In the News: Christopher Mitchell October 20, 2017 Media Outlet: Telecompetitor Ideas are bubbling up in two major West Coast cities to invest in a municipal fiber network, MuniNetworks.org researchers have been covering these ideas for years now and Telecompetitor’s Joan Engebretson covered them in detail. For her story, Engebretson spoke to ILSR’s director of the Community … Read More
In Detroit, AT&T is facing a formal FCC complaint accusing the telecom giant of deploying discriminatory “digital redlining” tactics. This is the second such complaint filed against the telecommunications giant since the first of the year. NDIA’s report does not specifically invoke race or ethnicity— opting for the phrasing ‘lower-income neighborhoods’. The socio-economic realities of these communities, a result of the banking industries mid-century redlining tactics, has become the impetus for new types of discriminatory investment in these same areas.… Read More
In the News: Christopher Mitchell October 17, 2017 Media Outlet: Michigan Radio Michigan state representative Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton), introduced a bill into the state legislature that would cut off all possible funding (federal, state, and local) that communities could invest in bettering their connectivity. This revelation set of a firestorm of publicity against the bill and Virginia Gordan … Read More
Approximately 30 miles separate Morristown and Newport, but the two are joining forces to better connect local businesses and residents as entrepreneurs take up residence in the region’s newest high-tech work space. An Incubator for Innovation in Morristown SkyMart Venture Place is a new cooperative workspace stirring innovation in the quaint downtown district of Morristown. Morristown … Read More
Torpedo legislation aimed at municipal network initiatives don’t usually appear in October, but Michigan’s year-round legislature is making 2017 atypical. Last week, Freshman Representative Michele Hoitenga from the rural village of Manton in Wexford County introduced a bill banning investment in municipal networks. HB 5099 is short; it decrees that local communities cannot use federal, state, or … Read More
Freshman representative Michele Hoitenga introduced a bill that would limit local, state, and federal investment in any kind of municipal broadband Internet service — harming the possibilities of local economic development.… Read More
Mount Washington, Massachusetts, is set to light up its new Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network this month. By “building our own Fiber-to-the-Home broadband network, we are taking an important step in securing our community’s long-term vitality and sustainability,” says Selectboard Member Gail Garrett. Mount Washington Recap Mount Washington is nestled within the forested Taconic Mountains area located in the … Read More
On August 1, 2017, the Franklin County Infrastructure Bank awarded Grove City, Ohio a $2 million loan to support their construction of a municipal fiber optic network. The Grove City Plan According to the city’s Request for Proposal (RFP), the city is focused on first establishing an institutional network (I-Net) and plan to expand it to serve local businesses over time. … Read More
You may not have been able to get to Ammon, Idaho, to attend the official lighting ceremony of the community’s open access fiber network. Perhaps you weren’t able to watch the stream to the event either; life is demanding and sometimes we just can’t fit everything into our day. But you can still watch the event at your … Read More
