Silicon Valley Power Does Dark Fiber and Wireless
Silicon Valley Power, a muni electric in Santa Clara, was smart when fibering-up its electrical plant.
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
News
More Details from the Incredible Santa Monica City Net
Santa Monica's approach to building community owned broadband that puts the community first has been wildly successful. They have not focused on providing residential connections, and likely will not in the future, focusing instead on meeting their municipal needs and businesses to spur economic development.
Broadband Survey from Consumers Union
Take a few minutes to help an excellent organization, Consumers Union, to collect data about broadband. Too much of our information about broadband comes from the big companies that have a vested interest in only spreading information that helps them.
EC Fiber is Officially Live in Vermont
This has been a great month for communities building their own high capacity broadband networks in New England. Wired West in rural Massachusetts has formalized its coop of communities.
Is Lafayettte Community Broadband Doing OK or Great?
Lafayette Doing OK, Doubles Capacity for Promotion
John at Lafayette Pro Fiber recently updated us all on LUS Fiber's financials. According to John, LUS Fiber is doing OK, not great, in its FTTH offering (probably the best deal in the nation for fast, affordable, and reliable connections).
EC Fiber Starts Connecting Rural Vermont to Internet
The East Central Vermont Fiber-to-the-Home network is officially connecting people. This has been a fascinating project to watch, though undoubtedly frustrating from the thousands of people who just want a fast, affordable, and reliable connection to the Internet (though any one of the three would be an improvement for them).
Attention Community Networks: The FCC Needs Information
We have long urged the FCC to include community networks in discussions around subjects like Universal Service Fund reform -- where communities are better poised to build the networks they need than private companies. The good news is that the FCC is now listening; the bad news is that they are listening during a short window in the middle of August.
NATOA, September, and Gigabit Communities Conference
I just booked my ticket for NATOA's annual conference in San Francisco in September - the theme is Gigabit Communities.
This conference has some great supporters of community broadband networks, including Joanne Hovis, Jim Baller, David Isenberg, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, among others.
Chattanooga Pairs Wireless with Wired
Chattanooga, with the nation's most impressive broadband network (stretching into rural areas even outside the metro), is spending $30 million to put a Wi-Fi wireless network on top of it.
KeyWifi and Expanding Access to the Internet
One of the benefits of community ownership is the public should be more open to trying innovative strategies to maximize benefits from the network than a private corporation is because the corporation only cares to maximize profit.
TonkaConnect Initiative Shelved, More Education Needed
The TonkaConnect project of the Lake Minnetonka Cable Commission, comprising many suburbs west of Minneapolis, is going to pause after some of the city councilmembers of communities within the project were unsupportive.
NCSL Voting on Community Broadband Resolution
Update: As we were publishing this, NCSL barred debate on the resolution. As Tim Judson, put it: Apparently it's ok for states to preempt communities but not for feds to preempt states.
Open Access nDanville Network Goes Residential
The open access fiber-optic network in Danville, Virginia, is officially going FTTH.
Franklin County, Private Partnerships, and Wireless Broadband
Craig Settles has been pumping out some in-depth interviews with community networks on his new Gigabit Nation audio show. This show discusses a wireless network built using a public-private partnership in Franklin County, Virginia.
Wired West to Incorporate Next Week
Very good news continues to come from Wired West. From a press release:
Ubiquitous Internet: A Boy and His Bot
Our mantra is that communities need fast, affordable, and reliable access to the Internet. We imply universal access, but another key word should be ubiquitous. As new applications are integrated into our modern life, particularly those related to health care, dead zones could actually endanger our health!
Comcast: Internet Access is Temporarily a Civil Right
You can now read this post at Huffington Post also.
Community Radio Video
Before communities were building broadband networks, many had local radio stations. Now most radio stations are owned by massive companies far from the community -- but this is a key moment for expanding local, low-power radio. Watch this video to learn more and how you can help.
Layton and Centerville Start Seeing UTOPIA Benefits
When the UTOPIA network buildout stalled in 2007, some communities were left entirely unserved by a network they helped to create.
Encouraging Community Networks in Chino Hills, California
Chino Hills, California, knows what is like to need broadband - back in 2004 they had to poke and prod Verizon and Adelphia into offering broadband services in their town. Some of the folks from that effort are interested in exploring the idea of a community-owned broadband network.