Tag: rural broadband

Estes Park EDC Meeting to Discuss Fast, Affordable Broadband for the Estes Valley

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Adam Shake, Estes Park EDC – For the Trail Gazette

The Estes Park Economic Development Corporation (Estes Park EDC) invites you to attend a public meeting on Monday, March 5, 2018, to learn about the future of nationally competitive, fast, affordable, reliable broadband services in Estes Park. The meeting will be held from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm in the Town Hall Board Room, 170 MacGregor Avenue.

“Estes Park EDC supports the Town of Estes Park implementing a build-to-demand, phased approach for building a fiber optic network that can support robust broadband services, as well as enhanced communication services and allow the Town to implement electric power smart grid technologies” said Jon Nicholas, President/CEO of Estes Park EDC.  Continue reading

SpaceX launching its first test satellites to bring Internet to billions around the world

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Joe Skipper | Reuters A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on a supply mission to the International Space Station from historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 19, 2017.

SpaceX is on a collision course with the world’s biggest telecom and satellite manufacturing companies.

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SpaceX is on a collision course with the world’s biggest telecom and satellite manufacturing companies, as it steps up development of its “Starlink” network of satellites.

The company will soon test its first satellites, Microsat 2a and 2b, which are headed for orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, according to documents filed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These satellites will take the next step into space, which is critical for the network’s progress. Continue reading

Trump Administration Releases Details of $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan Leveraging $200 Billion in Federal Funds

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WASHINGTON, February 11, 2018 – After a year of promises, President Donald Trump on Monday is expected to unveil his long-awaited proposal for revamping the nation’s infrastructure. The plan, which was previewed by a senior White House official over the weekend, is designed to stimulate investment with an injection of limited federal funds and streamlining the permitting process.

Infrastructure is obviously a critical component to the functioning of our economy,” the official said. He called the current system “fundamentally broken” because of years of underinvestment and a permitting process that can take up to a decade before construction on infrastructure projects can begin. Continue reading

Calix announces five municipal broadband fiber-optic network deployments

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Rangely Museum

Rangely Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lightwave Staff

Calix Inc. will provide its fiber to the premises (FTTP) network gear to five municipal markets.

Independence Light and Power, Telecommunications (ILP, T) in Independence, IA, plans to upgrade its hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) plant to an all-fiber network to deliver managed WiFi services to subscribers and expand the company’s reach outside of the city limits. The service provider will deploy Calix 725GE optical network terminals (ONTs) and E7-2 modular access systems.

“Every week, we are adding more and more broadband subscribers who are looking for a robust and reliable broadband service,” says Josh Vandenburg, network engineer at ILP, T. “By moving to the Calix solutions, we are now able to seamlessly transition to fiber, which allows us to roll out new services and fully utilize the 10 Gbits/sec ring that runs through Independence.” Continue reading

Town Loses Gigabit Connections After FCC Municipal Broadband Court Loss

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English: Availability of 4 Mbps-Capable Broadb...

English: Availability of 4 Mbps-Capable Broadband Networks in the United States by County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Carl’s opinion piece is clearly in support of an industry that is very happy to sell equipment to these new customers because the incumbent telco business is not growing very fast, if at all. Allowing government to offer communications services in a particular market is not competing; it is taking it over because they can use bonds (low interest) and taxpayer money to fund these networks. State legislators have created these laws to prevent just these things from happening along with providing protection when half of these ventures go bankrupt.

Telcos are not clean on this because they are using crony capitalism to protect their monopoly or duopoly. If legislators enact such laws they should hold incumbents to the universal service agreement that AT&T adhered for decades.

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AT&T to Trial Wireless Broadband over Power Lines

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AT&T (NYSE:T) has unveiled Project AirGig, a technology intended to deliver multi-gigabit Internet speeds via power lines and unlicensed wireless spectrum to any home or handheld wireless device. The company expects to kick off the first field trials in 2017.

“Project AirGig has tremendous potential to transform Internet access globally – well beyond our current broadband footprint and not just in the United States,” said John Donovan, chief strategy officer and group president, Technology and Operations, AT&T. “The results we’ve seen from our outdoor labs testing have been encouraging, especially as you think about where we’re heading in a 5G world. To that end, we’re looking at the right global location to trial this new technology next year.” Continue reading

Expand Broadband Internet, Not The Size Of Government

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I’d like to respond to two letters in your July 13 edition that praised Rep. Mike Carter’s efforts to expand statewide broadband access. Rep. Carter wants more government involvement in the broadband sector, including an expansion of taxpayer-funded, municipal broadband networks.

Rep. Carter’s supporters argued he’s standing up for consumers against huge telecommunications companies, but by supporting greater government ownership of broadband he’s really working against small businesses like mine. While it’s true many of my colleagues in the telecom sector oppose Rep. Carter’s efforts, the bills he supports wouldn’t hurt the giants of the industry. They’d hurt small, locally owned internet service providers like mine that are struggling to provide good service in our neighborhoods and good jobs in our communities. Continue reading