California

San Francisco: Building Community Broadband to Protect Net Neutrality and Online Privacy by Katharine Trendacosta, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Mayor Farrell Advances Plan for Municipal Fiber Internet by Ellen McGrody, Bay City Beacon

This week, the San Francisco Municipal Fiber Blue Ribbon Board released a report recommending a set of provisions that ISPs using the city’s infrastructure will have to follow, the latest in a set of recent moves towards to the rollout of municipal fiber in San Francisco. Since taking office last month, Mayor Mark Farrell has overseen significant commitments toward the rollout of the proposed fiber optic network.

San Francisco Internet Challenges Feds, Major ISPs by Garrett Bergthold, San Francisco Weekly

Colorado

Longmont officials, low-income housing residents grappling with property manager to get NextLight by Sam Lounsberry, Longmont Times-Call

Stalled negotiations between the property manager of Longmont affordable housing complexes and officials with the NextLight municipal high-speed internet service have confused residents about their potential access to the broadband network.

Mission Rock Residential manages both Quail Village and Cloverbasin Village low-income apartments, and has left residents to choose between private-sector internet providers such as Comcast — which has an exclusive marketing agreement with Mission Rock — by shunning proposals from the city to install NextLight.

While Mission Rock is far from the only property management company or landlord to stay off the award-winning NextLight fiber-optic network, some Cloverbasin residents say its deal with Comcast and exclusion of NextLight contradicts its...

Alabama

This is how politicians should deal with bad cable companies by Charles Mills, BGR

Mediacom has a franchise agreement to offer cable and Internet service within the city, thanks to its 2016 takeover of the local cable company, Andalusia TV Cable. But Johnson says that since Mediacom took over, service has been tanking.

“For the entire time that I have been mayor, I have not received as many complaints about anything as I have received about the cable and broadband service from Mediacom,” Johnson told the city council last week, according to the local paper. “Whatever it is that they’re doing here, they need to make some changes…they operate here because we let them. As a city government we can’t tell them or make them do anything. But we can locate someone who is an expert on broadband and Internet who can tell us what we can do.”

One small Alabama town is tired of MediaCom's crap by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

Mayor puts Mediacom on notice: Get better, or we'll compete with you by Lacy Stinson, Andalusia Star News

Colorado

Editorial: Broadband study was good decision by Loveland Reporter-Herald Editorial Board

Iowa

Council authorizes $15K in attorney fees for work on possible municipal utilities by Sarah Strandberg, Decorah Newspapers

Kentucky

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California

Wave sticks it to Comcast in Santa Maria, California, with muni broadband network by Dave Frankel, FierceCable

California’s net neutrality bill is vulnerable to legal attack, EFF says by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

Colorado

Fort Collins starts hiring process for broadband leadership by Nick Coltrain, The Coloradoan

Internet providers pitch municipal broadband partnerships to Loveland City Council by Julia Rentsch, Loveland Reporter-Herald

The Loveland City Council heard presentations from representatives of six internet providers during a study session Tuesday. The presentations were requested by a council rule of four Dec. 12 due to concerns about a pro-municipal broadband slant to the information they have received to date.

Members of the council and city staff said repeatedly that they want a deal that will tend to the needs of Loveland internet customers who say they are being underserved by incumbent companies. Some councilors have also cited concerns about the city entering the business and competing with those same providers.

In 2015, over 82 percent of Loveland voters approved a ballot measure that allowed the city to provide a retail fiber-to-the-premise broadband utility. The ballot question stipulated that the city cannot raise taxes to fund it.

Alaska

Bill to require Alaska Internet companies to practice net neutrality by Leroy Polk, KTUU News

California

Palo Alto prepares for massive downtown 'upgrade' by Gennady Sheyner, Palo Alto Weekly News

Dean Batchelor, chief operating officer at City of Palo Alto Utilities, said both the gas and water lines were near the end of their respective life cycles. He pointed to recent water leaks on University Avenue as a sign that it's time to act.

Then, following the same logic, Utilities Department officials agreed to add fiber to the mix. Citing the City Council's recent advocacy for a "dig once" strategy for installing telecommunication infrastructure and its general support for expanding the city's dark-fiber-optic network, officials plan to install 2,750 linear feet of conduit in the same trenches that will contain the new gas and water pipes.

"One of the thoughts was, since we really don't have any fiber conduit going down University Avenue and since we're going to tear up 26 blocks, it made sense to go ahead and put in 2-inch fiber conduits," Batchelor said.

Colorado

Colorado Cities Keep Voting To Build Their Own Broadband Networks by Karl Bode, Tech Dirt

Some Cities Aren’t Waiting Around for Trump to Gut Net Neutrality—They Are Building Their Own by Valerie Vande Panne, Alternet

In contrast, according to Christopher Mitchell, director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, concerned citizens of Fort Collins organized on social media and coordinated “broadband and brews” events at local...