Leverett, Massachusetts’ broadband initiative has moved to the next phase in bringing fiber to residents. The town selectboard recently decided on a bidder to build the community owned network. G4S designed the network and also works with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) as it brings a middle mile fiber network to towns across the western half … Read More
The town of Erie, Colorado, is conducting a residential survey as it considers a community owned network. Erie has about 18,000 residents and straddles Boulder and Weld Counties. The concerns facing Erie’s community leaders were recently summed up in a John Aguilar article in the Boulder Daily Camera. According to the article, four companies were to … Read More
Last week, Catharine Rice and I were guests on a Democracy Now! segment filmed at the Freedom to Connect conference. We discussed what community broadband is, how it has benefited communities, and how a few big cable and telephone companies are trying to stop it.
Blair Levin is Executive Director of Gig.U. Prior to that, he was in charge of developing the National Broadband Plan and long before that was Chief of Staff for the FCC during the Clinton Presidency. He’s had a lot of experience in telecommunications policy but here we focus on what can be done to move America’s … Read More
Brendan Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch examines the ties between HB 282, the people behind it, and how it evolved into a threat to connectivity and local control. Brendan gave us permission to repost the story in full here. Since authoring this story, HB 282 was defeated in Georgia in a floor … Read More
Tim Redmond of the San Francisco Bay Guardian asks why publicly owned networks have worked in so many places but is not being seriously considered in San Francisco: Then sit back and ask yourself why you’re paying so much money every month for the rotten service you get from Comcast and AT&T. Ask your friends, ask … Read More
Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA), recently recognized the city of Indianola on the US House Floor to recognize the community’s municipal network. On February 15th, he spoke to the body about Indianola’s recent certification as Connected by Connected Nation and Connected Iowa. From his recognition speech, as reported on CapitolWords from the Sunlight Foundation: Mr. Speaker, I … Read More
We’ve been writing about Georgia’s HB 282 for weeks, discussing the likely impact from limiting who can build Internet networks in communities that have the most basic Internet connections. When the bill finally hit the House Floor, it failed in a bipartisan vote of 70 ayes to 94 nays. Many groups helped to educate the public … Read More
PR Watch, March 7, 2013 Members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the Georgia Legislature are pushing a bill to thwart locally-owned internet in underserved communities, an industry-sponsored effort that effectively reinforces the digital divide. A vote in the Georgia Assembly is scheduled for Thursday, March 7; if Georgia passes the bill it would … Read More
