Local/Municipal
ALLO Fiber overbuilds Cable One in Joplin, Missouri
The city of Joplin (MO), has taken broadband competitiveness into its own hands and has wooed ALLO Fiber to build a fiber network in the city that will compete against the long-time incumbent Cable One. This is bad news for Cable One. But it could also spell bad news for cable providers all over the country. For several decades cable operators have been careful to respect each other’s footprints, rather than competing against each other in many markets.
This Massachusetts program is giving free digital equity advice
In Massachusetts a consulting program is helping local municipalities navigate digital equity planning. There is no flow of money to municipalities under said program. Instead, the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program, spearheaded by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), pairs towns and cities with consultants to develop strategic plans for digital equity within their communities.
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States Work to Address Barriers to Broadband Expansion
As policymakers in the nation’s states and territories explore how best to spend billions of dollars in federal infrastructure money intended to expand access to broadband, a key focus has been on how to avoid a host of potential obstacles that can impede or thwart their progress. Critically, stakeholders in a majority of states repeatedly raised the same key issues.
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Memphis's solution to the next big digital divide
What if there was a way to encourage fiber upgrades to those communities without direct government expenditures? Internet service providers (ISPs) have often complained that cities put up barriers and add costs to fiber deployment; what if cities reduced or removed those enough to change the economics and induce new fiber builds? That is exactly what Memphis (TN) has done. Only 24% of Memphis households have access to fiber, largely from AT&T.
Arkansas City to Get High-Speed Broadband Without Government Funding
The City of Cabot, Arkansas, is getting a high-speed broadband network that the city will own and that will be operated by Connect2First, the broadband unit of local power company First Electric Cooperative Corporation. Unlike many broadband buildouts these days, the network will be built without any government funding.
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Kendall County, Illinois Receives $15 Million for Broadband
A $15 million grant from the Illinois Office of Broadband will make Kendall County’s plan to provide high-speed internet to nearly all residents of the County possible. Kendall County announced that with the grant award, it intends to develop a public-private partnership that will result in more than $40 million in investment in a community-owned broadband network.
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Longmont, Colorado's municipal internet service provider NextLight connects new customers
Longmont’s (CO) award-winning fiber-optic internet service NextLight has now crossed north of Colorado Highway 66, expanding to serve customers beyond the Longmont city limits. NextLight announced that it has begun to connect residents of the Anhawa and Strawberry Circle (CO) neighborhoods.
The Municipal Broadband Solution
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has proven to be a digital lifeline for its 23 million beneficiaries. However, although lawmakers have known for over a year that the fund would be bankrupt by this spring, GOP congressional leaders have not budged on even bipartisan attempts to save the ACP, prompting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to announce in January the wind down the popular program. It’s a major setback for the “Internet for All” effort,
Municipalities can apply for BEAD. Will it matter?
In spite of all the public broadband haters, municipalities will be allowed to vie for money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
DIY public broadband guide gives power to the people
In news that's probably not sitting well with public broadband naysayers, communities now have a handy guidebook to build their own networks.