We are honored to be named by Government Technology to be among the Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers in the nation. We are passionate about the role local governments can play in expanding affordable, reliable, and high capacity connections to the Internet.
Perhaps that is too clinical. We love helping communities to solve their broadband problems locally.
We love finding new communities that have developed innovative solutions and then helping other communities learn from that approach.
We love finding ways to help schools and libraries get better broadband connections at lower prices.
We love seeing local businesses flourish because the community built infrastructure for itself that big cable and DSL companies neglected to provide.
Thank you, Government Technology and all the others who have helped us to be effective in this space. We look forward to continuing our efforts and building better networks.
IT-minded Tribal leaders and instructors gather in southern California for the 11th Tribal Broadband Bootcamp as the three-day intensive learning experience continues to offer the ultimate Indian Country networking experience. All of the previous TBB’s offered hands-on training, but this particular bootcamp took it up a notch as TBB instructors set up a full deployment demonstration, illustrating how fiber is buried and/or deployed aerially.
A panel discussion at Net Inclusion 2024 sparked thought-provoking conversation, raising difficult questions for the digital equity movement about whether we are on track to achieve our goals and whether the main strategies used today can result in digital equity or are destined to fall well short.
The first Building For Digital Equity (B4DE) livestream event of the year is now set for March 20. The popular (and free) virtual gathering will focus on the imminent demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program and will be designed to help digital inclusion advocates set the table for life beyond ACP and how communities can prepare and move forward.
As the new year begins, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) announced today its latest tally of municipal broadband networks which shows a dramatic surge in the number of communities building publicly-owned, locally controlled high-speed Internet infrastructure over the last three years. Since January 1, 2021, at least 47 new municipal networks have come online with dozens of other projects still in the planning or pre-construction phase, which includes the possibility of building 40 new municipal networks in California alone.
Capping off a banner year in broadband, ILSR and NDIA’s final Building for Digital Equity livestream of 2023 featured timely topics and practical insights from an array of frontline digital inclusion practitioners, teeing up Net Inclusion 2024 – the biggest in-person gathering of digital equity advocates in the nation. If you missed the #B4DE 2023 finale or would like to see it again, the entire livestream is now available.