Motherboard, February 28, 2013 Look outside of your window: if you see miles of farmland, chances are you have terrible internet service. That’s because major telecommunications companies don’t think it’s worth the investment to bring high-speed broadband to sparsely populated areas. But like most businesses, farms increasingly depend on the internet to pay bills, monitor the … Read More
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has released a new interactive map showcasing 342 community owned networks throughout the United States that serve local businesses and residents. The Community Internet Map is available at MuniNetworks.org/communitymap/… Read More
Various Media Outlets, February 2013 ILSR’s annual Independent Business Survey gathers data from thousands of locally owned, independent businesses across the country. The 2013 Independent Business Survey, gathered data from 2,377 independent businesses across 50 states and the District of Columbia. Among its findings: Survey respondents reported revenue growth of 6.8% on average. More than two-thirds experienced … Read More
In response to the reintroduction of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the U.S. Senate today, Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance released the following statement.
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DSLReports, February 13, 2013 A new bill is being proposed in Georgia that would ban towns and cities from deploying their own broadband — if there’s at least one person with a 1.5 Mbps downstream connection anywhere in a census block. House Bill 282, or the inversely-named “Municipal Broadband Investment Act,” emerges after AT&T tried and … Read More
Remapping Debate, February 13, 2013 Hurricane Sandy, which blew through the New York metropolitan area late last October, left millions of households and businesses in the region in the dark. Few places were unplugged for as long as the service territory of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), the state owned electric power distribution company where … Read More
Greentech Media, February 8, 2013 Minnesota’s solar resource is the same as that of Jacksonville, Florida or Houston, Texas, according to Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Senior Researcher John Farrell. Its installed solar capacity is 13 megawatts. Farrell is part of a drive to have the legislature set a standard requiring 10 percent solar by 2030, … Read More
ILSR’s annual survey has found that independent businesses experienced solid revenue growth in 2012, buoyed in part by “buy local first” initiatives. But the survey also documented challenges facing independent businesses, most notably an increase in “showrooming” and competition from online retailers, tax and subsidy policies that favor their big competitors, difficulty obtaining loans, and a customer base still reeling from the recession.… Read More
Christopher Mitchell was recently interviewed by Bill Lindeke from streets.mn. Bill, a PhD Candidate in Geography, published the podcast as part of the streets.mn blog. He wanted to talk to Christopher about the work at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Bill discussed fiber optic infrastructure investment in the U.S. and touched on the Minneapolis City Wifi … Read More
