokescreen to justify buying one of their few competitors, it seemed that nothing had changed and AT&T was going to continue pushing this anti-competition, anti-consumer deal through.
But then the Department of Justic
Redwood County, Minnesota, Latest to Study FTTH
Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, may soon also be the land of Countywide rural FTTH.
Book: Network Nation
The book Network Nation looks extremely good. You can learn about the major themes from this event with the author.
AT&T: A History Lesson
I've had a long stretch on the road, leaving me with little time to post stories, so in leiu of doing nothing, I encourage you to read a short history of AT&T from Matthew Lasar in Ars Technica: "How AT&T Conquered the 20th Century."
One Maryland Fiber-Optic Broadband Project
Craig Settles sits down, across the country, to interview Maryland's Lori Sherwood, the Program Director for One Maryland. One Maryland is a stimulus-funded project bringing fiber-optic broadband to every county in the state.
iProvo at Crossroads: Decision Point Ahead
Free UTOPIA has published some interesting information about iProvo, a broadband network that was originally publicly owned but crushed under the weight of harassment from Comcast and Qwest via the state legislature.
Humor: New Yorker Explains Your Time Warner Cable Bill
Where would be without humor? I just hope Time Warner Cable isn't inspired to add more bogus charges to their bills following this article. A sample:
Silicon Valley Power Does Dark Fiber and Wireless
Silicon Valley Power, a muni electric in Santa Clara, was smart when fibering-up its electrical plant.
More Details from the Incredible Santa Monica City Net
Santa Monica's approach to building community owned broadband that puts the community first has been wildly successful. They have not focused on providing residential connections, and likely will not in the future, focusing instead on meeting their municipal needs and businesses to spur economic development.
Broadband Survey from Consumers Union
Take a few minutes to help an excellent organization, Consumers Union, to collect data about broadband. Too much of our information about broadband comes from the big companies that have a vested interest in only spreading information that helps them.
EC Fiber is Officially Live in Vermont
This has been a great month for communities building their own high capacity broadband networks in New England. Wired West in rural Massachusetts has formalized its coop of communities.
Is Lafayettte Community Broadband Doing OK or Great?
Lafayette Doing OK, Doubles Capacity for Promotion
John at Lafayette Pro Fiber recently updated us all on LUS Fiber's financials. According to John, LUS Fiber is doing OK, not great, in its FTTH offering (probably the best deal in the nation for fast, affordable, and reliable connections).
EC Fiber Starts Connecting Rural Vermont to Internet
The East Central Vermont Fiber-to-the-Home network is officially connecting people. This has been a fascinating project to watch, though undoubtedly frustrating from the thousands of people who just want a fast, affordable, and reliable connection to the Internet (though any one of the three would be an improvement for them).