Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
Mesa County to vote on opting out of Colorado’s municipal broadband ban (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
Submitted by Grace Tepper on Thu, 10/21/2021 - 10:29The infrastructure bill's broadband investments are inspired by Colorado's experience
Washington may soon make the biggest broadband investment in US history, and the first draft was written in Colorado. In August 2021, the Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill that includes a historic $65 billion for broadband. This section draws directly from the BRIDGE Act, the bill I wrote with Coloradans to reflect our state’s struggles and successes against the digital divide. As usual, Colorado didn’t wait on Washington to act; cities created their own municipal networks and electric coops deployed fiber-optic networks in rural communities at world-class speeds and prices.
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Bill to maintain net neutrality working its way through Colorado Legislature
Telecommunications companies would be barred from receiving state grants if they don't follow network neutrality standards that have been abandoned by the Federal Communications Commission under a bill working its way through the Colorado Legislature.
Chairman Pai: Connectivity main obstacle of telemedicine
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai addressed barriers to high-speed connectivity in western Colorado and stuck to his post-network neutrality guns during a visit to St. Mary's Medical Center. Chairman Pai held a closed-door meeting with hospital leaders as part of a national tour to discuss how his agency relates to technology needed by rural hospitals that want to embrace telemedicine. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Pai said, from the FCC's viewpoint, connectivity remains the biggest hurdle to a serious move toward widespread use of telemedicine.