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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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.”

With a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) boom sweeping across the nation as communities look to build or expand access to ubiquitous, reliable, high-speed Internet infrastructure, Fiber Connect 2022 is poised to bring together leading network operators well versed in a multitude of technologies, local government and public sector leaders, network builders, and an assortment leading industry experts later this month.

Coming on the heels of last year’s gathering – the largest Fiber Connect conference to date – this year’s event will return to Nashville from June 12 – 15. It promises a more expansive agenda with more exhibitors, special events, receptions, and networking opportunities, as well as a bigger showcase, which includes a new feature this year that presents six innovative Proof of Concept (PoC) Demonstrations that will be on display in the Fiber Connect 2022 Expo Hall. 

This year’s conference will also feature a daily class on the FBA OpTIC™ Course, which is designed to “Train the Trainer” as the FBA ramps up its effort to cultivate future fiber technicians. 

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“The event will feature executives from a broad scope of industry sectors — traditional audiences as well as new audiences — commercial network operators, mobile network operators, electric cooperatives, municipalities, digital infrastructure asset owners and developers, investors, technology suppliers, enterprises and more,” says Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, the host for the annual conference.

With an unprecedented opportunity for local communities to build their own ubiquitous high-speed Internet infrastructure, a new national organization has been formed to advocate on behalf of municipal broadband initiatives and to give local governments a seat at the table as federal and state officials craft legislation and grant programs to close the digital divide.

Today, at the Broadband Communities Summit 2022 in Houston, the group’s founding members held a press conference to announce the birth of the American Association of Public Broadband (AAPB).

“We were formed by a group of municipal officials in order to advance advocacy efforts for public broadband and to make sure they have a voice in Washington and in all 50 states,” said AAPB board member Bob Knight.

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Knight went on to explain that while AAPB will be advocating for municipal solutions to local connectivity challenges, “we are model agnostic, whether you want to partner with a large ISP (Internet Service Provider), build your own network, or form a public-private partnership.”

A ‘Voice in the Conversation’

Noting that AAPB will work closely with ally organizations and industry groups, AAPB was founded primarily “because municipal networks didn’t have much of a voice in the conversation around broadband funding in the American Rescue Plan Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” even as there was significant lobbying efforts on behalf of the big telecom companies.

AAPB Secretary Kimberly McKinley added that lawmakers are often assailed with stories about municipal broadband failures but that it was important for lawmakers to hear the whole story.

According to a research study conducted by Fiber Broadband Association and RVA, LLC, fiber deployments in North America hit record highs in 2019. The broadband deployment initiative experienced a 16 percent growth or roughly 7,500,000 new homes now with fiber connectivity. More than 46.5 million houses have access to fiber Internet access compared to the 50,000 homes in 2002. 


Here are some key findings from the report:

Over the past year, fiber broadband networks became available to 6.5 million additional unique homes — a record level of additions. Smaller providers accounted for 25 percent of these new home connections. 

All-fiber deployments to customer end-points are at record levels, with over 400,000 fiber routes deployed in the last year. This increase was driven by new deployments to homes, upgrades by cable operators, and the beginning of deployments to small cell sites.

To learn more, the full report is available to members of the Fiber Broadband Association. Lisa R. Youngers, president and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association:

2019 was a banner year for fiber broadband. Fiber networks now support everything from 5G to Smart Cities to the Internet of Things. I’m thrilled that our Association can demonstrate the progress that we have made. In 2020, we will continue the work to connect the unconnected and accelerate our fiber future. 

A similar report in 2018 found that broadband was currently available to 5.9 million new homes. More than 1,000 small providers provided for 29 percent of the deployment.