Wired West Creates Long Video Discussing Their Need for Better Broadband

In a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, we tell the story of how 19 very small Western Massachusetts towns worked together over a decade and a half to build an alternative to the monopoly broadband marketplace and deploy their own municipal networks. It's a unique story of perseverance and the power of public partnerships. "Seeking the Commonwealth of Connection: How Small-Town Volunteers and Public Partnerships Transformed Internet Access in Western Massachusetts tells the story of how this came to be, and the impact it is had for residents, businesses, and community anchor institutions in the region.

Legal analysts are questioning the recent assertion by the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that the agency can legally withhold federal broadband deployment funds from states that have laws enforcing net neutrality or that have enacted affordable broadband legislation. Last week in speaking before the conservative Hudson Institute, NTIA administrator Arielle Roth offered remarks that have legal observers scratching their heads in bewilderment.

Superior, Wisconsin’s community-owned open access fiber network has gone live in its first two deployment neighborhoods, as the city works toward providing affordable next-generation fiber access to the city’s long under-served community of 26,000. The city’s open access network means that multiple broadband providers can compete over the same shared infrastructure and so far two independent ISPs are offering retail service to residents.

A recently published study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York details how to more accurately measure the elusive nature of affordable broadband costs at the community level. It also pinpoints multiple contributing factors such as the state of local infrastructure and how lower performing broadband access technologies can force low-income households to choose between cellular service or home Internet service.

ILSR's Christopher Mitchell offers insights on Superior, Wisconsin's new city-owned network and how federal policy, municipal broadband barriers and Tribal networks fit into the picture.

The first installment of an ongoing series we are calling Connected Complex looks at how states, local communities, and Internet service providers are working to address the often complex challenges involved in bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units. In Massachusetts, state leaders have announced a new $31.5 million investment to bring reliable, high-speed Internet access to residents in affordable and public housing statewide by helping to update long outdated wiring in multiple-dwelling-units, many of which were built before the advent of the Internet.