rural Archives - Institute for Local Self-Reliance

12 Jun 2018

North Carolina Legislature Sides with Big Cable Providers, Foreshadowing Future Fights

by ILSR | Date: 12 Jun 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

Rural Pinetop residents are getting a glimpse of the treatment they are going to receive from Suddenlink, even before the ISP has started offering service in the small North Carolina community. According to locals, Suddenlink subcontractors are busting water mains, connecting fiber without homeowner permission, and spreading lies about the Town’s favored community-broadband provider, Wilson’s municipal network, Greenlight Community Broadband.… Read More

12 Jun 2018

Fact Sheet: Connecting Rural America, the Power of Broadband

by Hannah Trostle | Date: 12 Jun 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

Rural broadband policy can be hard to explain. That’s why we made this fact sheet. It explains how rural America can have high-speed Internet service without breaking the bank. Give this to your neighbors, to your co-op board members, city council members, county officials, or state legislators.… Read More

7 Jun 2018

Minnesota Regulators Schedule Hearings on Frontier Communications’ Anti-Competition Actions

by Lisa Gonzalez | Date: 7 Jun 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

National ISPs with millions of customers are some of the most hated companies in the U.S. Poor customer service, contract tricks, and a refusal to upgrade services are only a few of the common complaints from subscribers who are often trapped due to lack of competition. Frontier Communications is proudly carrying on that tradition of deficiency in Minnesota. In fact, the company’s excellence at skullduggery has drawn the attention of the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which launched an investigation into the service quality of Frontier this spring.… Read More

25 May 2018

Small Maine Town Seeks Information on Local Broadband Possibilities, References Need for Rural Internet Access

by Lisa Gonzalez | Date: 25 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

Over the past year, towns in rural areas of Maine have mobilized and are taking steps to improve local connectivity. The latest is the community of Penobscot, where the local Broadband Committee recently released a Request for Information (RFI) to seek out firms interested in helping them bring broadband to the coastal community… Read More

18 May 2018

“Dividing Lines” Docu-Series Shows the Reality of Rotten Rural Connectivity

by Lisa Gonzalez | Date: 18 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

If you have fast, affordable, reliable Internet access, there’s a good chance you don’t live in rural America. With the exception of areas served by local municipal networks, cooperatives, and a few small independent ISPs, businesses and residents in rural areas suffer along with aging, slow, and often expensive connections. In a docu-series by Maria L. Smith, titled “Dividing Lines,” viewers get the opportunity to hear firsthand what it’s like for people who live in places where there is no high-quality connectivity. … Read More

7 May 2018

Mapping Colorado’s Internet Service Options

by Hannah Trostle | Date: 7 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

We investigated Internet access in Colorado using the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Form 477 data. Many of the most rural areas of the state do not have any form of Internet access other than satellite or fixed wireless services. For our analysis, we exclusively looked into wireline Internet service because it is less weather-dependent than satellite or fixed wireless. We added county subdivisions onto our map to help readers differentiate between more urban and predominantly rural areas.… Read More

3 May 2018

Voters Approve Municipal Broadband in Small Iowa Town

by Lisa Gonzalez | Date: 3 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

Looking at the Community Network Map, anyone can see that Iowa is filled with towns that have chosen to invest in publicly owned Internet infrastructure. On May 1st, the community of Pella took a step at the polls that will bring them a little closer to having a “pin” on our map. Ninety-two percent of those voting in the special election chose to authorize the City Council to establish a telecommunications utility.

Located in south central Iowa, Pella is about 40 miles south of Des Moines in Marion County. Pella Corporation and the Vermeer Manufacturing Company are the largest employers with Century College and the Pella Regional Health Center also retaining many people in the community. All of these large entities need fiber connectivity for different purposes.… Read More

2 May 2018

When You Can’t Trust the Data, Flaws in the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Forms

by Hannah Trostle | Date: 2 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

At the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, we analyze data and explore public policies to empower local communities. Our initiative staff work on varied issues from composting to broadband, but all these issues affect our daily lives and our communities. In the Community Broadband Networks Initiative, we often analyze high-speed Internet service availability using the best data that is publicly available. Some of this data, however, is inaccurate, outdated, and misconstrued.… Read More

1 May 2018

Innovative Nonprofit Announces Partners for Broadband Funding, Infrastructure Approach

by Lisa Gonzalez | Date: 1 May 2018 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0

Co-founders of the Post Road Foundation, Waide Warner and Seth Hoedl, have decades of experience between them in law, policy, and leadership. Their areas of expertise span cyberlaw, government and finance, environmental law and policy, electricity, telecommunications and energy law and policy, nuclear physics, and the list goes on. Through their years of research and in consulting with both public and private entities, Warner and Hoedl both saw that many rural communities needed better connectivity for economic development, better quality of life, and to keep populations strong. They’ve also found that if local communities or cooperatives are able to use fiber optics to synergize multiple utilities, the community is resilient and more self-reliant.… Read More