New Map of Publicly Owned Broadband Shows Impressive Coverage Across America
ILSR has released the Community Broadband Map, showing the location of over one hundred communities that have rejected the tyranny of existing carriers and built their own networks. Along with the map, ILSR has released a report, Publicly Owned Broadband Networks: Averting the Looming Broadband Monopoly.
“The Community Broadband Map reveals the depth and breadth of publicly owned networks,” says Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Telecommunications as Commons Initiative.
Publicly Owned Broadband Networks: Averting the Looming Broadband Monopoly
Quietly, virtually unreported on, a new player has emerged in the United States telecommunications sector: publicly owned networks. Today over 54 cities, big and small, own citywide fiber networks while another 79 own citywide cable networks. Over 3 million people have access to telecommunications networks whose objective is to maximize value to the community in which they are located rather than to distant stockholders and corporate executives.
For several years ILSR has been tracking telecommunications developments at the local and state level. We have worked with businesses and communities protecting their right to self-determination via the fundamental infrastructure for the information-based economy. This report offers some of our findings.
Video Shows Community Networks Far Superior to Cable, DSL in North Carolina
ILSR produced a video to highlight the impressive dominance of publicly-owned networks in North Carolina.
PBS: Need to Know – High Fiber
Rick Karr, a correspondent with PBS’ Need to Know, travels to Europe to investigate why some countries there have surpassed the US in fast, affordable, and reliable access to the Internet.… Read More
Bill to Limit Community Broadband in North Carolina Will Kill Jobs
While the rest of the world is working to become more innovative and competitive, the North Carolina General Assembly is considering a bill that will stifle innovation, hurt job creation and slow economic development. The Bill, H129/S87 will effectively prevent any community from building a broadband network and impose onerous restrictions on existing networks.ILSR is helping groups in North Carolina to stop this bill from becoming law.… Read More
Whose Internet? NC Communities Should Defend Freedom to Build Networks
Who should decide the future of broadband access in towns across North Carolina? Citizens and businesses in towns across the state, or a handful of large cable and phone companies? The new General Assembly will almost certainly be asked to address that question.
With the fastest and most affordable networks in North Carolina being owned by the public, the answer is obvious.
Banning Community Networks Ensures Slower, More Expensive Internet for North Carolinians
North Carolina consumers and businesses would pay more for slower internet access when communities are preempted from building broadband infrastructure according to a new analysis released today by the Institute for Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. This analysis shows that community fiber networks are faster and cheaper than incumbent cable and telephone networks in North Carolina.… Read More
Faster, Cheaper Broadband in North Carolina Comes From Community Fiber Networks
North Carolina aims to be a hotbed for innovation and technology, but the General Assembly has recently considered bills that would preempt local authority to build broadband infrastructure. Such preemption would cripple the most advanced broadband networks in the state. This new analysis shows that community owned networks are faster and cheaper than incumbent cable and telephone networks in North Carolina.
Past broadband discussions in the General Assembly focused on a bill to prevent communities from building their own networks — but communities are the only ones building citywide next-generation fiber-to-the-home networks in North Carolina. The best connections in the state are in the towns of Salisbury and Wilson because both built community fiber networks that offer much faster connections to residents and businesses at more affordable prices.