Local/Municipal

With the help of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ administration, in partnership with the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC), began installing free WiFi in nine city parks. To advance Digital Equity in the City of St.

The Internet Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) claims public broadband providers get advantages that private players don’t and that they aren’t as efficient in building networks. Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), said ITIF’s paper hides under the rug that private internet service providers have received billions from federal and state sources, including the Universal Service Fund, the Affordable Connectivity Program, and soon from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Meanwhile, the advantages public netwo

RightFiber, a brand of Ritter Communications, agreed in principle to acquire the City of Ruston’s fiber optic broadband network in Louisiana. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. RightFiber will continue serving existing business customers at that time. Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said, “RightFiber’s personal approach and future-minded vision set them apart as a service provider.

With a new presidential administration soon upon us, a panel of broadband operators was asked what policy changes they’d most like to see. Leigh Fox, CEO at altafiber, gave a point-blank answer: “Permitting needs to be addressed.” From his perspective, it’s the one thing slowing down broadband deployments, and municipal permitting is “getting tougher and tougher,” he said. Five to ten years ago, a joint use agreement would take around 6-8 months to set up, said Fox. Now, that process can take “18-24 plus months.” Fox wasn’t the only one with permitting gripes.

To take full advantage of online local government services, healthcare and other resources, residents need robust connectivity capabilities—which still aren’t available in some areas of the U.S. An established fiber backbone can enable a fast, reliable connection; yet while 91 percent of state and local leaders said their agencies would benefit from modernizing IT infrastructure in a recent EY survey, only 40 percent iden

The City of Boulder (CO) has developed a transformative agreement with ALLO Communications to bring affordable, high-speed internet access to community members and businesses across the city. This collaboration will significantly enhance Boulder's digital infrastructure, expanding access to high-quality broadband services while fostering equity, inclusivity, and environmental sustainability. This achievement stems from a 2018 decision by City Council to construct a citywide fiber backbone.

Otis, Massachusetts, isn’t the sort of place you expect to spend a lot of time online. For Kirsten Paulson, who lives part time in Otis, that’s all a selling point. Another major one: Her internet service is better here than at her home outside Washington (DC). That’s because the town of 1,500 people built its own network to fill in the gaps left by private providers, which don’t offer high-speed internet in Otis.

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.

The City of Scranton (PA) is celebrating the investment of tens of millions of dollars from Verizon over the next three years, at no project cost to the City. This project, which has already begun in sections of the City, will develop a ubiquitous network of fiber internet access to homes, providing the opportunity for all Scranton residents to subscribe to high-speed internet. Verizon was selected from four vendors in a request for qualifications (RFQ) process that began in October 2023.

November marks the tenth anniversary of NextLight: the municipal broadband provider for the city of Longmont, Colorado, launched in 2014 as the first municipal broadband network in the state.