Tag: "resource"

Municipal Networks and Economic Development

Posted June 25, 2015 by phineas

When a community invests in a municipal broadband network, it often does so because it hopes to reap economic benefits from the network. Many people and organizations have explored the positive relationship between municipal Internet networks and economic development, including a White House report published in January 2015. Municipal networks create jobs by ensuring businesses have fast, affordable, and reliable Internet access; the old DSL and cable networks just don't cut it. These networks improve the productivity of existing businesses and attract new businesses to communities, allow individuals to work from home more effectively, support advanced healthcare and security systems, strengthen local housing markets, and represent long term social investments in the form of better-connected schools and libraries. They also create millions of dollars in savings that can be reinvested into local economies.

"Upgrading to higher speed broadband lets consumers use the Internet in new ways, increases the productivity of American individuals and businesses, and drives innovation throughout the digital ecosystem." - Executive Office of President Obama

When municipalities choose to deploy fiber networks, they introduce Internet services into the community that are not only significantly faster than DSL and cable, but more reliable. With more reliable fiber connections, businesses and individuals are far less likely to experience temporary blackouts that can halt productivity in vexing and expensive ways. And because these networks are locally-owned and operated, business owners do not have to spend hours on the phone with an absentee Internet Service Provider like AT&T in the (albeit unlikely) event of a problem.

We at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance have catalogued numerous examples of economic development achievements that have occurred as a result of local governments deploying a municipal broadband network. Below, you can find a wide range of articles...

Community Networks Map 2015 Fact Sheet

Posted February 9, 2015 by lgonzalez

As of January 2015, more communities than ever before have realized the value of publicly owned broadband infrastructure.

In order to introduce our updated Community Networks Map to advocates of better broadband, policy makers, and community leaders, we created the Community Networks Map fact sheet.

This is a great resource for policy makers, advocates, and community leaders who want a visul tool to share the truth – that a large number of successful community broadband networks are spread across the country, serving constituents, encouraging economic development, and saving public dollars.

Download the PDF to learn more and visit the online interactive map to obtain detailed information and links to specific community stories on the map.

"Getting Started on Broadband" Webinar from Blandin on January 7th

Posted January 5, 2015 by lgonzalez

The Blandin Foundation will be holding another informative webinar on Wednesday, January 7th. The event is titled "Getting Started on Community Broadband" and runs from 2 - 3 p.m. CST. You can register online for the free event.

However, we think it might better be called "Broadband in the Community" or something else because the focus is not on "community broadband" as that term is used in the vast majority of situations. This will likely be a good webinar for people new to broadband but will almost certainly not be focused on community networks.

Blandin Foundation consultant Bill Coleman and his guests will touch on comparisons between wired and wireless technologies, provide information on resources and tools for community broadband initiatives, and explore options to improve connectivity in your community.

From the Blandin on Broadband blog webinar announcement:

Two important trends are driving more communities to consider community engagement in broadband availability for the first time. First is the fact that broadband as a necessary element of everyday life is not a theoretical discussion anymore. Almost everyone wants broadband so that they can participate fully in 21st Century life. What might have been hyperbole ten years ago is now undeniably true. Lack of broadband lowers property values and impacts quality of life. No doubt about it. Second, the availability of state and federal fund to address rural broadband issues seems to be growing. Unprepared communities will soon see the funds flowing to their better prepared neighbors, thus motivating communities to get busy and play catch up.

This event is part of the Blandin Community Broadband Program (BCBP) Webinar Series and will be archived with past webinars. The series focuses on providing resources for rural community leaders where adequate connectivity is often lacking. In addition to community broadband initiatives, webinar topics also cover issues such as adoption, legislative changes, and access to grants...

Community Connectivity Toolkit Launched

Posted December 4, 2014 by lgonzalez

If your community is hungry for better connectivity, you may be interested in starting a community network initiative. Getting started can be a daunting task so we developed the Community Connectivity Toolkit.

The Toolkit includes broad suggestions for steps you should take as you investigate solutions for your community. We also include resources to help you educate yourself through case studies, fact sheets, and other media. We touch on common stumbling blocks and ways to counter them. The toolkit suggests policies that will prepare your community for better connectivity.

The Community Connectivity Toolkit helps you ask the right questions and gives you a starting point where you can find information to learn, share, and prepare. If you have suggestions for how to improve the toolkit or questions that you want answered that are not in it, please let us know.

Community Connectivity Toolkit

Posted December 3, 2014 by lgonzalez

Many people have come to us for advice on how to get started on an effort to improve Internet connectivity. We've created resources to help you and your community and have curated materials from other organizations to help as you seek a path to better Internet access. Please let us know if you have suggestions or additional comments by emailing us - broadband@muninetworks.org.

An increasing number of municipalities and cooperatives are investing in telecommunications infrastructure to serve public facilities, local businesses, and residences (see our map here). They're filling the gaps created by large national cable and telephone companies, which have focused their investments in primarily areas with assured returns. As a result, rural areas and urban regions with higher concentrations of low-income households don't have the Internet access they need. Often the infrastructure just isn't there; sometimes it's unaffordable.

In order to correct these errors and bring fast, affordable, reliable connectivity to all of their citizens, communities are implementing change at the local level. Each municipality, county, and region is unique, and so need to review potential policies to determine which suit their community and vision.

In the summer of 2019, Next Century Cities (NCC) released the Becoming Broadband Ready Toolkit, the most comprehensive resources we've seen to help local communities. This comprehensive resource covers considerations from early in the process to determining success throughout implementation. In addition to offering guidance with examples from across the country, the toolkit offers links to other resources, such as model ordinances, reports, podcasts, and organizations laser-focused on specific and relevant issues.

The toolkit organizes material into overreaching themes, such as building community support, establishing policies to encourage investment, and the pros and cons if publicly owned models...

Advice for Starting a Community Network - Community Broadband Bits Episode #94

Posted April 15, 2014 by christopher

The Community Broadband Bits podcast this week focuses on what people can do to start building a grassroots effort for a network in their community. John St Julien of Lafayette, Louisiana, returns to the show to discuss what they did and ideas for others to follow.

John was last on the show for episode 19, where we focused more on the specific approach used in Lafayette.

We discuss the early challenges and ideas for how to engage others, who may be the best people to approach, and how to maintain a sense of progress during what may be a very challenging organizing effort.

Read the transcript from this episode here.

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show - please e-mail us or leave a comment below. Also, feel free to suggest other guests, topics, or questions you want us to address.

This show is 20 minutes long and can be played below on this page or via iTunes or via the tool of your choice using this feed.

Listen to previous episodes here. You can can download this Mp3 file directly from here.

Find more episodes in our podcast index.

Thanks to Valley Lodge for the music, licensed using Creative Commons. The song is "Sweet Elizabeth."

Santa Monica's Telecommunications Master Plan

Posted March 3, 2014 by christopher

In 1998, Santa Monica created a Telecommunications Master Plan that has guided it for the past fifteen years in building an impressive fiber network connecting all community anchor institutions and many business districts. We have just released a case study detailing this effort, entitled: Santa Monica City Net: An Incremental Approach to Building a Fiber Optic Network.

Below, you will find the original Master Plan and Exhibits. Santa Monica got it right - this document can still be a model today for communities across the United States. This document is particularly important for local governments that do not have a municipal electric department because it offers an alternative model run out of the IT department.

Crawford Explains Network Neutrality on 99% Invisible

Posted December 26, 2013 by christopher

The show was published over a year ago, but it holds up as a good explanation for both network neutrality and the danger of Comcast and other massive cable companies becoming too powerful. The popular podcast 99% Invisible interviewed Susan Crawford on the subject last November.

It is worth listening to and keeping as a reference for those who do not understand the threat. That said, I think the show oversimplifies the dynamic of high speed access -- the big phone companies are not totally irrelevant, just mostly irrelevant when it comes to delivering faster, more reliable services. And this is not technological determinism so much as poor management choices and the pressure Wall Street puts on firms to harvest profits rather than investing for the future.

Community Broadband and Economic Development Fact Sheet

Posted November 7, 2012 by christopher

Community Broadband Networks have a very good track record in creating jobs, and we have just released a fact sheet [pdf] that collects some exciting success stories -- where a publicly owned network attracted new businesses or helped existing businesses to thrive.

Though the telecommunications needs of local businesses have swelled dramatically in recent years, the DSL and cable networks have not been able to keep up. Businesses are often stuck between a connection that does not meet their needs and a connection they cannot afford -- but local, publicly owned networks have stepped in to provide the ultra-fast, super reliable services at affordable prices.

This fact sheet discusses the jobs that were enabled by public investments in Chanute, Kansas; Chattanooga and Tullahoma, Tennessee; Lafayette, Louisiana; Bristol, Martinsville, and Danville, Virginia; and Springfield, Missouri.

This should be a great resource for those educating their community about the importance of having a network that is directly accountable to the community. Hand it out, include it in conference materials, email it to legislators, whatever.

We are developing additional fact sheets, but are always interested in what would be most helpful to you, so don't be afraid to tell us.

Audio of Dirty Trick Push Poll in Lafayette from 2005

Posted October 29, 2012 by christopher

We sometimes fail to communicate the great lengths to which big cable and telecommunications companies will go to intimidate and scare voters into opposing a community broadband projects. They have deployed a variety of dirty tricks and we have done a poor job of cataloging them.

But a recent phone call with John St. Julien in Lafayette, Louisiana, reminded me of a push poll that an alert citizen recorded back when Cox, Bellsouth (now AT&T), and/or other opponents of the municipal broadband project commissioned a "push poll" to scare voters into opposing a referendum on whether the City should build its own network. We tell the full story about this campaign in our Broadband at the Speed of Light report.

But in anticipation of our interview with John St Julien tomorrow, we thought we should make sure our readers/listeners had a chance to hear this 30 minute call. In it, a pollster is asking a series of questions commissioned by opponents to the community broadband network and responding to it. The audio is sometimes hard to make out, but well worth it as the person recording it has some pretty funny responses to some of the questions being posed.

This is just one of the reasons that referenda are a poor tool for measuring community support of a project. While the big companies can dump unlimited funds into their self-interested "vote no" campaigns, the city itself cannot encourage voters to go one way or another. And local groups supporting a community broadband network have far fewer resources.

For instance, when Longmont, Colorado, had its first referendum, Comcast blitzed the community with something like $250,000 in ads and misinformation (setting a local record for expenditures) -- resulting in a pretty significant majority for the "nay" voters. After citizens realized they'd been had, they clamored for another vote. Two years later, Comcast dropped $400,000 on Longmont but the grassroots successfully out-organized the cash-dump.

If you want to know more about how your community can win a fight like this, read more about Lafayette and listen to our conversation with John St. Julien tomorrow (the first of several).

Here is the push poll and response.

community broadband networks

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