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A Very Special Connect This! Show | Episode 65 of the Connect This! Show
Open Access Conduit in West Des Moines, Iowa Brings Google Fiber, Choice to City Residents
West Des Moines, Iowa is making steady progress on a $60 million open access fiber-optic conduit system to expedite the delivery of affordable fiber citywide. And they’re doing it with the help of Google Fiber, which has slowly started to reverse course after the company’s 2016 decision to lay off hundreds of staff and freeze most meaningful expansion.
Building for Digital Equity Livestream Just Days Away: Register Now
It’s not too late to register for our first Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) livestream event of the year. This Thursday, Feb. 16, from 2-3 pm CST/3-4 pm ET, ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative will kick off our Building for Digital Equity series.
Welcome to the New CommunityNets.org
Digital Equity LA Summit Pushes CPUC to Ditch Priority Areas Map
As Los Angeles County officials work with community coalitions to improve high-speed Internet access in underserved communities across the region, the Digital Equity LA Summit last week focused on the challenges ahead.
Save the Date: ILSR’s Building for Digital Equity Returns
Save the date! ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks team is back for a second season of our Building for Digital Equity series.
You can register now here.
The free online live stream will be held on Feb. 16 from 2-3 pm CST/3-4 pm ET.
AARP Accepting Applications for Seventh Annual Community Challenge Grant Program
AARP has announced it is accepting applications for its seventh annual Community Challenge grant program, a funding source for nonprofit organizations and governmental entities to apply for “quick-action” projects that make communities more livable and have the potential to seed long-term change.
Arvig Buys Business-Facing Municipal Fiber Network in Alexandria, Minnesota
In an announcement last week, Alexandria, Minnesota's (pop. 15,000) electric and water utility (ALP Utilities) announced it would be selling its business-facing fiber network to Arvig, a 40-percent employee-owned Internet Service Provider (ISP) that has 54,000 subscribers across urban and rural Minnesota.
Watch: What It's Like to Live in the Bermuda Triangle of Internet Access
Despite the release of the first draft of the new national broadband maps at the end of last year (and the first round of location-level and service availability corrections completed a couple of weeks ago), we're not holding our breath that 2023 will spell the end of the technology news cycle story trope of the family that buys a new house and learns that the monopoly ISPs don't
Want to Work on Tribal Broadband Policy? ILSR is Hosting a 2023 ACLS Leading Edge Fellow
LA County Selects Pilot Communities for Major Broadband Expansion
IN OUR VIEW: Friday the 13th Mapping Challenge Deadline Highlights Failed Process
Last Friday was a major milestone in the process of moving $42.5 billion from the federal government to states to distribute mostly to rural areas to build new, modern Internet access networks. January 13th marked the deadline for error corrections (called challenges) to the official national map that will be used to determine how much each state will get.
Wireless Is Essential, But Fiber Remains the Future (For Now)
From the miraculous benefits of WiMax to the hype surrounding 5G, U.S. wireless companies have long promised near-Utopian levels of technological revolution.
Yet time after time these promises have fallen short, reminding a telecom sector all-too-familiar with hype that fiber optics remains, for now, the backbone of bridging the digital divide.