Universal Broadband

The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) adopted a recommendation that would mandate the use of contractors to move telephone company equipment to make room for new attachers' equipment. This is work that is currently performed by trained, skilled, career employees at AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and other employers. The BDAC recommendation threatens public safety.

In 2017, a legislative panel unanimously rejected a bill drafted by a secretive group that would have made it nearly impossible for communities to build their own high-speed internet networks, even when cable and telephone companies declined to do so. Now, Rep Chellie Pingree (D-ME) is co-sponsoring legislation in Congress that aims to make sure there isn’t a repeat of the measure and to overturn laws passed in recent years in 17 other states. 

Since the connectivity summit held in Marietta (OH) last July, the plight of Appalachian broadband deserts has caught the attention of lawmakers in Washington D.C. “At this time the Citizen’s Connectivity Committee is particularly interested in four of the most recent bills,” noted Liz Shaw, organizer of the Appalachian Ohio-West Virginia Connectivity Summit and Town Hall held at Washington State Community College and Marietta High School in 2017.

[Commentary] [Democratic members of the House Commerce Committee's] infrastructure plan provides critical support for the next-generation communications networks. We are proposing to:

In responde to a National Security Council memo urging the Trump administration to consider extraordinary efforts to clear the way for 5G, FCC commissioner responded:

[Commentary] Last week, Forbes contributor Rosyln Layton was fed up with what she saw as a lack of journalistic stridency in reports by FierceCable, DSL Reports, as well as numerous tech media publications, on a study (PDF) published by Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society concluding that municipal broadband was generally a better deal for consumers. Layton went on to accuse FierceCable of “blindly” accepting the Berkman study.

When we think about solving the rural broadband problem, nearly everyone tries to answer the question: “How do I find a carrier to serve rural areas.” But that’s not actually the problem we’re trying to solve. The problem we’re actually trying to solve is getting people access to quality broadband so they can participate in the modern digital economy and modern society generally. 

Some White House officials view next-generation 5G wireless service as a “key area of competition,” and they say that the threat from China, in particular, justifies a “moonshot” government effort like the construction of the interstate highway system. A National Security Council memo urges the Trump administration to consider extraordinary efforts to clear the way for the new technology or even to help build it in order to counter the growing economic and political threat from China’s aggressive efforts to develop 5G. 

Santa Maria (CA) has chosen Wave Broadband to build a fiber ring to include city departments, businesses, schools and residents. The Wave Broadband – Santa Maria public/private partnership aims to spark economic growth and attract high technology to the coastal city, which is about 150 miles from Los Angeles. The fiber ring is expected to support an upgrade to Santa Maria’s public safety network, with the city becoming a regional emergency dispatch center.

In the latest in a legislative flurry of broadband-related items, a bipartisan bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate to promote rural broadband deployment and identify fallow broadband fields in key agricultural sectors.