Image
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Research Sharing, Translation, Big Winners At GigTank
By
on
Last week, GigTank Demo Day ended Chattanooga's 14 week GigTank program. The GigTank was an initiative designed to highlight Chattanooga's gigabit network, the fastest citywide broadband network in the nation. Twelve judges from a variety of tech giants analyzed ideas from eight teams and eleven students. The event awarded $100,000 to Banyan and $50,000 to student team Babel Sushi. Both entered the competition to show the world what can be done with a gig.
Local news 12 WDEF covered the story:
Banyan provides solutions to the logistical and authorship challenges faced by researchers. With a modern user interface and integrated productivity tools, Banyan facilitates collaboration and information sharing in the research industry, where the U.S. spent $67 billion in 2011.
Babel Sushi present a crowd-sourcing language app that translates conversations with almost in real time capability.
Iron Gaming won a $10,000 Warners Brothers Digital Media Award for a social gaming model focused on competitive interactive streaming content.
Charlie Brock spoke at the event. Brock is Executive Entrepreneur at CO.LAB, one of the corporate co-hosts of the program:
Without attempting to take any of the excitement away from those developing gigabit apps, we would be remiss to note that these high capacity networks are important even if there is no single app that requires a gig of connectivity. As The Economist recently noted, the network is important as a platform for all kinds of applications, not just the fastest ones. Community networks are essential for unleashing innovation. If they can also deliver a gig today, so much the better. But the important goal is not any one speed -- it is a network that enables innovation rather than limiting capacity to maximize profits for a single monopolistic industry."We're proud of Banyan's big win today, and believe that they're positioned to shape the future of collaborative research. But each of these teams has the potential to transform the industries they're working in. The teams have left an impressive stamp on Chattanooga's thriving entrepreneurial culture, and now they're ready to take what they've built here this summer and make great things happen."
Geoterm
Related Stories
Rancho Cucamonga Cultivates Greenfield Fiber Vineyard
In the 1980s, Rancho Cucamonga proclaimed itself “The City with a Plan.” Back then, the plan was to remake this once rural enclave known for its vineyards into more than just one of the many sunny suburbs of Los Angeles. That forward-looking spirit was revived again 30 years later as city leaders looked to cultivate a digital vineyard with the creation of a “Fiber Optic Master Plan” – a six-year $13 million investment plan that targets the city’s new development. Today, the city along the famed Route 66 owns and operates Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Broadband in partnership with Onward, a local private Internet service provider.
New York’s First Bite of the Municipal Broadband Apple
Breaking new ground in New York, state leaders are launching the first municipal fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) projects in the Empire State with funds from its new ConnectALL Initiative. Four small rural communities in four different counties will be the beneficiaries of New York’s initial foray into municipal broadband. At the end of May, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced the $10 million grant award, which will fund fiber deployments to the Village of Sherburne in Chenango County, the Town of Nichols in Tioga County, the Town of Diana in Lewis County, and the Town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County.
New Video Diaries Highlight Chattanooga’s Long-Term Solution to the Broadband Affordability Gap
Thanks to Chattanooga’s wildly successful municipal broadband network, EPB Fiber, and its partnership with The Enterprise Center and Hamilton County Schools, over 15,000 low-income students in 8,500 households in Hamilton County are already getting a decade of free high-speed Internet service at no cost through a program known as HCS EdConnect. We wanted to visually document the power the program has had in transforming the lives of participants by weaving together a compilation of video diaries that will give you a glimpse of how a visionary municipal network made this Tennessee county more resilient in the face of the pandemic and ensured no one in their community was left on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Colorado Springs Embarks on Citywide Network with Ting as Anchor Tenant
Back in January, Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) announced it was going to begin building a city-wide, open access fiber network owned, and that Ting would be its first anchor tenant.
Golden State Connectivity Authority and UTOPIA Fiber to Build Open Access FTTH Network Across Rural California
Last week, the Golden State Connectivity Authority (GSCA) announced it has entered into formal partnership with the municipally owned open access network UTOPIA Fiber, for the Utah-based owner and provider to design, build, and operate a new open access fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network across the 38 rural counties in the state of California. It's a move that not only offers the chance to bring future-proof connections to millions of rural California households in the near future, but have wide policy and industry implications for open access fiber networks down the road.
NY State Budget Bill Sets Table for Municipal Broadband
There are some golden nuggets for municipal broadband in New York's recently enacted state budget bill, which includes $1 billion for the ConnectALL initiative. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office calls it “the largest ever investment in New York's 21st century infrastructure (that) will leverage public and private investments to connect New Yorkers in rural and urban areas statewide to broadband and establish the first municipal broadband program of its kind in the nation.”