Institute for Local Self Reliance
Podcast | How U.S. Courts Are Reshaping Broadband Access
Chris Mitchell speaks with Andy Schwartzman, Senior Counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, about pressing legal issues affecting telecommunications policy in the U.S.
The State of State Preemption: Stalled—But Moving In More Competitive Directio
As the federal government makes unprecedented investments to expand high-speed access to the Internet, unbeknownst to most outside the broadband industry is that nearly a third of the states in the U.S. have preemption laws in place that either prevent or restrict local municipalities from building and operating publicly-owned, locally-controlled networks.
Kendall County, Illinois, Builds Its Own Fiber Network After Being Snubbed By Monopolies
Frustrated by years of substandard broadband service from regional telecommunications monopolies, Kendall County (IL) residents have joined the growing chorus of Americans that are tackling the problem head on by building their own better, faster, more affordable fiber networks. The Kendall County network, part of a public-private partnership with Pivot-Tech, is being funded by a tax-free revenue bond. Kendall County officials say that the full cost of the network, which will include private investment from Pivot-Tech, is expected to ultimately be $67 million, serving more than 13,000 locat
Mapping Digital Sovereignty Across Indian Country As Tribal Broadband Soars
In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) celebrates the growing number of Tribal nations exercising digital sovereignty by building Tribally-owned broadband networks.
What We Can Learn From the Low-Cost Option That Was, Then Wasn’t, Then Was Again
Few people dispute the vital importance of affordability in closing the digital divide.
New Community Network Map Shows the Explosion of Publicly Owned Networks
In 2011, Community Networks built our first map showing where community-owned networks were around the United States. At the time, it aimed to illustrate what we knew to be true: that more than a hundred communities were choosing to fill the local broadband marketplace by building and/or operating their own networks.
Native Nations and Federal Telecom Policy Failures: Lessons from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
As Tribes work in record numbers to close the significant digital divide across Indian Country, they need good policy that facilitates self-determined and sustainable solutions. To the contrary, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), became, for many, yet another lesson in the dangers of investing significant sums of federal money into new Internet networks on Tribal lands without regard to local knowledge or priorities, leaving Tribal governments to spend their own time and resources to fix broken processes. This report exami