Introducing our Google Fiber for Communities website

  By

Google thanked the communities that responded to the Google Fiber for Communities RFI in a wonderful video complete with tear jearking music.  Additionally, Minnie Ingersoll released the URL to a new web site for the project that tracks the progress of the project and calls for community action to remove barriers to open-access municipal broadband networks.  We anxiously await Google’s announcement of the cities that they select.  Their efforts to drive municipal broadband are being felt before the first backhoe starts digging.

In February we announced our plans to build experimental, ultra-high speed broadband networks. Over the past several months, our team’s been hard at work reviewing the nearly 1,100 community responses to our request for information—not to mention the nearly 200,000 responses from individuals across the U.S.


Continue reading

Utopia FTTH network looks to turn itself around

  By

By Sean Buckley

When the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) open access Fiber to the Home (FTTH) emerged in 2002, it was heralded as a hero by extending broadband to areas where the incumbents just did not feel they could make a good business case work. But ongoing financial losses and a lower than expected subscriber base, has forced UTOPIA to realign its strategy.

To get its vision off the ground, UTOPIA has asked its 11 member cities to join together to form the Utah Infrastructure Agency, whose goal would be to raise up to $60 million to finish building out its network. Although UTOPIA said in May it required more money to complete the network, this week was the first time it has laid out its new strategy that its member cities still need to approve. In addition, UTOPIA put in a bid to participate in Google’s Fiber Communities program in February.

Continue reading

Municipal broadband haters in NC dealt a blow

  By

One state down and 18 to go to allow municipalities to decide their own fate on the best broadband network option for them.  Elimination of these laws is no guarantee that every municipality is going to enter the telecommunications business.  Most of them do not have the expertise for such an endeavor which is why they will turn to private companies to assume that responsibility.  If the incumbents could afford to upgrade the last mile networks in rural communities then there would be no need to consider leveraging the long-term financing of municipalities.  The problem is that investing in rural broadband networks is not something that most public companies can do.  As more and more communities build that last-mile infrastructure, I predict that the incumbents will start purchasing capacity or fibers from them.

By Matthew Lasar

“O joyous day! O rapture!” blogged a community broadband advocate on Monday. “That insidious bill [that] incumbents’ pocket legislator, NC state Senator Hoyle, tried to pass to kill muni broadband networks met its final demise over the weekend.”

Indeed it has. North Carolina Senator David Hoyle’s (D-GA) now-defeated amendment (S-1209) was cosmetically titled “An Act to Ensure That A Local Government That Competes with Private Companies in Providing Communication Services Has The Support Of Its Citizens.” But advocates of city/county backed high speed Internet projects just knew it as the Municipal-Broadband Must Die Die Die bill.

Continue reading

Wide-open spaces appear to be the perfect spot to launch an Internet service business

  By

Mammoth Networks is picking up the slack for Internet services to rural ISP; thereby, bypassing large incumbent service providers and reducing the cost to the consumer. I bet that will spur a competitive response from the incumbents once Mammoth aggregates enough ISP.  This business model is a great example of recognizing a market hole and filling it.

By STEVE MCMANAMEN, News-Record Writer [email protected]

Gillette, and Wyoming in general, sometimes can be a little behind when it comes to getting new things.

Whether it is seeing a new movie, buying the newest cell phone or getting our first Starbucks, Gillette residents are prepared to wait.

Continue reading

Americas Report: Google to Build Out Multiple Fibre Cities?

  By

In our continuing series of previews for the “Connected States of America” documentary, TelecomTV’s Guy Daniels visits the headquarters of Google to learn more about the companys plans to create a Fibre City. In an exclusive interview with Google Chief Technology Advocate, Michael Jones, it now appears that there may be more than one winner — good news to the 11,000 cities that want the prize. Further previews will appear in NewsDesk every week.

Continue reading

Economists Rebuff Lawmakers’ Letter by Advocating for Network Neutrality

  By

Finally some common sense with regards to net neutrality. These economists are saying that, like most things, if the government regulates the Internet, then it will actually hurt the people it is trying to protect.  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Net neutrality is truly a bipartisan issue with Democrats and Republicans both for and against it. There are several forces at work here that are pushing net neutrality. There are the content providers that are neophytes at lobbying who are trying to manipulate the market to protect themselves. They do not realize that the law of unintended consequences can come back to bite them in the backside. Then there is the FCC that is going with the meme of the current administration to expand governmental powers.  This is a strange power struggle where the “bad guys” are really the “good guys” and vice versa, but for all the wrong reasons.  You have to read this article carefully realize that these economists support the no regulation net neutrality that the Internet originally enjoyed.

Broadband Breakfast LogoMytheos Holt, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandBreakfast.com

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2010 – Four economists argued in a letter to the FCC sent Wednesday that the question before the agency was “not whether to impose network neutrality, but whether to eliminate it.”

They responded to a letter also sent to the FCC that was drafted by 74 Democratic lawmakers who said the FCC’s plan to impose new regulations on the internet would violate a standing bipartisan consensus about leaving the internet unregulated. The economists argue that, in the aftermath of deregulatory court decisions like the Comcast case, the question is whether to restore what was previously the status quo, not whether to impose new regulation. The court ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to regulate Comcast’s control over the speed that data flows through its networks.

Continue reading

Kansas City seeks proposals to expand its fiber-optic network

  By

Kansas City is looking for a private partner to help expand its fiber-optic network.

City officials on Wednesday issued a request for proposals from companies willing to help extend the city’s system beyond its existing 16 miles, mostly within the downtown loop, and the 27 miles under construction. The documents asked that the new lines connect all city-owned buildings, traffic signals and public safety communications equipment all the way to Kansas City International Airport.

Continue reading