Yesterday, following weeks of anticipation, State Gov. Jay Islee signed the Public Broadband Act (H.B. 1336), removing all restrictions on public broadband in the state of Washington, according to the bill’s primary sponsor, State Rep. Drew Hansen. This critical leap forward in Washington drops the number of states with laws restricting community broadband to 17. … Read More
Less than two years after Mississippi lifted its ban on electric cooperative broadband networks, at least 15 of the 25 co-ops in the state have announced plans to provide Internet access to members, with more on the way.… Read More
In less than a month Maine will hold a Special Referendum election which includes a measure with significant ramifications for Internet access in the state. On July 14, Mainers will be asked to vote Yes or No on Question 1, a $15 million Internet Infrastructure Bond Issue designed to bring high-speed service to the approximately 85,000 households in unserved or underserved areas. The $15 million in general obligation bonds would join $30 million in matching federal, private, and local funds and go to ConnectME to provide funding for broadband projects with an emphasis on unserved or underserved areas.… Read More
It’s been 15 years since Colorado passed SB 152, the state law intended to restrict communities from building and managing their own broadband networks In this episode Christopher talks to Ken Fellman and Geoff Wilson. They describe how monopoly Internet providers used legislative allies to introduce the anti-local authority bill aimed at protecting their profits.… Read More
Municipal broadband networks connect more than 500 communities across the country, but some states are trying to keep that number from growing. Nineteen states have established legal barriers or even outright bans on publicly owned networks.… Read More
Across the country, state legislatures are ushering in better rural connectivity by passing new laws that enable electric cooperatives to expand high-quality Internet access.… Read More
One of the many states where legislators introduced broadband bills in 2018 was Ohio, where HB 378 appeared to offer a promising answer to funding rural broadband deployment. The bill obtained bipartisan support as it passed through several committees, but prior to the legislature’s summer break, enthusiasm cooled.… Read More
Within weeks of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo coming out against waste incineration in the Finger Lakes region, New Hampshire’s Governor Sununu vetoed a bill that would have provided more subsidies to the state’s six biomass incinerators, saving rate payers over $100 million over the next three years.… Read More
