Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Speed Tests and Broadband Performance
"Samples are sorted by speed, and the fastest half is averaged to eliminate anomalies and determine the result."I wish my grades had been calculated like that back in school. I have come around to believing we need to collect greater data about what broadband we have available in order to compare providers (naturally, I suspect we will find that community networks do a better job of offering faster speeds). M-Labs has a good start and will be essential in this endeavor. More to come...
Related Stories
South Carolina’s Innovative Broadband Maps Verifies ISPs Internet Speeds
How Long Prairie, Minnesota and a Local Cooperative Partnered to Build a Citywide Fiber Network
Tired of waiting for connectivity solutions to come to town, one Minnesota community has instead partnered with a local telephone cooperative to build a fiber network reaching every home and business in the city. In embarking on its journey to improve local Internet access six years ago, Long Prairie (pop. 3,300) ended up partnering with one of the most aggressive fiber network builders in the state - Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) - on a solution that meets local needs. The two finished a ubiquitous Fiber-to-the-Home build in 2018, with the cooperative now owning and operating the network.
Is High-Speed Internet Access Getting More Affordable, Really?
A recent report by BroadbandNow suggested that the average price for broadband access for Americans has fallen, by an average of 31 percent or nearly $34/month, since 2016. But you don’t have to follow broadband policy closely to get the sense that something a little off is going on here. The reality is that the report, unfortunately, poorly frames the national broadband marketplace. At best, it muddies the waters with a lack of clarity about the relationship between broadband access speed tiers and relative pricing. At worst, it leaves the average reader with the incorrect assumption that broadband prices must be falling, and gives the monopoly cable and telephone companies ammunition to push for millions more in taxpayer dollars while building as little new infrastructure as possible.
PCMag’s Fastest ISPs in America List Once Again Proves the Value of Cities Investing in Internet Infrastructure
After three years in a row with similar results, PCMag’s “Fastest ISPs in America” for 2021 analysis shows a clear trend: community owned and/or operated broadband infrastructure supports networks which, today, handily beat the huge monopoly Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - cable and telephone alike – for sheer speed.
Residents in Washington County, Ohio Form Broadband Cooperative
Fed up with poor speeds and no service, a handful of residents in Washington County, Ohio have teamed up to form a broadband cooperative to pursue better connectivity for themselves and their neighbors.