The Blandin Foundation will be holding its 2019 Broadband Conference in October at Grand View Lodge, Nisswa, Minnesota. This year, the title of the event is “Innovation - Putting Broadband to Work.” The event will start on October 8th and will end on the 10th.

From Blandin on Broadband:

Broadband access today is as varied as communities across Minnesota. Some enjoy a gig, others are working hard for any service, and the rest are somewhere in between. This conference is for all communities, regardless of where they are on the spectrum – because we’ve learned that having broadband isn’t enough. It takes inspiration, encouragement and guidance to reap the full benefits. We’ll be talking about how to make the most of what you’ve got and/or get more.

Join us, along with presenters from local governments, cooperatives, and the private sector such as:

• Intelligent Community Forum

• Telecommunications and Information Applications, National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA)

• PCs for People

• Finley Engineering


The conference will start with a presentation from the Co-founder and Board President of Intelligent Community Forum, John Jung. Jung will discuss examples of effective intelligent community approaches and review best practices.

The event will be filled with panels and presenters that offer the latest in research and practical applications. Panel discussions will include:

• Fiber and wireless technologies as complements
• Establishing benchmarks to measure progress
• Cooperatives' growing role in local deployment
• Education, healthcare, and the last mile
• Closing the digital divide and panels on cultural awareness training

Join our very own Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative Christopher Mitchell, in his panel "Local Solutions for Globally Competitive Connectivity."

There’s still time to register for the Great Lakes Connect Broadband Development Conference from September 30th to October 2nd! Join broadband leaders from around the region in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to discuss, “The Future of Digital Communities”. This will be a great opportunity to network with others, hear from engaging speakers, and share resources. Check out the full agenda for details, and complete your registration here.  

Something for Everyone

Attendees can choose from three different conference tracks: 

• Community Development - Planning and financing connectivity solutions. 
• Emerging Technologies - Strategies and best practices for smart cities. 
• Midwest Community Use Case Studies - Telling the unique stories of Midwest communities. 

See You There!

We’re excited to be participating in this event ourselves! The Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Christopher Mitchell and Katie Kienbaum will be presenting on a panel on Oct. 1st about how municipal and cooperative networks can provide unique benefits to communities. Don’t miss out on the conversation: register today. 

Broadband Communities Mag has celebrated the unsung heroes of community broadband by sharing their stories so others can learn from local challenges and victories. This autumn, travel to Washington, D.C., to get noisy about those places implementing better connectivity in their communities without fanfare. October 30 and 31, Broadband Communities will bring several to their conference in a panel hosted by Christopher. There’s still plenty of time to sign up for the conference, and put the conversation, “Quiet Success in Community Broadband,” on your schedule.

Register here for the conference. Public Officials and Community Representatives receive a discounted rate of $175.

In the Nation’s Capital

This year’s conference, titled “High-Speed Broadband: Driving America’s Growth,” will take place in Washington, D.C. Organizers decided to hold the event at The Westin Alexandria Old Town in the D.C. metro because, “We believe the federal government must play a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide. The involvement of Washington lawmakers and policy-setters is crucial to solving the problem.”

Folks arriving on October 29th can get acquainted at a welcome reception that evening; panel discussions begin the following morning. Christopher’s panel, scheduled for 9:40 a.m. on October 30th, brings together officials from four networks that aren’t usually on the front page:

• Jason Grey – Director of Utilities, City of Danville, Virgnia
• Robert Bridgham – Executive Director, Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority
• Richard J. Sherwin – CEO, Spot On Networks, LLC
• Mel Poole – Director, OCALA Fiber Network

The discussion will be an opportunity to learn about approaches that these quiet heroes are taking to improve connectivity in their communities.

View the other panels, presentation topics, and speakers on the conference agenda.

Over the past several years, Boulder has worked methodically to research how they want to move forward with a publicly owned network. The city has determined that the first step will be deploying a fiber optic backbone, to be completed by 2022. In order to help interested vendors learn more about the project prior to issuing the Request for Proposals (RFP), the city will hold a webinar on August 29th at 9 a.m. MDT.

Register for the webinar here.

As described by the city:

Hosted by the City of Boulder’s Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, Julia Richman, the webinar will outline the initiative’s background and progress to date.  In addition, the city will also cover the high-level specifications and expectations for construction services, while also providing an expected solicitation timeline.

Boulder is building the first step of a world-class community telecommunications infrastructure for the 21st Century and beyond.  Broadband connectivity is a critical infrastructure service for quality of modern life, as is the case with roads, water, sewer and electricity.

The webinar will take place via teleconference and if time allows, the city will open the floor for a brief Question & Answer period.

Ready to Build

Earlier this month, the Boulder City Council voted to issue certificates of participation in the amount of $20 million to finance backbone construction. Certificates will be sold in September.

The 65-mile backbone will take about two years to complete and city leaders hope to wrap up preliminary contracts in order to begin construction in December. While they hope to finish this phase of the project by early 2022, Boulder officials acknowledge that this is a “high-level” schedule and subject to change.

As you make plans for the fall, consider adding Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to your list. From September 30th to October 2nd, broadband experts, advocates, and practitioners will be gathering there for the Great Lakes Connect Broadband Development Conference.

Register here and learn more about the speakers, venue, and exhibitors.

Looking Ahead

This year’s conference theme is “The Future of Digital Communities” and will include three tracks:

• Community Development (Planning, Financing, Fiber, Wireless, Mobile)
• Digital/Smart Community Infrastructure
• Public Safety

Christopher will be speaking at the event and will be added to the agenda as it develops. If you attended the 2018 event in Fairlawn, Ohio, you’ll remember the many opportunities to hear speakers and panels discussing last year’s topic, “Creating Intelligent Network Infrastructure to Compete in the Global Economy.” Organizers expect another interesting gathering where folks can share knowledge and opinions.

You can watch videos from last year’s conference here.

Plan Your Participation

Government employees can register for a reduced rate and organizers are offering a single day rate for people who are not able to attend the full conference. Register here. 

The conference will be at The Abbey Resort and Avani Spa located at Lake Geneva. The community is about an hour southwest of Milwaukee. Check out this short video on the resort:

Check back fequently as organizers develop the agenda to help you plan your time at the conference.

On July 9th, Christopher will be in Palo Alto, California, for a talk on municipal networks and the possibilities as the city searches for better connectivity. Organizers from Muni Fiber Palo Alto will also host a screening of the documentary "Do Not Pass Go." Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

Details for the event:

Muni Fiber Palo Alto - How and Why

July 9, 2019 at 7 p.m.

Mitchell Park Community Center

3700 Middlefield Road

El Palo Alto Room West

Palo Alto, California

Google map to the event location

Long Road to Change

For about two decades, Palo Alto has contemplated the possibilities of a municipal fiber optic network. We recently shared an opinion piece by Jeff Hoel, who moved to Palo Alto years ago, in part because he thought the community was sure to invest in citywide Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) infrastructure. As a retired electrical engineer, the ability to get the best connectivity has always been a priority for Jeff. He's still waiting for the city to deploy fiber citywide.

Palo Alto currently leases out dark fiber, generating revenue that goes into a fiber optic fund. With approximately $26 million stashed away so far, Jeff and others are asking Palo Alto to move beyond feasibility studies or private sector partner searches, and build a municipal network. Launching Muni Fiber Palo Alto was one of the first steps to stirring local support; public information meetings like the one on July 9th will also help grow interest.

Before your community can start bringing better connectivity to municipal facilities, offering dark fiber to businesses or local ISPs, or supplying Internet access to residents, you must develop the infrastructure. In the past couple of years, a growing interest in microtrenching has spawned questions from local communities looking for options to traditional excavation. On May 1st, infrastructure product and system manufacturer and distributor Dura-Line held their first Technology Summit focused exclusively on microtrenching. The Austin, Texas, event attracted 200 professionals interested in learning more.

Special guest speakers included:


• Dan Urban - Corbel Communications Industries, LLC
• 
Chris Levendos - Crown Castle
• Jed Zook - Douglas County PUD (Washington state)
• Richard Thomas - Mayor of Mt. Vernon, NY

At the event, attendees were able to view a live demonstration of the step-by-step microtrenching process.

As Dura-Line notes in their press release, increases in urbanization and the critical need for high-quality connectivity will continue to drive innovation for new deployment strategies. While microtrenching has had mixed results in places such as Louisville, other communities are working through issues and having success. In Washington, the Douglas County Community Network (DCCN) is using the deployment technique and making it pay off, after facing problems related to inclement weather.

Enthusiasm at the event has encouraged Dura-Line to consider planning for a second Summit. Tim Grimsley, Vice President of Global Customer Engagement said:

It’s been a little over ten years since Wilson, North Carolina, began offering Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service to residents and businesses. After a decade of Internet access, video, and voice services, the Greenlight Community Broadband network recently celebrated adding the 10,000th subscriber. Their planned celebration at Wilson’s famous Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park was rained out, but network leaders expect to choose another date in the near future.

Check out this awesome editorial cartoon about Greenlight's milestone by Dave DiFillippo of the Wilson Times.

A Busy Decade

We told the story of Wilson in our 2012 report, Carolina's Connected Community: Wilson Gives Greenlight to Fast Internet. The community had approached ISPs serving in the area and asked for better connectivity in order to stay competitive, but those companies didn’t see a financial incentive for investing in Wilson. Rather than take no for an answer, Wilson developed Greenlight for the community of about 50,000 people.

Since then, the town has repeatedly been in the spotlight as an example of a community that has used broadband to advance economic development, help bridge the digital divide, and encourage better connectivity for neighbors. Wilson was the first North Carolina Network to offer gigabit connectivity, which assisted local businesses and attracted new employers. Tina Mooring, a local business owner, describes in episode 171 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, how her opinion of the municipal network changed, leading to her strong support for network expansion. 

Net Inclusion 2019 is happening in Charlotte, North Carolina, and if you aren’t there you can still watch the action online through the livestream from National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA).

In addition to bringing the live action, NDIA is providing a list of the livestreamed content directly below the video on the YouTube page. For a full agenda, check out the Net Inclusion website. 

If you’re in North Carolina at the event, you can make Christopher’s panel, “Infrastructure Projects that Include Affordability, Digital Literacy, and Public Access.” He’ll be moderating a panel with Garrett Brinker from Neighborly, Deb Socia of Next Century Cities, Geoff Millener of the Enterprise Center Chattanooga, and Will Aycock, General Manager of Wilson, North Carolina’s Greenlight Community Broadband Network. The panel will discuss municipal network infrastructure and efforts to bring high-quality connectivity to people living in affordable housing.

Watch the livestream: