Local Electric Cooperative Provides Broadband in Missouri’s Bootheel
Missouri’s Bootheel, the ultimate southeast corner of the state, now enjoys high speed Internet access thanks to the Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative.… Read More
Georgia Telephone Cooperative Connects Counties With High Speed Internet Access
Pineland Telephone Cooperative, which already provides services in rural southeast Georgia, is expanding into Americus. … Read More
ILSR to Co-Host Screening of Broadband Documentary
On February 20, in Washington DC, ILSR will co-host a screening and discussion of the film Do Not Pass Go. The short documentary investigates how large corporations blocked the ability of Pinetops, North Carolina to obtain high-quality Internet access from a nearby municipal network.… Read More
After Strong Grassroots Effort, Colorado Town Looks Forward to Better Connectivity
Residents of Fort Collins, Colo. fought hard for the right to build their own broadband network, won, and are now looking forward to service starting as early as this summer. … Read More
Town in Michigan Launches Community-Owned Broadband Service
This small town in southern Michigan is steeped in interesting history, including an 1843 incident in which the community rallied around escaped slaves leading to the Fugitive Slave Law. The town is also home to an historic district considered one of the most architecturally significant in the U.S. It’s part of the Battle Creek statistical area, but until local leaders decided to take matters into their own hands, connectivity for businesses and residents was inadequate for today’s needs.… Read More
Christopher Mitchell Reviews “Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution — And Why America Might Miss It” by Susan Crawford
Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband initiative at ILSR, reviews Susan Crawford’s new book “Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution — And Why America Might Miss It.” The book revolves around several communities that will be familiar to anyone following community networks, but even people with only a casual interest in how to achieve the best Internet access will recognize some of the community names in Susan’s latest book.… Read More
Illinois City to Expand Fiber-to-the-Home Network to Residents in 2019
The city of Rock Falls, Illinois, will begin building out their fiber network to residential customers in early 2019. Local businesses are already using the network, which offers gigabit connectivity, a huge upgrade from the 10 – 20 Megabits per second (Mbps) download previously available from Comcast…… Read More
Charlemont Chooses Community-Owned Fiber Over Comcast
The people of Charlemont, Massachusetts, are ready to pay approximately $1.5 million to own broadband infrastructure rather than shell over $462,000 to Comcast for cable Internet access in their community. At a packed December 6th town meeting, voters showed up to handily defeat the proposal from the cable giant and express their support for a publicly owned fiber optic network.… Read More
Colorado Town Moves Forward on Potential Community-Owned Fiber Network
During the February 2015 referendum, approximately 92 percent who voted on the measure, chose to opt out of SB 152 in Estes Park. The mountain town of 6,300 has experienced catastrophic outages dues to ice and flooding, including in 2016 and in 2013 when telecommunications were wiped out for days.… Read More