The Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) will be hosting what is sure to be an interesting online discussion about local broadband models. On Wednesday, September 19th at 4:30 CST, an expert panel will be presenting "Models for Building Local Broadband: Public, Private, Coop, Nonprofit." The event will be held at Urbana City Hall in Illinois, but you can also stream the event live here.

In addition to our own Christopher Mitchell from ILSR, we will hear from Joanne Hovis, CTC Technology & Energy (public interest telecom expert and also NATOA President) and Wally Bowen, Mountain Area Information Network (non-profit internet provider in North Carolina).

From the press release:

We want to remind our readers that tomorrow, September 13, is the day for "How a Municipal Network Can Help Your City." The webinar runs from 2-3 Eastern time. Registration is free and Christopher Mitchell will be joined by Kyle Hollified, VP Sales/Marketing, Bristol Virginia Utilities and Colman Keane, Director of Fiber Technology, EPB, in Chattanooga.

Christopher will be discussing his report, “Broadband at the Speed of Light” as well as other economic benefits from publicly owned networks and the panel will talk about lessons learned in building and deploying municipal networks. Mary Beth Henry from Portland will discuss their experience with broadband as well.

The Public Technology Institute and the National League of Cities are sponsoring the event.

Not long ago, we told you about Farmington, New Mexico, a community of 32,000 residents who want to capitalize on its current fiber network. Residents are tired of waiting for private investment in their community and want to take matters into their own hands. The city's electric utility uses the existing fiber network and the city has encountered five separate companies interested in leasing dark fiber as a means to offer services.

New Mexico does not currently have state barriers in place, but its residents recognize the important role of municipal networks and want to proactively block restrictive state legislation. The Media Literacy Project and the Free Press recently met with New Mexico's U.S. Senator Tom Udall's staff in Albuquerque. Udall is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and a member of the Subcommmittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.

The goal of the meeting was to make sure he knows the potential for publicly owned networks in the state. Both groups encouraged him to take the lead on federal legislation that will prevent anti-competitive state bans on municipal networks. At least 19 other states' legislatures have responded to heavy lobbying from large telecommunications companies. The results are crippling restrictions and outright bans on publicly owned networks.

In July, Udall officially announced that the first phase of the Connect America Fund would bring high-speed Internet to 8,000 New Mexicans within three years. According to Udall's announcement:

Broadband and telecommunications companies CenturyLink and Windstream will receive $2.3 million to build broadband infrastructure for New Mexico homes and businesses that currently lack high-speed internet access, connecting them to the $8 trillion global internet economy.

Just on the heels of Time Warner Cable announcing 81 new jobs in Kansas City in response to the newly competitive environment created by Google's Gig, we learned that Comcast is adding more jobs to its workforce in Chattanooga.

In talking points, the lobbyists and spokespeople for these major carriers often claim that community networks will result in less investment from the existing providers, not more. This is theoretically absurd, as competition drives increased investment. And empirically, we almost always see existing providers invest more as a response to losing their monopoly, not less.

According to Ellis Smith of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, 150 new jobs will be added by the end of the year. Ellis spoke with Jim Weigert, vice president and general manager of Comcast Chattanooga:

"Chattanooga is often at the top, not only in our division but across the country in terms of performance,” Weigert said. “Our strength and record of success made it a contributing factor when they selected a location."

Comcast and others, including AT&T, have had to step up their game in Chattanooga to keep customers who suddenly had a real choice. 

Regardless of whether or not today's Chattanoogans connect to its publicly owned network, they benefit. Consumers get better service, affordable rates, and advanced technology simply because the network has created competition.

Last week, GigTank Demo Day ended Chattanooga's 14 week GigTank program. The GigTank was an initiative designed to highlight Chattanooga's gigabit network, the fastest citywide broadband network in the nation. Twelve judges from a variety of tech giants analyzed ideas from eight teams and eleven students. The event awarded $100,000 to Banyan and $50,000 to student team Babel Sushi. Both entered the competition to show the world what can be done with a gig.

Local news 12 WDEF covered the story:

Banyan provides solutions to the logistical and authorship challenges faced by researchers. With a modern user interface and integrated productivity tools, Banyan facilitates collaboration and information sharing in the research industry, where the U.S. spent $67 billion in 2011.

Babel Sushi present a crowd-sourcing language app that translates conversations with almost in real time capability.

Iron Gaming won a $10,000 Warners Brothers Digital Media Award for a social gaming model focused on competitive interactive streaming content.

Charlie Brock spoke at the event. Brock is Executive Entrepreneur at CO.LAB, one of the corporate co-hosts of the program:

"We're proud of Banyan's big win today, and believe that they're positioned to shape the future of collaborative research. But each of these teams has the potential to transform the industries they're working in. The teams have left an impressive stamp on Chattanooga's thriving entrepreneurial culture, and now they're ready to take what they've built here this summer and make great things happen."

We told you earlier this year about Indianola, Iowa's network, filling the gap for businesses where private providers had failed. At that time, the network only served local businesses and community anchor institutions, but plans to provide fiber-to-the-home in their community of 15,000 are now unfolding. The town passed a referendum back in 1998 to build a fiber ring which was used first by the local Indianola Municipal Utilities (IMU) for SCADA and for public safety. The goal was to expand incrementally. It later partnered with Mahaska Communications Group (MCG), located in Oskaloosa, Iowa, about 50 miles west of Indianola. 

According to the IMU website, residential retail services will be available from MCG after October 1, 2012. 

Monthly rates will include triple play at $99.95, double play packages between $49.95 and $94.95, and 25 Mbps symmetrical Internet at $39.95. Residents can upgrade to 50 Mbps for $5 extra or 100 Mbps for an additional $10.00. Home Wi-fi is only and additional $5.95 per month. For complete details, check out their rate sheet PDF.

The network also leases fiber that connects community anchor institutions to the Iowa Communications Network, which provides video to K-12 schools, higher education, hospitals, state and federal government, National Guard armories, and libraries. The network also connects to BroadNet Connect, which is the network used by Iowa Health Systems for telemedicine in rural Iowa.

Google's fiber rollout in Kansas City prompted kudos, specualtion, wonder, and analysis. While Google has the ability to invest in such an expensive and huge undertaking. Municipal networks have been bringing next-generation broadband to the public for years.

Local communities all over the country know first hand the economic benefits and improved quality of life that come with publicly owned networks.

In his official statement on the Google rollout, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski acknolwdged the value of community networks to America and its Broadband Plan. The official announcement:

We reported on Dunellon, Florida, last year - time for a refresher and an update.

You may recall that Dunnellon is a small community with only about 1,900 people in 2004, located in the north central part of the state. The City of Dunnellon watched as surrounding communities gained jobs and people, while its phosphate mining industry limped along.

Dunnellon decided to invest in its own fiber network to spur economic development and provide the services Comcast and AT&T considered unprofitable in the rural area. The town secured financing through a traditional bank loan in 2010. Dunnellon's biggest challenge was building a network from scratch, but the town now has over 100 miles of installed fiber in Marion County. The service, Greenlight Dunnellon Communications, offers triple play at great rates.

From an article on the Communications Technology website:

The potential to improve the local economy through Dunnellon’s high-speed fiber network also is evident. Several neighboring counties, the local Marion County school district and numerous businesses are in the process of finalizing contracts to secure high-speed connectivity through the city’s network and to leverage such benefits as disaster recovery and failover. The city also believes area healthcare providers will benefit from the ability to connect directly to nearby facilities.

According to [Eddie] Esch, [the City of Dunnellon’s director/Public Services and Utilities] “As we progress in this project, we have uncovered so many exciting and promising new opportunities that it’s like watching the bubbles in a glass of 7-Up percolate to the top!”