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Colorado and Texas Municipal Broadband Networks Nab National Awards

From Colorado to Texas, municipal broadband providers continue to rack up industry accolades, not just for delivering fiber service–the gold standard of Internet connectivity–but for these networks’ ability to provide ubiquitous access across an entire community at affordable rates.

The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) recently announced that its Community Broadband Projects of the Year Awards for 2023 will go to the Connexion network in Fort Collins, Colorado and TeamPharr.net in Pharr, Texas.

Awarding Community-Wide Access and Affordability

The Fort Collins award is in recognition for the city having established “a municipal broadband utility created by and for the community to improve the life of all 80,000 residential and commercial properties of Fort Collins through better, more affordable Internet,” NATOA said in announcing the award.

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Ft Collins NOC

But it wasn’t just because Fort Collins’ network provides city-wide access to fiber. The award also recognizes that “Connexion offers the fastest Internet speeds available at affordable prices (emphasis added) as well as competitive phone and TV services.”

ILSR's Chris Mitchell Receives 2021 Internet Protocol Award from Public Knowledge

Public Knowledge's annual IP3 award ceremony was held virtually on September 23rd for its 18th year. The event serves as "a special occasion to honor those who have made significant contributions in the three areas of IP: Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol" over the past year or over the course of their career. 

Among the honorees was ILSR's own Christopher Mitchell, who received the Internet Protocol Award. With a list of present and past winners including Tim Wu, Mignon Clyburn, Tim Berners-Lee, Sascha Meinrath, and a host of other hard-working and thoughtful champions of a free, open, and universally accessible Internet, he was in good company. 

The full list of winners for 2021 was:

Information Policy Award will be presented to Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League.

Our Intellectual Property Award will be posthumously presented to Sherwin Siy. He was a tech policy activist whose expertise spanned a range of fields including copyright, privacy, telecommunications, and free expression.

Our Internet Protocol Award will be presented to Chris Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis.

And our President's Award will be presented to Senator Amy Klobuchar — one of the Senate’s foremost leaders on tech issues like platform regulation and broadband opportunity.

Public Knowledge serves as the vanguard of progressive policy in media, technology, privacy, infrastructure, and regulation, and we are honored to count them and the rest of the honorees as allies in the fight for fast, affordable, reliable Internet access for all. 

 

Public Knowledge's IP3 Awards Will Be Held Virtually September 23rd

Public Knowledge, a nonprofit organization devoted to ensuring that "copyright, telecommunications, and Internet law" evolve and continue to be regulated in pursuit of what is best for the public at large, will be holding its 18th annual Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol (IP3) awards virtually this September 23rd, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Register here.

Entering it's 20th anniversary this year, Public Knowledge has and continues to do pioneering, nuanced, and impactful work in pursuit of towards healthier markets, broadband access, media consolidation, net neutrality, spectrum reform, consumer privacy, and an array of other issues. The organization's Senior Policy Counsel John Bergmeyer joined the Community Broadband Bits podcast in 2017 to talk about cable monopolies, content providers, and market competition.

Three individuals will be presented awards for their work by Joy Boulamwini of the Algorithmic Justice League:

Our Intellectual Property Award will be posthumously presented to Sherwin Siy. He was a tech policy activist whose expertise spanned a range of fields including copyright, privacy, telecommunications, and free expression.

Our Internet Protocol Award will be presented to Chris Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis.

And our President's Award will be presented to Senator Amy Klobuchar — one of the Senate’s foremost leaders on tech issues like platform regulation and broadband opportunity.

Register for the event here to join the event and support the ongoing work by Public Knowledge.

Ocala Fiber Network Gallops Smartly Toward Expansion

Even before the central Florida city of Ocala in Marion County became officially known as “The Horse Capital of the World,” the city – home to 61,810 Floridians and over 1,200 county-wide horse farms – was already galloping toward high-speed Internet connectivity. In recent years, the Ocala Fiber Network (OFN) has expanded into offering residential service, trotting carefully towards a citywide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) finish.

It began in 1995 with the Ocala municipal electric department upgrading its substation monitoring (SCADA) system, which has been estimated to have saved the city $25 million in networking costs since. Over the past two years, OFN has extended the network to bring affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service to city residents, neighborhood by neighborhood.

While the municipal network has been providing high-speed Internet service for the past decade to area businesses, healthcare facilities, community anchor institutions, and schools throughout the county, OFN launched residential service in 2019 and is now serving 2,500 residential subscribers in four city neighborhoods.

“We did four pilot neighborhoods. Our target goal was to have a 30 percent take rate in each neighborhood. In the largest neighborhood (the Highlands neighborhood) with a thousand homes, we have a 42 percent take rate. We still have a challenge in one neighborhood (Happiness Homes) with about a 10 percent take rate that we think is mostly an educational challenge,” Ocala Fiber Network Director Mel Poole told us in a recent interview.

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ILSR Recognized in Broadband Communities Magazine's FTTH Top 100

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s (ILSR’s) Community Broadband Networks initiative is honored to be recognized as one of the top 100 fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) leaders by Broadband Communities magazine.

Broadband Communities publishes its annual Top 100 FTTH list to acknowledge the contributions that companies and organizations have made to the fiber optic industry. “‘Building a Fiber-Connected World’ is the tagline of Broadband Communities magazine, and each year the FTTH Top 100 list recognizes organizations that lead the way in this endeavor,” the publication explained. In addition to ILSR, awardees include fiber vendors, network operators, business consultants, and broadband engineers.

MuniNetworks and Community Networks Make the Mark

In the list entry for ILSR, Broadband Communities said:

ILSR’s publications, including its MuniNetworks.org blog, toolkit and weekly podcast that covers broadband and more . . . have been instrumental in showing communities that controlling their broadband destinies is feasible and has the potential to improve local economies and quality of life.

Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative, commented on the award:

Broadband Communities was among the first to recognize the benefits of fiber optics for everyone and we are honored to be again named to their list of top 100 FTTH leaders.

Broadband Communities recognized a select few community broadband networks in the FTTH Top 100, including UTOPIA Fiber, an open access fiber network serving more than a dozen Utah communities, and Co-Mo Connect, the broadband subsidiary of Missouri electric cooperative. 

NDIA Net Inclusion Webinar Series Begins April 7

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance's Net Inclusion conference this year is a webinar series, running eight consecutive weeks between April 7 and May 26. One-hour webinars at 1pm ET on Wednesday each week will feature a diverse cast of policy experts, advocates, city officials, and nonprofits to talk about what's going on at the local and state level. Register free here.

The first panel, titled "The Structural Racism Behind Digital Inequity," will feature Chrissie Powell (Executive Director, Byte Back Baltimore), James Walker, II (Founder/CEO, Informative Technologies Inc.), Quincy B. (Founder & Director, EraseTheRedline Inc.), and Rebecca Kauma (Economic and Digital Inclusion Program Manager, City of Long Beach). The panel will be moderated by Alisa Valentin (Special Advisor, Office of FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks). 

See the list of subsequent panels below:

  • April 14th: Digital Navigators: Models, Partners, Assessment, and Funding
  • April 21st: Coalitions and Digital Equity Planning
  • April 28th: Local Government and State Digital Inclusion Funding, Offices, Coordination, and Policy
  • May 5th: Weaving Digital Inclusion into Existing Community and Government Programs
  • May 12th: Partnering with Healthcare Organizations to Increase Digital Equity
  • May 19th: Filling the Gap – Building Subsidized & Affordable Broadband

During the final event on May 26th, the NDIA will announce the winners of this year's Digital Equity Benton Awards. Two awards will be handed out this year. The first is the Digital Equity Champion, which “will recognize an outstanding individual who has made a difference in the field of digital equity.” The Emerging Leader Award, on the other hand, will “acknowledge an up-and-coming digital inclusion practitioner.” 

Read more about the awards here.

Register free here.

Applications Being Accepted for Digital Inclusion Leadership Awards

It’s February, which means the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) is once again taking applications for the 2021 Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion Awards. The deadline is February 12th. 

From the announcement:

Named for Charles Benton, the founder of Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, NDIA created the awards to recognize leadership and dedication in advancing digital equity: from promoting the ideal of accessible and affordable communications technology for all Americans to crafting programs and policies that make it a reality.

Two awards will be handed out this year. The first is the Digital Equity Champion, which “will recognize an outstanding individual who has made a difference in the field of digital equity.” The Emerging Leader Award, on the other hand, will “acknowledge an up-and-coming digital inclusion practitioner.” 

Winners will be chosen based on their past work and commitment to advancing digital equity across the country. Nomination will be judged according to individuals’:

  • Sustained commitment to digital inclusion programs, practices, and/or policy work
  • Applied innovative approaches to addressing and solving problems
  • Extensive use of data and evaluation to shape digital inclusion programs and share best practices
  • Demonstrated leadership in his/her community, and/or
  • Collaboration that can be scaled and replicated

Winners will be announced at the upcoming Net Inclusion webinar series, which runs from April 7th to May 26th. You can register for the event here.

Past winners include Rebecca F. Kauma, Economic and Digital Inclusion Program Manager at The City of Long Beach, for her work on leading more equitable economic and digital inclusion outcomes for the city’s low-income neighborhoods and community of color, and Deb Socia, CEO of the Enterprise Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

ILSR Recognized in Broadband Communities Magazine's FTTH Top 100

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s (ILSR’s) Community Broadband Networks initiative is honored to be recognized as one of the top 100 Fiber-the-the-Home (FTTH) leaders by Broadband Communities magazine.

Broadband Communities publishes its annual Top 100 FTTH list to acknowledge the contributions that these companies and organizations have made to the fiber optic industry. “‘Building a Fiber-Connected World’ is the tagline of Broadband Communities magazine, and each year the FTTH Top 100 list recognizes organizations that lead the way in this endeavor,” the publication explained. In addition to ILSR, awardees include fiber vendors, network operators, business consultants, and broadband engineers.

MuniNetworks and Community Networks Make the Mark

In the list entry for ILSR, Broadband Communities said:

ILSR’s publications, including its MuniNetworks.org blog, toolkit and weekly podcast that covers broadband and more . . . have shown communities that controlling their broadband destinies is feasible and has the potential to improve local economies and quality of life.

Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative, commented on the award:

We are honored to be once again named to Broadband Communities' Top 100 — the Broadband Communities publications and events have been essential in expanding community network approaches throughout North America. We could not have built our platform without their events and research over the many years we have worked together.

Broadband Communities recognized a select few community broadband networks in the FTTH Top 100, including UTOPIA Fiber, an open access fiber network serving more than a dozen Utah communities, and Co-Mo Connect, the broadband subsidiary of Missouri electric cooperative. The list also identifies a number of consultants that frequently work with municipalities and/or cooperatives, such as CCG Consulting, Conexon, and Finley Engineering.

Christopher Honored at October Broadband Communities Event

This past October at the Broadband Communities Economic Development event, Christopher returned with all sorts of news from different places around the country where people are taking control of local connectivity. He also returned with an award from the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC). The nonprofit organization champions the right for local communities to decide for themselves the best course of action when expanding broadband to their residents, businesses, and institutions.

CLIC honored Christopher with the organization's "Indispensable Contributor Award" and described their decision to recognize his work: 

You have been chosen for this singular award in recognition of the indispensable contributions you have made to local Internet choice during the last decade, for your tireless opposition to barriers to local decision-making, and for your creation of a huge and immensely valuable body of knowledge about community broadband initiatives.

As a clever symbol of Christopher's "indispensable" work CLIC's President Jim Baller presented him with a special travel mug to add to his awards shelf:

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In a follow-up email, Jim added:

“If Chris Mitchell and his team at ILSR did no more than tell the evolving story of community broadband in real time, their work would be invaluable.  But that is far from all they do. They often write high-quality analyses and reports. They address countless audiences in person and through electronic means. They participate actively in our fights against state barriers to public broadband initiatives. They communicate regularly with the media to debunk industry myths and falsehoods. This list could go on and on. Chris and his colleagues have truly earned CLIC’s recognition for their indispensable work."

Thanks, Jim and CLIC, from all of us at the Community Broadband Networks Team at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. We are truly thankful for the work you've done to lay a strong foundation on which we can build more support for local communities.

Christopher Mitchell Receives Courageous Leadership Award from Blandin Foundation

One of the most respected and well-known organizations dedicated to improving the lives of people in rural Minnesota, the Blandin Foundation, has honored Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, with the Courageous Leadership Award.

The award was recently presented at the 2019 Blandin Broadband Conference in Nisswa, Minnesota.

The Blandin Foundation listed some of the many reasons for awarding the recognition to Christopher:

For his research, advocacy and leadership at the national level on behalf of community broadband networks, via public sector ownership and cooperatives, as a strategy for maximizing community benefits from broadband network development.

  • Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance where he researches and publicizes the benefits of community-owned broadband systems.
  • Honored as one of the 2012 Top 25 in Public Sector Technology nationally by Government Technology magazine.
  • Leads MuniNetworks.org, a comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community broadband. Chris is also policy director at Next Century Cities, a national community broadband advocacy organization.

In response, Christopher said:

“It is an honor for our work to be recognized by the Blandin Foundation, which has done so much for Greater Minnesota. Achieving the promise of Border-to-Border broadband Internet access requires contributions from everyone, especially communities themselves. We have always felt that Internet access — a service that education already depends upon and medicine soon will — needs much more local leadership. That leadership is what we have seen from the communities that are reaping the rewards of the best connectivity available today.”

Read more about the award and read a the transcript of an interview with Christopher about his work on municipal broadband and about being a leader at the Blandin Foundation's website.