Move over, Google Fiber. Hello, Brooklyn Fiber

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English: The Brooklyn Bridge, seen from Manhat...

English: The Brooklyn Bridge, seen from Manhattan, New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Download an entire movie in about a minute and a half. Send a whole genome in a fraction of the time.

That’s the promise of low-cost gigabit Internet service that is finally coming to New York.

Brooklyn Fiber, a three-year-old five-person startup, is rolling out its gigabit broadband service this week in Industry City, the Brooklyn complex of former warehouse buildings under development in Sunset Park. That’s 20 times faster than existing download speeds in New York City, which average around 52 mbps, according to Ookla’s Speedtest.net service. Upload speeds average about 17 mbps. Continue reading

Grand Junction to Vote on Broadband Improvement

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By: Lindsey Pallares

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. The complaints are many and the options are few for city and county leaders looking to improve broadband internet across the Valley.

The City of Grand Junction will be the first of the Mesa County municipalities to attempt to regain their negotiating power with broadband internet service providers.

It’s been 10 years since Senate Bill 152 went into effect, taking away the power of city and county leaders to work with internet companies or share their broadband with their residents. Continue reading

No Broadband Champagne Yet

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Blair’s opinion piece generally supports competition as opposed to more regulation as proposed by FCC Chairman Wheeler. While he has the facts to make a case that more regulation stifles innovation and cements the incumbents market position, he does not fully utilize them to make a strong case against Title II regulation. Instead he uses this opportunity to support municipal broadband and his Gig.U organization. Still I am delighted that re/code published is opinion article against more regulation because they have been a strong supporter of Title II regulation.

By Blair Levin, Executive Director, Gig.U

On Feb. 26, the Federal Communications Commission will vote to regulate broadband under Title II and challenge two state laws constraining municipal broadband deployment efforts. Progressives, longtime advocates of both actions, owe a huge “thanks” to Verizon. Its legal challenge to earlier, weaker FCC rules opened the door to the reclassification and a footnote in the court decision provided a path for the FCC to champion municipal broadband, a valuable lesson for all considering responding to adverse agency decisions. Continue reading

FCC, FTC chiefs urge Internet openness, security at CU conference

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This article incorrectly states that the Chairman said that 75% of households have only one carrier while the correct number is 2 carriers. Also what the Chairman said is an oxymoron, you cannot keep something “open” when you allow a commission influenced by large media corporations that will define what can be said and done on the Internet. Finally more regulations increase costs that discourage, not encourage, investment. This doublespeak is typical from what we have been hearing from this administration, but it is shocking that it is coming from the FCC that is supposed to be an independent agency.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Monday forcefully defended the agency’s intent to regulate the Internet as a utility, stating that the agency’s goal is to keep the ‘Net “fast, fair and open for all Americans” while encouraging incentives for investment. Continue reading

Cedar Falls Muni Provider Concerned about Title II

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English: Cotton Theater located at 103 Main St...

English: Cotton Theater located at 103 Main Street in Cedar Falls, Black Hawk County, Iowa is on the National Register of Historic Places (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An Iowa-based municipal broadband provider that President Obama praised during a mid-January visit is worried that Title II regulation could hurt its finances and impede its ability to expand services for customers.

In mid-January, President Obama visited Cedar Falls, Iowa, to tout the Internet services provided by Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU), as a model for how a publicly run broadband network should be operated. But in a recent filingwith the Federal Communications Commission, CFU joined USTelecom member Shenandoah Telecommunications Company and members of the American Cable Association (ACA) to highlight why reclassifying broadband services under Title II might harm small and medium sized internet service providers. Continue reading

FCC targets Title II regulation of Internet services with forbearances for Net Neutrality

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Please read the entire article to understand the extent of what Wheeler is proposing. The lack of being able to prioritize content and possible scrutinization of peering arrangements is the most troublesome to me. The inability to prioritize content puts the OTT providers at a disadvantage to the incumbent service providers that are the ISP too because it does not allow them to provide the same quality of service as the incumbents do with their voice and video out of band.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Thomas Wheeler today unveiled his new attempt to implement Net Neutrality. As had been signaled for several weeks, the plan involves limited application of Title II reclassification of Internet service provision as a telecommunications service. Continue reading

Phoenix Questions Chattanooga as Muni Role Model

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Downtown of Chattanooga, Tennessee

Downtown of Chattanooga, Tennessee (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it comes to municipal broadband successes, Chattanooga, Tenn., may not be the best example to cite in support of allowing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to preempt state laws that ban or restrict competition from community broadband, according to a recent report published by the Phoenix Center. Chief economist George S. Ford, who authored the report, says this perspective, which has been touted by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the White House, does not account for Chattanooga’s unique circumstances.

Ford says the Chattanooga experience is not easily replicated elsewhere. Chattanooga‘s broadband system is constructed and maintained by the city’s municipal electric utility, which benefitted from $229 million in revenue bonds and a $50 million construction loan. Only 14 percent of Americans are served by government-owned electric utilities, usually present in rural markets where there are very high network deployment costs. Continue reading