In the News: Christopher Mitchell January 12th, 2018 Media Outlet: Telecompetitor Recently, Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society released a study detailing the pricing in municipal broadband networks versus large-scale Internet service providers. Joan Engebretson of Telecompetitor took up the story to dig into the findings of the study that munis are more competitive on … Read More
In the News: Christopher Mitchell January 11th, 2018 Media Outlet: KETR 88.9 – Northeast Texas Public Radio On January 8th, President Trump released executive orders aimed at improving rural broadband, however, these orders are largely ceremonial, not effective for improving rural broadband access. KETR — or Northeast Texas Public Radio — was interested in covering this issue … Read More
New research from the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard finds that “publicly owned networks offer the best all around value for the communities that make the investment.” This landmark report dismantles an argument foes of municipal broadband often make — and turns the tables on incumbent monopolies in Internet service.… Read More
This is episode 288 of our Community Broadband Bits podcast! Community Broadband Bits is a short weekly podcast featuring interviews with people building community networks or otherwise involved with Internet policy. With only about 757,000 residents and more than 710,000 square miles North Dakota is ranked 53rd in population density among U.S. states, territories, and Washington DC. There … Read More
In the midst of price increase announcements from Comcast and others for 2018, gigabit subscribers in Longmont, Colorado, are enjoying a price decrease from their publicly owned network, NextLight. Happy New Year As of January 1st, standard residential gigabit Internet access rates dropped from $99.95 per month to $69.95 per month. According to Longmont Power and Communications (LPC), about 28 … Read More
In the News: Christopher Mitchell January 5th, 2018 Media Outlet: ArsTechnica Recently, Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society released a study detailing the pricing in municipal broadband networks versus large-scale Internet service providers. ArsTechnica technology reporter Jon Brodkin covered the study and its outcomes that municipal broadband networks often have more transparent and are cheaper. Here’s ILSR’s contribution: … Read More
People living at the Arlington Mill Residences in Arlington, Virginia, are on track to obtain no-cost high-quality connectivity this fall, likely through the ConnectArlington network. The initiative is an example of how one local community plans to use its publicly owned Internet infrastructure to reduce the digital divide on its home turf. The Homework Gap Within Arlington Mill’s 122 affordable … Read More
Most residents and businesses in Oconee County, South Carolina, used dial-up connections when county officials applied for stimulus funding in 2010; there were still people in the county with no Internet access at all. A few had DSL connections, but even county facilities struggled with antiquated infrastructure. After an AT&T attack upended their plan to offer retail … Read More
The central Washington community of Coulee Dam took a significant step this month to establishing its own fiber optic network. At a December 27th special city council meeting, they announced that they had purchased one mile of fiber optic cable and equipment from Basin Broadband, LLC, for $34,995. According to The Star, the former owners had … Read More
