Tag: municipal broadband

The Flaw in Obama’s Wireless Plan

  By
Main Street in Ten Sleep, WY

Main Street in Ten Sleep, WY

The President hopes an increase in Internet access will result in more economic development. Fiber networks would do that better than mobile broadband

By Brendan Greeley

The residents of Ten Sleep, Wyo., know the meaning of rural. They didn’t have phone service until the 1950s, when Tri-County Telephone Assn., a municipal cooperative, used federal subsidies to string copper wire to every home. In 2005 the co-op upgraded to fiber-optic cable, giving the town’s 300 residents Internet access at 20 megabits per second. For the technically unfamiliar, Chris Davidson, Tri-County Telephone’s general manager, describes this as “smoking fast.”

Even President Barack Obama is impressed. On Feb. 10 he rolled out a national wireless plan, pointing to Ten Sleep as an example of what he wants to replicate nationally: Because of the town’s high-speed fiber network, one company has been able to hire locals to teach English to Asians by video chat over the network. Obama hopes his plan will result in more such economic development by providing 98 percent of Americans with access to high-speed wireless Internet. “Ten Sleep,” Obama mused. “I love the name of that town.”

Continue reading

Business strategist: Fibrant needs promoting

  By

Craig Settles at Salisbury City Hall. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Emily Ford

Creating a municipal fiber optic network was smart, but now the city must market Fibrant and educate users to realize the system’s full potential, a community broadband expert says.

“You have truly 21st century technology,” said Craig Settles, a broadband business strategist from San Francisco who spoke Friday at City Council’s planning retreat. “Do not hide this digital light under a basket. Talk about it and promote it. It will make a difference.”

Fibrant is the city’s fledgling $30 million fiber-to-the-home utility, which was in development for five years. Fibrant has been operating since November and expects to sign up its 500th subscriber this month. The city aims to have 4,400 subscribers in four years.

Continue reading

Nulty firm loses Minnesota broadband project

  By
Freedom to Connect First Panel

Image by AKMA via Flickr

Burlington Telecom concerns spurred county board to review contract issues

By John Briggs, Free Press Staff Writer

Burlington Telecom’s financial woes played a role in the decision this week by the Lake County, Minn., Board of Commissioners to end negotiations with a broadband company run by Burlington Telecom’s former chief executive officer.

National Public Broadband, whose CEO is Tim Nulty, had been in line to build a $70 million federally-funded communications network in rural Minnesota.

Continue reading

From voice to broadband: FCC redirects its $8.7B in phone bill fees

  By

By Matthew Lasar

ARS Technica

Can the Federal Communications Commission save a huge government program that overpays carriers to provide old school phone service, overtaxes subscribers to subsidize it, discourages modernization, and doesn’t even offer broadband to the low income and rural consumers it purports to serve?

Yes it can, insists FCC Chair Julius Genachowski.

The Commission’s $8.7 billion Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation system was designed “for a world that no longer exists,” Genachowski told the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on Monday. The USF was created “for a world with separate local and long-distance telephone companies; a world of traditional, landline telephones before cell phones or Skype; a world without the Internet.”

Continue reading

Testimony to DC OCTO: Support Community Wireless to Drive Broadband Adoption

  By
Seal of the District of Columbia.

Image via Wikipedia

DC-Net has built a successful mid-mile network to serve the District of Columbia‘s government and anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and libraries.  Now they are holding hearings to determine whether to expand the scope of DC-Net to federal government agencies and local service providers and possibly build infrastructure directly to homes and businesses.  This latter endeavor could possibly put taxpayers “on the hook” for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The hearing held by DC Council-member Mary Cheh lasted over 3 hours with many speakers testifying to the benefits and success of DC-Net.  Apparently the session was an information gathering meeting for Ms. Chey because there was very little concrete information conveyed as to whether or how the District should increase access to third-parties outside of government and anchor institutions or build a last-mile network.

Continue reading

Provo council approves funds to hire consultants for plan B

  By

At least the mayor of Provo realizes the benefits of the network and is looking for ways to continue its existence should Veracity default.

Genelle Pugmire – Daily Herald

Provo Mayor John Curtis said he is following the Boy Scout motto to be prepared when it comes to the future of the city’s fiber optic network.

The Municipal Council made another move towards the mayor’s working contingency plan, or Plan B, at Tuesday’s Council meeting. The council voted to appropriate $50,000 from the city’s fund balance to hire two consulting firms to help develop the plan.

For nearly a year city administrators have been discussing the need to have a plan B if the need should arise. It’s something they haven’t had since iProvo was sold.

Continue reading

Bucolic Barrington Hills hotbed of technology

  By

By Madhu Krishnamurthy

Mark Welsh, Staff Photographer

Nestled among rolling hills, massive horse farms, 5-acre minimum lot homes and thousands of acres of forest preserve, Barrington Hills remains unadulterated by suburban sprawl.

Straddling roughly 29 square miles over four counties — Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry — the village has little more than 3,900 residents, lots of trees and open space.

But along with the benefits of living in a quintessential rural setting comes spotty cellular phone service and dropped Internet connections.

Continue reading