Over the past year, New England has been a hotspot for broadband initiatives, legislation, and experimentation. The trend will continue into September when Next Century Cities and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) host Digital New England: A Summit for Regional Broadband Leaders on September 27th and 28th in Portland, Maine. From a description of … Read More
We have covered the small Idaho city of Ammon before, but the people there always seem to be innovating. A few weeks ago, the city took first place with an ultra-high speed app in a National Institute of Justice competition. That utlra-high speed came from the city’s fiber network built for municipal buildings several years ago. … Read More
Back in July, Next Century Cities released a short report, Connecting 21st Century Communities: A Policy Agenda for Broadband Stakeholders, exploring various policies and approaches that will improve Internet access. The brief is organized into sections on local government, state government, federal government, philanthropy, and community. For this week on Community Broadband Bits, Lisa Gonzalez takes … Read More
Santa Cruz, California, and its 62,000 people with poor Internet connectivity near Silicon Valley, could be one of the larger municipalities to develop a citywide fiber network. The Santa Cruz Fiber project, which was announced on June 24, 2015, would be an open-access public private partnership (PPP) with the city constructing the network and a private … Read More
Is your community considering a public private partnership to improve connectivity for businesses and residents? Will you be attending the Broadband Communities Economic Development Conference in Lexington this September? If you answered ‘yes’ to those two questions, you should attend CLIC’s half-day event on Friday, September 18th. Spend the morning breakfasting with telecommunication attorney Jim Baller … Read More
We were saddened to learn of Scott DeGarmo’s passing this past week and, like many others who knew him and his work, want to pay tribute to his many contributions. Scott was the CEO of Broadband Communities, a valuable resource that policy makers, industry chiefs, and community leaders depend on for the most recent developments in … Read More
Windstream has the distinction of being one of the worst providers we have ever covered from consumers’ perspective, but in rural areas many people have little or no choice. The latest Windstream debacle involves a Nebraska farmer, an outrageous price quote, and a local company that is taking on the project for about one-ninth of Windstream’s estimate. … Read More
After searching for a suitable partner, the Village of Bald Head Island in North Carolina has reopened its RFP for a gigabit fiber network. Apparently, the community received four responses but no proposal provided the level of detail they require. In order to give respondents another opportunity and to offer new candidates a chance, Bald Head … Read More
In the center of Tennessee sits Murfeesboro, the fastest growing city in the state with 108,000 people and one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. (Just 10 years ago there were only 68,000 residents.) Murfeesboro is also one of the next communities to show an interest in a publicly owned fiber network to improve … Read More
