Connecticut is moving ahead with a statewide gigabit broadband initiative after resolving a surprisingly simple, but common, issue standing in the way of fiber deployment.
Connecticut needed this. Lately, the only noteworthy contribution my home state has made to the national news is Aaron Hernandez, an apparent psychopath who earned millions of dollars playing football while (allegedly) murdering anyone who looked at him the wrong way.
But it looks like the third smallest state in the country is on its way to becoming the first to offer ubiquitous 1-Gigabit internet to its residents. The website EfficientGov.com has a pretty comprehensive breakdown on the project: 46 municipalities that make up about half of the state’s population have agreed to endorse a plan for public/private partnerships to expand 1-Gig broadband internet access.
The “pubic/private partnerships” part of the plan likely makes it more achievable. In other areas, attempts at municipal-run broadband projects have created mountains of debt in their worst cases and have led to heated legislative battles in their best.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a good example of how difficult municipal broadband can be. The city’s broadband is among the fastest in the country, and its network was built and operated by the city after it had difficulty attracting investment from private ISPs. When the city looked to expand its 1-Gig service to other regions, state lawmakers imposed strict regulations, ultimately culminating in the state of Tennessee filing a lawsuit against the FCC late last month.
