ILSR’s Christopher Mitchell recently published an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun. Comcast has abused its standing as the dominant provider for years and the community is examining options. Mitchell’s op/ed addressed the issue foremost in the mind of Mayor Stephanie Rawling-Blake: jobs and connectivity. In the past, City leaders have considered investing in a network … Read More
Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) has been deploying fiber in the north-central Florida home to the University of Florida (UF) since the late 1990s. We briefly mentioned them last year when Gig.U teamed up with GRUCom, GRU’s telecom division, to connect neighborhoods and businesses surrounding the University with fiber broadband. We’ve since taken a deeper look at … Read More
The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA) recently filed a report with the FCC as it examines the role of the Universal Services Fund (USF) in communications. Telecompetitor reports that NTCA filed the report as part of comments on November 7, 2013. The report by Vantage Point telecommunications engineering firm criticizes the argument that satellite is a magic … Read More
Danville’s open access network has fueled economic development in the Virginia community’s resurgence after tobacco’s demise and job losses from a once thriving textile industry put a hurt on the local economy. Danville’s technological prowess is now attracting companies from China, in addition to other economic development gains we covered previously. Jason Grey, nDanville’s Network Manager, told … Read More
New Hampshire FastRoads is leading the charge to connect the region. The project is funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants, private donations, and contributions from local communities. We spoke with Carole Monroe, Executive Director, to get an update on this open access network in rural western New Hampshire. The first municipality to be … Read More
Thomasville is one of six cities served by Community Network Services (CNS) in rural southwest Georgia. We’ve covered Thomasville and CNS in the past, highlighting the benefits of reliable high-speed broadband in these remote rural communities. But one benefit we haven’t covered yet is quite remarkable – Thomasville residents have been paying zero fire tax thanks … Read More
As new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler begins serving the public, we want to welcome him with open arms and some good advice. ILSR teamed up with the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) to create a personalized postcard with ILSR’s Christopher Mitchell. We hope he will print it out, frame it, and place it prominently on his desk. … Read More
ILSR, the Consumer’s Union, and Common Cause recently filed comments with the FCC as it examines E-rate. The agency’s Wireline Competition Bureau is currently reviewing the E-rate program for Schools and Libraries. The program provides funding from the Universal Services Fund to help schools and libraries pay for Internet access and other telecommunications services. The proceeding to … Read More
We welcome Todd O’Boyle of the good government group Common Cause to our Community Broadband Bits podcast this week. He is the Director of the Media and Democracy program there, which recently released an explanation of network neutrality in comic form, which we discuss in our discussion. We also talk about the impression of municipal networks … Read More
