"Community Owned Networks Benefit Everyone," an article written by Christopher Mitchell to explain why community networks are the only means of spurring true competition in the broadband cable television sector, appeared in the Spring 2009, NATOA Journal. … Read More
One of the key reforms pushed by the Obama Administration is to move away from paper medical health records to paperless, electronic systems. Electronic records should reduce costs, improve diagnoses, and are a key part of future telehealth hopes.
But what are the rules governing these systems? Can some vendors build systems and lock hospitals into proprietary formats from which they will be unable to transition away?
Fortunately, there is an open source solution that has already been built with public money by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Benoit Felten of FiberEvolution.com interviews Tim Nulty (former GM of Burlington Telecom, currently working on massive rural FTTH network in Vermont) at the Freedom to Connect Conference. Covers many topics, especially the economics of FTTH and why the public sector should invest in these networks.… Read More
Who makes the rules for how you use your Internet Connection? Who decides whether it should upgrade the network speeds? For most of us, private companies make these decisions and they are more interested in maximizing their profits than what is best for the community. This is a major reason why broadband is slower and more expensive than other countries like Japan, Sweden, and France.
The Economist takes on the cable companies and why they are not interested in bringing faster speeds to the U.S.
The Wired Road has begun operations, bringing an open services, fiber to the home and wireless network to the community. The network is owned by a partnership among local government, making the network accountable to the communities it is serving.
The regional network is the largest integrated fiber and wireless open access, open services municipal network in the United States, and the high performance network will eventually provide services across more than 1,000 square miles of mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia.
ILSR submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (in the Department of Commerce) and the Rural Utilities Service regarding the Broadband Technology Opportunies Program – a program established by the stimulus package to distribute grants to build information networks and expand broadband networks.
Public entities are increasingly recognized as important to expanding broadband access.
A panel from the Freedom to Connect conference discussd the changing nature of broadband policy using the stimulus package as an example:
The stimulus bill prioritizes public entities and nonprofits for grants to build broadband networks.
When Congress passed the stimulus package (ARRA), it included $7.2billion to build broadband networks to those who are unserved orunderserved (both terms that must still be defined). In defined whatentities are eligible for grants, the statute expresses a preferencefor publicly owned networks. States and political subdivisions arelisted first and nonprofit organizations second. Listed third areother entities, including incumbent providers, which are only eligibleif they are found to be in the public good.
App-rising.com‘s Geoff Daily interviews Christopher Mitchell about who should receive grants from the broadband stimulus funds and what technologies should be prioritized. 15 minutes long.… Read More
