Reports Highlighted by MuniNetworks.org

OneCommunity: An Important Model for America’s Broadband Revival

Publication Date: 
November 11, 2009
Author(s): 
Jim Baller - Baller Herbst Law Group
Sean Stokes - Baller Herbst Law Group
Casey Lide - Baller Herbst Law Group

The Baller Herbst Law Group filed an extensive report with the FCC detailing important information about OneCommunity - a fascinating nonprofit organization connecting many communities with fiber and wireless connectivity in Ohio. OneCommunity works with a variety of public and private sector partners to expand access to last mile and middle mile connectivity. Because they fall within our broad definition of putting public needs first, I wanted to highlight this report.

Link: 
OneCommunity: An Important Model for America’s Broadband Revival
Tags: 
jim baller
open access
ohio
cleveland
nonprofit
onecommunity
partnership

Tropos Comments on Publicly Owned Wireless Networks

Publication Date: 
November 6, 2009
Author(s): 
Tropos Networks

Tropos is a California-based company that sells wireless networking gear, frequently to municipalities. They filed comments with the FCC regarding the National Broadband Plan in response to the request: "Comment Sought on the Contribution of Federal, State, Tribal, and Local Government to Broadband."

We fully support their framing of the issue:

Municipalities that own and control their wireless broadband networks, operate public services more efficiently, prioritize broadband traffic for emergencies, and put unused bandwidth to use to attract new businesses, afford educational opportunities to students and in many cases, provide free broadband access to unserved or underserved residents.

Read More

Link: 
Offical Tropos Networks Comments to FCC
Tags: 
Wi-Fi
Wireless
tropos
california
monticello
oklahoma
preemption
fcc
national broadband plan
texas
oklahoma city
ponca city
rock hill
lompoc
corpus christi
electricity
tucson
miami-dade
juno beach
augusta

A Public Interest Internet Agenda

Publication Date: 
August 3, 2009
Author(s): 
Media and Democracy Coalition

The Media and Democracy Coalition put together an impressive report examining a number of policy options to put communities first in telecommunications infrastructure. The report discusses the fundamental importance of broadband - noting that it enables the right to communicate. Having establishing its importance, the report notes that good policy must be well informed and goes on to make multiple recommendations.

Policy should promote competition, innovation, localism, and opportunity. Locally-owned and -operated networks support these core goals of Federal broadband policy, and therefore should receive priority in terms of Federal support. Structural separation of ownership of broadband infrastructure from the delivery of service over that infrastructure will further promote these goals.

The report also touches on other key issues - including Universal Access, a non-discriminatory Internet (network neutrality), symmetrical connections, and privacy. But the most important focus from our perspective is that of localism:

For decades, American communities — both rural and urban — have been neglected and underserved by absentee-owned networks, whose business models clearly do not work in smaller or economically challenged communities. By contrast, in the communities in which they are based, locally-owned networks are more likely than absentee-owned networks to provide rapid response to emergencies, enhanced services, and value-added, social capital benefits such as job-training, youth-mentoring, and small business incubation. In addition, local networks are less likely to outsource jobs, thereby strengthening local and regional economies, while creating more opportunities for community-based innovation and problem-solving. Federal broadband policy that prioritizes support for local networks will produce more competitive markets, consumer choice, and opportunities for innovation.

Link: 
Full Report: A Public Interest Internet Agenda
Tags: 
ownership
public interest
symmetry
universal access

Free Press Responds to 'Sloppy' Incumbent Broadband Arguments

Publication Date: 
July 21, 2009
Author(s): 
Ben Scott, Free Press
Derek Turner, Free Press

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop a national broadband strategy. FCC invited comments and then invited replies to those comments in summer 2009. The Free Press Reply Comments deserve to be singled out for revealing some of the lies of large telecommunications companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Qwest, and others. It also describes many of the ways that these companies harm the communities that are dependent on them for essential services. I've highlighted some passages below that show the ways in which these companies put profit above all else. These companies claim that regulation discourages investment and deregulation (allowing a higher degree of concentration or larger monopolies) encourages increased investment in better networks - an incredibly self-serving claim that Free Press shows to be false on pages 13-29.

Competition -- meaningful and real competition -- and not regulation is the primary driver behind investment decisions. Where meaningful competition exists, incumbents are compelled to innovate and invest in order to maintain marketshare and future growth. Where competition is lacking -- such as it is in our broadband duopoly -- incumbents will delay investment, knowing full well they can pad their profits on the backs of captured customers who have no viable alternatives. (Page 14)

Regulations like open access and non-discrimination encourage competition and should be strengthened. Read more...

Link: 
Free Press Responds to 'Sloppy' Incumbent Broadband Arguments
Tags: 
competition
free press
regulation
incumbent
open access
misinformation
verizon
fcc
at&t

Cook Report: Broadband Mapping, Connectivity, the Five Freedoms, and Prosperity

Publication Date: 
July 1, 2009
Author(s): 
Gordon Cook
Sara Wedeman

This is an interesting interview that explains why mapping is important and how it should be done to ensure the final product is useful for policy. Unfortunately, much of the broadband mapping in the U.S. has been done by a telco-front group called Connected Nation that produces shoddy, unverifiable maps without making any useful data public.

In this report, Gordon Cook interviews Sara Wedeman, a mapping expert who also works in behavioral economics. Cook describes the interview here, on his blog. The discussion ventures beyond mapping, offering keen insights into why universal broadband availability is so important.

Link: 
Full Interview: Broadband Mapping, Connectivity, the Five Freedoms, and Prosperity
Tags: 
digital divide
mapping

Broadband Policy: Beyond Privatization, Competition, an Independent Regulation

Publication Date: 
April 6, 2009
Author(s): 
Larry Press, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Larry Press takes a rather quantitative approach to demonstrating that the deregulatory telecommunications policies of the past few decades have failed to produce the desired outcomes. We are currently at a key turning point in history: the policies we enact today will have repercussions throughout the entire decade. Fiber is replacing copper, the question is who will own it because owners make rules.

Link: 
Broadband Policy: Beyond Privatization, Competition, an Independent Regulation
Tags: 
competition
policy
open access

Open Access Fiber Networks

Publication Date: 
March 2, 2009
Author(s): 
telecomDE.com

At a high level, everyone understands what it means for a network to be open: (1) whatever else it might do, the network offers a pure “transmission” service, so that users can freely communicate with each other; (2) users can connect any devices they want, as long as they don’t harm the network; (3) the network connects to other networks; and (4) the network doesn’t discriminate among users or among the services, information, and applications users want to provide to each other. None of these points should be controversial. The concept of open networks is at least 40 years old in the US. The FCC’s seminal 1968 Carterphone decision held that a network operator may not forbid the use of devices on the network that benefit the user and do not harm the network itself. A decade later the FCC established its equipment registration program requiring interfaces to the telephone network to be standardized and fully disclosed.

Link: 
Open Access Fiber Networks
Tags: 
open access
international

Municipal & Utility Fiber Optics Guidebook

Publication Date: 
September 9, 2008
Author(s): 
David Chaffee
Mitchell Shapiro

Distributed by Public Technology Institute, the Municipal & Utility Guidebook to Bringing Broadband Fiber Optics to Your Community is a free, comprehensive guide to the economic and quality-of-life benefits of robust fiber infrastructure. It examines in detail four communities that have successfully deployed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services to their citizens and businesses.

Link: 
Municipal & Utility Fiber Optics Guidebook
Tags: 
FTTH
muni
Burlington
Vermont
case study
reedsburg
virginia
bristol virginia utilities
wisconsin
tennessee
jackson energy authority

Burlington Telecom Fact Sheet

Publication Date: 
July 14, 2008
Author(s): 
Christopher Mitchell

Much misinformation has been disseminated about Burlington Telecom (BT). Here are the facts. BT is a city department of Burlington, Vermont, which owns a fiber-to-the-home network and offers triple play services (phone, cable, internet). The network depends entirely on subscriber revenues and is not subsidized in any form by the City. BT has saved the City money while being built entirely with investor money -- no tax dollars have been or will be used.

ILSR issued a report in 2011 that updates this case study: Learning from Burlington Telecom: Some Lessons for Community Networks

Link: 
Burlington Telecom Fact Sheet
Tags: 
FTTH
Burlington Telecom
public benefits
economics

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