Tag: ISP

Spurning Google Fiber, Portland Suburb of Lake Oswego Pushes Toward Broadband Partnership

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Lake Oswego is taking the right tact here by considering a public-private partnership, but the should structure it in such a way where other service providers, even Google, can access the network to sell competitive services. By doing this they reduce the risk by spreading the infrastructure costs over more service providers. After a while even the incumbent providers will take advantage of the infrastructure. The private partner would build, operate, and maintain the fiber network so they would be adequately compensated for their efforts.

, Publisher, BroadbandBreakfast.com

LAKE OSWEGO, Oregon, October 14, 2015 – This suburb of Portland, a potential candidate for Google Fiber’s Gigabit-speed internet service, has said it isn’t willing to wait around for the search engine giant. Continue reading

Boulder hires consultant to explore municipal broadband buildout

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Optic fiber

Optic fiber (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BOULDER — The city of Boulder announced on Thursday that it has hired a consultant to conduct a broadband feasibility study, which will assess the technical aspects of building out municipal broadband services, as well as engage community members about what services they might like to see the city provide.

The goal is to have the study completed by May or June of 2016 so that, if the city council does decide to move forward with providing certain services, there would be time to place an initiative on the November ballot, if needed, to ask voters to fund such efforts. Continue reading

Larimer County election: Loveland, Fort Collins broadband measures land big victories

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Fort Collins and Loveland voters overwhelmingly passed measures on Tuesday night that grant their cities the authority to provide municipal broadband Internet services to residents.

Final unofficial voting results in Larimer County, as of 1:11 a.m. Wednesday morning, showed Fort Collins voters passing measure 2B in favor of municipal broadband authority with more than 83 percent of the vote. Loveland’s similar measure 2C passed with just shy of 83 percent approval. Continue reading

Chattanooga Is Offering Internet Faster Than Google Fiber | WIRED

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Move over SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA . Another city is getting a blistering 10 gigabit fiber Internet service. Say hello to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Today the Chattanooga Electric Power Board, the city-owned power utility, says that it is now offering 10 gigabit connections—nearly 1,000 faster than the average broadband connection in the US—to every business and residence in the city for about $300 a month. It will also offer three and five gigabit speed connections in addition its existing one gigabit service. Continue reading

Barriers to Broadband (Infographic)

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This is a great infographic showing the state of broadband services in the United States, but the text in the article is a little misleading. First of all the reason that about half the rural residents can’t get broadband service is because the FCC changed the definition of broadband service and the incumbent carriers are trying to catch up to meet the new definition. Second allowing municipalities to decide their own broadband fate will not address the problem of reaching customers outside the city limits. 

The uninformed and big government types look at municipal broadband as the panacea to all our broadband ills, but there is a reason that 19 states have enacted laws preventing municipal governments from getting into this business. They recognize that about half of these ventures fail and leave taxpayers on the hook to cover the losses, and that bureaucracies are generally not market oriented. 
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Letter: Let’s work to get municipal broadband

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I personally support all initiatives that will allow the city to investigate options for increasing broadband penetration and competition in their communities. I do not support cities entering the broadband services business. Government should facilitate and promote private business activities in their cities; not compete against them. I hope that Fort Collins takes this point-of-view when deciding what to do.

Robin Gard
Downtown "Old Town" Fort Collins

Downtown “Old Town” Fort Collins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am writing to urge a yes-vote on the November ballot issue dealing with broadband options for the City of Fort Collins. This vote would exempt Fort Collins from a 2005 state law that prohibits governments from competing with the public sector and would allow our City Council to begin exploring options about providing fiber optic broadband to the community.

Voters in almost a dozen Colorado towns and cities have acted on this issue. Local voter approval would clear the way for study and investigation toward providing increased service to local population, whether independently or as part of a public-private partnership. The city could begin collecting benchmark data to examine its options in future provision of services. Continue reading

City drops taxpayer-funded Internet plan for private provider

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One of the loudest advocates for municipal broadband in Minnesota has announced a surprise deal with a private provider involving no government financial support.

Just weeks ago, a legislative deal crafted by taxpayer-funded lobbyists for $2 million in state telecom grant funds for a government-owned fiber optic network fell through, and the city of Annandale appeared stuck with a system chronically criticized for outages and sluggish speeds. Continue reading