The River Reporter, July 24, 2013 Electrifying rural America and bringing universal telephone access to its citizens were enormous undertakings in the past century. Now, we who live in rural America face the challenge of building a new telecommunications infrastructure that brings the potential to facilitate economic growth, job creation, and to enhance our way of … Read More
Last week, we discussed how Shafter’s plans in California for a community fiber network changed with the Great Recession. Today we have an interview with Shafter Assistant City Manager Scott Hurlbert with an expanded discussion of how the community adjusted and what its next steps will be. Shafter transitioned from leased T1 lines to a city … Read More
The City of Champaign is now celebrating the transition to the UC2B fiber network. With underground fiber lines, the City will no longer be plagued by weather related interruptions. Champaign is also counting on significant savings on a network that is more than 1000 times faster than the old connections. From the City of Champaign website: … Read More
We have not wirtten much on the NSA spying scandal but encountered a recent article in the Guardian that our readers can appreciate. Rory Carroll reports that Xmission, one of the local Internet service providers working with UTOPIA, has long refused to turn over private data to local, state and federal officials absent a proper warrant. … Read More
New Hampshire FastRoads will soon be working with Vermont’s Sovernet to bring access to southern New Hampshire. According to the Battleboro Reformer, Sovernet is ready to begin offering data and voice service as soon as the fiber infrastructure is complete. “It’s really exciting because while we do some business in New Hampshire we have not been … Read More
Rant Warning… Every state has at least one organization, often calling itself a think tank, that is funded by large corporations to advance their narrow interests, often at the expense of local businesses and the larger public. Many call these “coin operated” think tanks because they take whatever positions their funders want them to take. Or, … Read More
In the 1990s, the community of Shafter, California, began developing its strategic plan; the move would eventually lead them to build a municipal broadband network. The town of 17,000 still depended primarily on agriculture but manufacturers were relocating to the community, drawn by its proximity to the railroad and its open space. Potential employers increasingly focused … Read More
Patrick Lucey of the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation, posted this excellent story around the time we published our rant about the FCC’s cave-in to industry pressure for no good reason. We liked it so much, we asked to repost it. In late June the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an order reforming the way … Read More
We last checked in with Opelika, Alabama, as they began testing their FTTH network in a pilot project. The community previously overcame Charter Cable’s campaign of lies and passed a referendum. Voters approved the plan for a $41 million fiber optic communications and smart grid network. The community has been constructing the network, expanding testing, and … Read More
