Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Community Broadband Media Roundup- October 16
Colorado
Letter: Municipal broadband connects us all by Zach Shelton, The Coloradoan
Broadband is the glue that connects all of us in the medical field and has increasingly become an equally important tool in our doctor bag. Please vote yes on 2B to ensure we have the opportunity as a city to improve our internet infrastructure to meet the needs of our clinic and many other businesses and individuals in Fort Collins.
Letter: Broadband represents Fort Collins' future by David Austin-Groen, The Coloradoan
FAQ: Fort Collins broadband on the November ballot by Kevin Duggan, The Coloradoan
Florida
Commentary: Cable competition? Winter Park considers it, and Spectrum gets nervous by Scott Maxwell, The Orlando Sentinel
For consumers, though, fear and competition can be good.
Don’t take it from me. Take it from consumer-advocate groups like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which is cheering on Winter Park and other cities, encouraging them to invest in technology and become less reliant on cable and internet providers that have near-monopolies in many markets.
Of course the cable companies will protest, said Christopher Mitchell, the president of the Minneapolis-based Institute. “They’ve fought it in every single city,” he said. “But this is like Starbucks telling a city they shouldn’t have their own coffee machines.”
Idaho
SDN Streamlines Virtualized Open Access Network for Idaho Municipality Ammon Fiber by Joan Engebretson, Telecompetitor
Massachusetts
Milton to study town broadband service by Fred Hanson, The Patriot Ledger
“Comcast, with its market power, is able to charge whatever they want” and provide subpar service, subpar speed and capacity,” he said….The town could provide the service cheaper because they would not need to make a profit, Chamberlain said. It could also lease out portions of its system to third parties for additional revenue.
North Carolina
Officials boost innovation economy by Brie Handgraaf, Wilson Times
Pennsylvania
Our view: Push needed for high-speed rural internet by The Editorial Board, Go Erie
Tennessee
How Chattanooga used fiber to buoy the rest of its tech community by Anna Hensel, Venture Beat
Virginia
King George survey looks at internet gaps by Cathy Dyson, The Free Lance Star
Washington
Who wants a fiber network? City asks residents to take survey by Joan Pringle, Go Anacortes
Another Shot for Municipal Broadband in Seattle by Heidi Groover, The Stranger
West Virginia
Commission to hold broadband hearing by Hampshire County Commission, Hampshire Review
Broadband co-op begins to take form by Tina Alvey, Register- Herald
General
Comcast Is Abandoning Customers In The Name Of Free Speech by Susan Crawford, Wired
FCC’s claim that one ISP counts as “competition” faces scrutiny in court by John Brodkin, ArsTechnica
Led by Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC's Republican majority voted in April of this year to eliminate price caps in a county if 50 percent of potential customers "are within a half mile of a location served by a competitive provider." That means business customers with just one choice are often considered to be located in a competitive market and thus no longer benefit from price controls.
Electric co-ops eager to expand broadband connections to rural areas by Dave Flessner, Times Free Press
ISPs don’t want to tell the FCC exactly where they offer Internet service by John Brodkin, ArsTechnica
"Rural areas may have large census blocks in which only a few people have access to Internet service," the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) told the FCC. Address- or street-level data would be the most useful for analyzing rural areas, the advocacy group said.
"For rural census blocks, at least knowing which road segments Internet Service Providers can reach will help with estimating how much of the population in a rural census block actually has access," the ILSR said.
The ILSR also suggested an alternative to address-level data that might be easier to compile. ISPs could report which road segments they can reach in rural areas, the group said:
"This information should be easier to compile than geocoding addresses and can be compared to locations of small towns and other roads. Most state and local governments have information on their road networks publicly available, and providers can use that as a starting point."
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