Government Technology, July 24, 2014 The fight over cities’ rights to own, operate and expand community broadband networks now has a new battleground – the FCC. Wilson, N.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.; filed a petition with the Commission on July 24 to remove state laws that prevent them from offering broadband services outside of their established territories. … Read More
Spencer Municipal Utilities (SMU) in Iowa is expanding an upgrade project to bring fiber to approximately 2,000 additional premises. A little over a year ago, we reported on the switch from coax cable to fiber for 700 municipal network customers with no rate increase. According to the Spencer Daily Reporter, the original project is almost completed; … Read More
This is the final installment of a three part series, in which we examine the current state of the UTOPIA network, how it got there, and the choices it faces going forward. Part I can be read here and Part II here. In Part I of this story, we laid out the difficult situation the open access … Read More
Boulder is the latest Colorado community to recognize the benefits of using city-owned fiber to spur job growth and improve quality of life. Boulder Director of Information Technology Don Ingle joins us for episode 108 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. We discuss the many ways in which Boulder has benefited from community owned fiber over … Read More
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance praises Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken of Minnesota for leading the growing list of organizations committed to defending the authority of communities to make their own decisions when it comes to build the Internet networks of tomorrow.… Read More
Construction on Longmont’s fiber expansion will begin by August 13th, reports the Times-Call. TCS Communications of Englewood, Colorado recently signed an agreement with Longmont Power & Communications (LPC) to deploy the gigabit network for $20,095,022. Completion is scheduled for 2017. A July 14th article on the project noted that LPC and TCS will complete construction in … Read More
Hudson, Ohio, located in the Akron area, recently released a Request For Proposals (RFP) for a Broadband Needs Assessment and Broadband Business Plan. The community of 22,000 hopes to connect all municipal facilities, connect business parks, and eventually implement an FTTH network. A May 4 Hub Times article covered an April city council discussion to expand … Read More
Salisbury’s Fibrant network recently signed on its 3,000th customer, reports WCNC from Charlotte. The publicly owned network also recently increased speeds for residential customers with no price hikes, reports BBP Mag. Households that were signed up for symmetrical 100 Mbps service for $105 per month will now have gigabit service for the same rate. BBP Mag … Read More
This is the second of a three part series, in which we examine the current state of the UTOPIA network, how it got there, and the choices it faces going forward. Part I can be read here and Part III here. With the status quo untenable, no easy exit strategy, and political opposition mounting, UTOPIA appeared besieged in … Read More
