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Chattanooga Video Discusses Benefits of FTTH
A 2007 video from Chattanooga's Electric Power Board explaining the benefits of publicly owned fiber-optic infrastructure.
LaGrange Network in Georgia Serves Local Businesses
The city of LaGrange has long been offering top-notch telecom services to local businesses. I just stumbled across this video describing their new colocation facilities. They are approaching 400 business customers and serve the local cellular towers. They do not provide residential services.
This video is no longer available.Blitz the House: Don't Let North Carolina Ban Community Broadband
We continue to watch in slow motion horror as North Carolina's General Assembly considers turning its back on next-generation networks and compute like it's 1999.
LUS Files Complaint: Cox and NCTC Limit Competition
Lafayette Utilities System has filed a complaint with the FCC following what seems to be a rather arbitrary decision by the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) to deny Lafayette as a member. This is a crucial issue for communities that want to build fiber-optic networks, so we will dig in and offer an in-depth explanation.
It all starts with the business model.
Ontario County Open Access Middle Mile Network In the News
Stop the Cap! has the authored the most recent of several articles examining a unique middle mile broadband approach in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
Updated List of Cities with Wi-Fi Networks
MuniWireless.com has updated their list of cities that have large scale Wi-Fi networks.
Santa Monica Brings 10Gbps Connections to Local Businesses
Santa Monica has built an impressive fiber network to connect local government buildings, schools, parks, and local businesses. With local jobs dependent on massive media studios that require very robust connectivity, Santa Monica has responded by building an impress community broadband network.
In Virginia, nDanville Brings Home the Jobs
Danville's open services fiber-optic network has brought a new employer with some 160 jobs to town.
Wired West Plans Muni Open Access Fiber in Western Massachusetts
A grassroots effort in the broadband desert of Western Massachusetts has been organizing local communities to build a publicly owned, open access FTTH network to everyone in the partner towns (universal access).
Bill to Limit Competition in North Carolina Clears Senate, Headed to House
Once again, Senator Joe Sam Queen again led the effort to legislate on behalf of the people of North Carolina rather than a few companies headquartered out of state. On Monday night, the Senator offered an amendment to remove the temporary ban on community networks (currently set to be one year - though powerful lobbyists will undoubtedly push to extend it).
Baltimore Ponders Muni Fiber Network
Another community has announced that with or without Google, it is going to build a proper broadband network.
Do your Representatives Know Your Views on Broadband?
As I have considered writing yet another post about this debacle in North Carolina, I worried that readers outside of North Carolina might ignore it, thinking they cannot help and it doesn't impact them.
Chattanooga Launches Fastest Residential Broadband Tier: 150Mbps
It's fast and it's symmetrical. Chattanooga, the nation's largest muni FTTH network will be offering the fastest residential package in the country by the end of the month: 150 Mbps.
Chattanooga's Electric Power Board (EPB) is ahead of schedule in the fiber rollout, planning to offer triple-play services to all 145,000 residential customers in its electrical territory by the end of the year.
Christopher Mitchell Presentation at FiberFête in Lafayette
This is a presentation I gave at FiberFête on April 20 in Lafayette, Louisiana. Unfortunately, the slides are not available in the recording, but most of my comments do not rely upon them.
North Carolina Bill to Limit Broadband Competition Moves Forward
Update: Thanks to Mark Turner (@mtdotnet) for tape-delayed tweets updating what happened. He has reported: "Senator Joe Sam Queen objects to third reading of S.1209! It remains on the calendar!" This can still be stopped in the Senate.
Deja Vu All Over Again: NC Committee Considers Moratorium Today
Update: Once, again, the committee has pushed the bill back... now to Wednesday afternoon. One wonders how normal people with jobs are supposed to follow legislation live when they have no certainty when a specific subject will be discussed.
Housekeeping: Recent Changes on MuniNetworks.org
It has been a year now that MuniNetworks.org has been live. For those who only read the feed, we have updated the logo on top of the site to make it more attractive. When we launched the site, we threw the theme together quickly and focused on getting good content.
Seattle's Chief Geek: Broadband Monopoly Keeps Costs Too High
Bill Schrier, Seattle's Chief Technology Officer (informally, Chief Geek), recently explored the ways in which limited competition in broadband has kept prices too high for many Americans and suggests high prices should be a cause for concern on the level of network neutrality.
North Carolina Action Alert - Committee Vote Today
Update: Apparently the bill was pulled from the Committee today.
Johnson City Considers Broadband Network to Aid Economic Development
According to the local paper, Johnson City, Tennessee, continues to discuss whether its public power utility should build a FTTH network.
As with so many other communities that have only "high speed" cable and DSL options, people are recognizing the importance of broadband on economic development.