Now that there’s broad consensus high-speed Internet connectivity should be universally accessible, there’s no shortage of broadband news/content floating around out there.

There’s the wheat (more truthful, useful, and informative stuff); the chafe (a mundane grain of truth buried under a steaming pile of bs), and a vast spectrum of perspectives in between.

In this new space we will highlight insightful news stories, blog posts, podcasts, or videos we’ve come across over the past week or so – with an eye to separate the signal from the noise.

Downloading now …

What Happened to Gigi?

While the FCC has been defanged in many ways, the agency is still at the center of our shared telecommunication ecosystem. So when President Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to serve as the fifth and final commissioner to break the 2-2 partisan deadlock at the agency, numerous consumer and public interest groups were ecstatic. The nation’s telecommunication workers backed her nomination. She even had the respect and quiet support of a number of conservative lawmakers.

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But her nomination was sunk by a vicious smear campaign, which led her to withdraw herself from consideration in March.

At the Broadband Communities Summit in May she described the process both like being put in a “washing machine full of rocks” and going through “a 16 month proctology exam.”

Now that there’s broad consensus high-speed Internet connectivity should be universally accessible, there’s no shortage of broadband news/content floating around out there.

There’s the wheat (more truthful, useful, and informative stuff); the chafe (a mundane grain of truth buried under a steaming pile of bs), and a vast spectrum of perspectives in between.

In this new space we will highlight insightful news stories, blog posts, podcasts, or videos we’ve come across over the past week or so – with an eye to separate the signal from the noise.

Downloading now …

What Happened to Gigi?

While the FCC has been defanged in many ways, the agency is still at the center of our shared telecommunication ecosystem. So when President Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to serve as the fifth and final commissioner to break the 2-2 partisan deadlock at the agency, numerous consumer and public interest groups were ecstatic. The nation’s telecommunication workers backed her nomination. She even had the respect and quiet support of a number of conservative lawmakers.

Image

But her nomination was sunk by a vicious smear campaign, which led her to withdraw herself from consideration in March.

At the Broadband Communities Summit in May she described the process both like being put in a “washing machine full of rocks” and going through “a 16 month proctology exam.”

We see this question from time to time as one of the nuts and bolts parts of building a new network: where does insurance come into play? New infrastructure is, after all, expensive. 

Doug Dawson answers this question clearly and comprehensively in a recent post. The short of it is that in the vast majority of instances, damage for the conduit and fiber portions of the network get covered either by FEMA or the utility provider that owns the poles. This is, he notes, separate from the buildings and other non-cable/conduit portions of an outside plant, which are often covered by some sort of insurance. 

There are certainly insurers that will do it, but Doug advises thoughtful cost accounting before making a decision. It’s good advice, especially since it looks like at least some of the insurance industry is eyeing the billions in new federal infrastructure money as a way to diversify their portfolios.

One thing that Doug’s piece doesn’t cover is security threats, which have certainly been on the rise over the last few years. As our electric and information grid infrastructure continues to grow closer and bad actors see opportunities to go after small ISPs with fewer resources, the cost of disruption and downtime may change the motivation for network insurance.

Read Doug’s full piece here.

Watch the Episode 39 of Connect This! to hear the panel talk a little more about insuring broadband networks.

We see this question from time to time as one of the nuts and bolts parts of building a new network: where does insurance come into play? New infrastructure is, after all, expensive. 

Doug Dawson answers this question clearly and comprehensively in a recent post. The short of it is that in the vast majority of instances, damage for the conduit and fiber portions of the network get covered either by FEMA or the utility provider that owns the poles. This is, he notes, separate from the buildings and other non-cable/conduit portions of an outside plant, which are often covered by some sort of insurance. 

There are certainly insurers that will do it, but Doug advises thoughtful cost accounting before making a decision. It’s good advice, especially since it looks like at least some of the insurance industry is eyeing the billions in new federal infrastructure money as a way to diversify their portfolios.

One thing that Doug’s piece doesn’t cover is security threats, which have certainly been on the rise over the last few years. As our electric and information grid infrastructure continues to grow closer and bad actors see opportunities to go after small ISPs with fewer resources, the cost of disruption and downtime may change the motivation for network insurance.

Read Doug’s full piece here.

Watch the Episode 39 of Connect This! to hear the panel talk a little more about insuring broadband networks.

We see this question from time to time as one of the nuts and bolts parts of building a new network: where does insurance come into play? New infrastructure is, after all, expensive. 

Doug Dawson answers this question clearly and comprehensively in a recent post. The short of it is that in the vast majority of instances, damage for the conduit and fiber portions of the network get covered either by FEMA or the utility provider that owns the poles. This is, he notes, separate from the buildings and other non-cable/conduit portions of an outside plant, which are often covered by some sort of insurance. 

There are certainly insurers that will do it, but Doug advises thoughtful cost accounting before making a decision. It’s good advice, especially since it looks like at least some of the insurance industry is eyeing the billions in new federal infrastructure money as a way to diversify their portfolios.

One thing that Doug’s piece doesn’t cover is security threats, which have certainly been on the rise over the last few years. As our electric and information grid infrastructure continues to grow closer and bad actors see opportunities to go after small ISPs with fewer resources, the cost of disruption and downtime may change the motivation for network insurance.

Read Doug’s full piece here.

Watch the Episode 39 of Connect This! to hear the panel talk a little more about insuring broadband networks.

We see this question from time to time as one of the nuts and bolts parts of building a new network: where does insurance come into play? New infrastructure is, after all, expensive. 

Doug Dawson answers this question clearly and comprehensively in a recent post. The short of it is that in the vast majority of instances, damage for the conduit and fiber portions of the network get covered either by FEMA or the utility provider that owns the poles. This is, he notes, separate from the buildings and other non-cable/conduit portions of an outside plant, which are often covered by some sort of insurance. 

There are certainly insurers that will do it, but Doug advises thoughtful cost accounting before making a decision. It’s good advice, especially since it looks like at least some of the insurance industry is eyeing the billions in new federal infrastructure money as a way to diversify their portfolios.

One thing that Doug’s piece doesn’t cover is security threats, which have certainly been on the rise over the last few years. As our electric and information grid infrastructure continues to grow closer and bad actors see opportunities to go after small ISPs with fewer resources, the cost of disruption and downtime may change the motivation for network insurance.

Read Doug’s full piece here.

Watch the Episode 39 of Connect This! to hear the panel talk a little more about insuring broadband networks.