Next Century Cities’ just announced that Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will Keynote at the Digital Southwest event on April 18th. You can register now to attend the conference in Mesa, Arizona, at the Mesa Convention Center.

About the event:

This full-day event will bring together broadband champions from federal, state, and local government, as well as community leaders and broadband policy experts from the Southwest and across the nation. The event will feature stories of broadband deployment success, digital inclusion initiatives, financing opportunities, and more.

Participants will hear from mayors, other city officials, state and federal policymakers, rural and tribal representatives, as well as national broadband experts. From financing to infrastructure development to smart cities, panelists will share a wealth of practical information.

The full agenda and participant list is available online, but here’s peek at some of the topics:

• Stories of Success
• Small Cells and Poll Attachments
• Rural and Tribal
• Broadband Financing
• Models 101

Christopher, as Policy Director of Next Century Cities, will participate in the Broadband Infrastructure Panel.

There will be a welcome reception from 5:30 - 7 p.m. at the Media Arts Center in Mesa and the conference starts at 8:30 a.m. at the Convention Center. Register now and be sure to book your hotel.

On March 24th, Christopher was on episode 232 of the web show "This Week in Enterprise Tech." Christopher discussed the future of community broadband networks in the Trump era as well as shared information about the models of successful networks across the country.

Christopher begins his discussion of these issues at 29:45 with host Friar Robert Ballecer and guest co-hosts Lou Maresca and Brian Chee. Throughout the show, the group covers the beginning of the FCC Chairmanship of Ajit Pai, how the Senate is legislating against Internet privacy regulations, and how community networks are pushing ahead to achieve better connectivity for local businesses and residents.

The folks at TWiT.tv share excerpts from our video on Ammon, Idaho, and the guys get into a deeper discussion about the possibilities of local empowerment from community networks.

You can stream the episode at TWiT.tv, or watch here:

How do we connect rural America? Unreliable, slow Internet service with data caps is the norm for much of the country. Even though the federal government gives billions of dollars to large telecom companies, North Carolina is one of the many states that still has an urban and rural digital divide.

Western North Carolina Public Radio (WCQS) recently spoke with our Christopher Mitchell about local ways to improve rural Internet access. While Christopher spoke of electric cooperatives, two other initiatives are also seeking creative solutions in the western half of the state.

Potential Service from Electric Cooperatives

Communities across the U.S. are already bringing better connectivity to their homes and businesses. Specifically, Christopher pointed to the growing number of electric cooperatives providing Internet service: 

“When you look at the threat communities face from not having broadband Internet—the way people are moving away, and fewer people are willing to move in—these electric membership corporations really have to think about what they can do to make sure there’s a high quality of life.”

In our 2016 North Carolina Connectivity report, we explored the work of two local electric cooperatives, Lumbee River and Blue Ridge Mountain. They collaborated with telephone cooperatives to provide high-speed Internet service in the several rural counties near Georgia.

Spotlight on Local Solutions

The WCQS article reported on two more local initiatives: the community network in Highlands, North Carolina, and the nonprofit Land of Sky Regional Council. 

Back in 2015, the people of Highlands saw that poor Internet access was hurting their community. They quickly built the Altitude Community Broadband network. Highlands Internet Technology Director Matt Shuler told WCQS: 

“...

The 2017 Broadband Communities Summit, Fiber: Get In The Game Of Gigs, is approaching fast. From May 1 - 4, the Downtown Sheraton in Dallas, Texas, will be packed with policy wonks, advocates, experts, and vendors all mulling over the importance of high-quality connectivity. You can still register online.

Once again, the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC) will hold a special preconference session on Monday afternoon. Christopher will participate in the CLIC session as a panelist on the section titled, “The 2017 State Legislative Session: Challenges and Opportunities for Local Internet Choice.” It’s scheduled to start at 2 p.m. and the panel will discuss various state legislative measures this session and state barriers in general.

Christopher will also be on Tuesday’s Blue Ribbon panel as part of the Economic Development Program at 3 p.m. Lev Gonick, CEO from OneCommunity will moderate the discussion and the other speakers will be Nicol Turner-Lee, a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Center for Technology Innovation from the Brookings Institutions and Hilda Legg, Vice Chairman of Broadband Communities. Here’s a description of the topic from the agenda:

We now have a new administration, a new congress, and a new FCC.  They are all focusing on new investment strategies, accelerating high-capacity wireless deployment, and addressing the digital divide.  What does all this mean for local communities?  Can public-private partnerships provide fertile common ground?

Check out the full agenda for the main event and for the CLIC preconference session. 

Earlybird full pass registration expires on April 19, so register now for the best price.