Community Broadband Media Roundup - April 25

Iowa

MediaCom is suing Iowa City to prevent broadband competition by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

Massachusetts

Holyoke Innovation District looks to take advantage of valley broadband Internet capacity by Jim Kinney, MassLive

Massachusetts government stymies WiredWest municipal broadband initiative, report says by Samantha Bookman, FierceTelecom

Minnesota

Report: The cooperative is a good model for publicly-owned broadband networks by Joan Engrebretson, TeleCompetitor

General

The broadband industry is now officially blaming Google (Alphabet) for...everything by Karl Bode, TechDirt

From net neutrality to municipal broadband, to new broadband privacy rules and a quest to open up the cable set top box to competition, we've noted repeatedly that the FCC under Tom Wheeler isn't the same FCC we've learned to grumble about over the years. For a twenty-year stretch, regardless of party control, the agency was utterly, dismally apathetic to the lack of competition in the broadband space. But under Wheeler, the FCC has not only made broadband competition a priority, but has engaged in other bizarre, uncharacteristic behaviors -- like using actual real-world data to influence policy decisions. 

Obviously, this doesn't please incumbent telecom operators like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, who grew pretty comfortable with an FCC that asked "how high" when commanded to jump.

House passes bill attempting to gut net neutrality by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

CenturyLink hikes sneaky 'Internet cost recovery' fee by Karl Bode, DSL Reports