You will soon start seeing some stories by David Collado, under the byline “dcollado.” David has been researching community owned networks with ILSR for the summer and will continue for a few more months. Here is some background biographical details on David.
David Collado is currently a JD candidate (2014) at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is also working with ILSR as a research consultant on a project aiming to measure the economic impacts of municipal broadband networks.
David proposed this research project to ILSR after taking a telecommunications law course taught by Susan Crawford in which he wrote a paper titled “Overcoming Obstacles to Municipal Fiber Networks” which focused on debunking the policy rationales behind the many state laws restricting municipal broadband.
Through his school research, David became invested in the cause of municipalities’ rights to provide critical infrastructure for their communities. In researching the state laws restricting municipal broadband, he found the type of injustice he went to law school to learn how to fight. David also believes that promoting municipal broadband can solve a host of problems including the digital divide, net neutrality, and monopolization of communications infrastructure, as well as spur entrepreneurship and innovation, his other main interests.
David’s research with ILSR focuses primarily on exploring the various cost savings to governments, schools, businesses and residents that result from community owned broadband networks.