The connectivity crisis across the country, created by uncompetitive market conditions, is actually a three-fold challenge, all of which are interconnected: Access, Affordability and Adoption.… Read More
Municipal broadband advocates in Ohio realized a major victory today when a bipartisan House and Senate conference committee released the final version of their state budget plan that added $250 million to expand broadband access in the Buckeye State and removed the anonymous budget amendment that would have effectively banned municipal broadband networks if passed into law.… Read More
With the exception of a handful of homes in the more densely populated communities of St. Johnsbury and Newport, the only choice for most folks living in the rural environs of the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont is between DSL and satellite. That’s all changing now thanks to one of the state’s nascent Communication Union Districts (CUD), enabled by a 2015 Vermont law that allows two or more towns to join together as a municipal entity to build communication infrastructure.… Read More
When the Ohio Senate passed its two-year $75-billion budget bill yesterday, it included an amendment that effectively bans the creation and operation of municipal broadband networks and other community-owned projects without much in the way of public debate. The move is drawing a lot of blowback, from cities in the state to local and national advocacy organizations to the Lieutenant Governor.… Read More
Craig County, Virginia and the surrounding region is steeped in early American history. And now, thanks to the Craig-Botetourt Rural Electric Cooperative (CBEC), this corner of southwest rural Virginia has established a forward-looking outpost of Internet connectivity with the launch of a new Fiber-to-the-Home network. The first subscribers in Botetourt County already have the Bee Online Advantage as the co-op hopes to expand its high-speed offering across the seven counties in its 650 square-mile service area.… Read More
Knoxville, a city of approximately 187,000 residents and the home of the University of Tennessee, is aiming to get on the community fiber track and become the state’s next gig city.… Read More
In the heart of Adams County, Pennsylvania, not far from the site of the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, plans are being drawn up in the battle for better broadband.… Read More
In early 2000, Grant County PUD built an open access fiber optic network, allowing multiple local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to compete in delivering Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service to the county’s 97,700 residents.… Read More
As the COVID crisis swept across Arizona and forced students to attend school remotely last spring, Boyce began to look for a way to ensure that the thousands of students who didn’t have Internet access at home wouldn’t be left behind. In a city with a population of about 530,000, an estimated 30 percent of city residents, or about 150,000 Tucsonans, don’t subscribe to wireline broadband. … Read More
