News

With all the great community broadband network projects out there that are owned by local governments, I hope readers will take some time to nominate some of them for the "Innovations in American Government" awards from the Ash Center at Harvard's Kennedy School. Deadline for n

The Georgia Senate is considering SB 313, a bill that would overrule local decision-making authority in matters of broadband.

Minnesota Public Radio has once again covered some of the many benefits coming from the stimulus-funded Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services that grew out of WindomNet, a small muni network.

One of the great conferences, Freedom to Connect, is back for 2011!

The Media Action Grassroots network is holding a digital dialogue phonecast from 1-2pm EST on January 25.

AT&T, one of the few dominant Internet access providers in South Carolina, is again pushing a bill in the state legislature that will gut the self-determiniation of local communities in the digital age.

As should happen with entities that are accountable to the public, the 2011 audit of the UTOPIA network in Utah is available for the public to read.

Silicon Valley Power, the muni electric utilty owned by Santa Clara is preparing to launch a citywide Wi-Fi network later this year according to the Santa Clara Weekly.

Prior to Chattanooga's gigabit announcement, Amazon had no considered that region as a location for the distribution center they would looking to put in the southeastern U.S. But they saw the announcement, talked to the City and Boom!

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a small non-profit based in Minneapolis seeks a full-time employee to conduct public policy research in broadband/telecommunications. The position involves research, including conducting telephone interviews, writing, and creating online materials including charts/graphs, web pages, videos, infographics, etc.

Last year we noted that a bill to expand local authority to invest in publicly owned broadband networks would return in 2012. HB 1711 is in Committee and causing a bit of a stir.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is hosting an informational meeting on Thursday, January 12, at 1:00.