On February 13, KKFI Community Radio from Kansas City, Missouri, interviewed ILSR’s Chris Mitchell and Todd O’Boyle from Common Cause. Tom Klammer, host of the “Tell Somebody” show covered Kansas legislation SB 304 aimed at preventing municipalities from investing in their own broadband networks. Chris and Todd co-authored our 2013 case study, The Empire Lobbies Back: How National … Read More
This is the first in a series of posts examining a premier Gigabit Community – Wilson, North Carolina. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 85% of all jobs originate from companies with fewer than 30 employees, and 87% of businesses which started through business incubators have succeeded after five years. So Wilson, North Carolina, focused … Read More
Greenlight, a muni FTTH network in eastern North Carolina’s city of Wilson, is proving to be a powerful tool in attracting new residents and businesses. We spoke with General Manager Will Aycock about the network and how it has benefited the community. Our interview covers a number of subjects, including how the network is attracting new … Read More
WUNC 91.5, North Carolina Public Radio, recently introduced Greenlight to its audience. We have covered Wilson and Greenlight extensively since 2009. Will Michaels spoke with Will Aycock, highlighting the network’s gigabit status. “We’re able to support the surveillance cameras and different sensors throughout the community to make us a smarter city. Certainly, we’re able to support many institutions here such as schools … Read More
In a recent op ed in the Charlotte Observer, Christopher Mitchell delves into why North Carolina ranks last in per capita subscribers to a broadband connection. The state, through its legislature, is held hostage by large providers such as Time Warner, CenturyLink, and AT&T. David Hoyle, a retired Senator who admitted pushing bills written by Time Warner … Read More
In North Carolina, Wilson’s Greenlight will begin offering gigabit residential services as early as July. Greenlight began offering FTTH service since 2008 to businesses and households and now provides affordable and reliable triple play. Along the journey, Greenlight faced a playing field tilted in favor of incumbent providers, predatory behavior from those incumbents, and dangerous legislative barriers created by companies … Read More
After a city in North Carolina built a Fiber-to-the-Home network competing with Time Warner Cable, the cable giant successfully lobbied to take that decision away from other cities. The city of Wilson’s decision and resulting network was recently examined in a case study by Todd O’Boyle and Christopher Mitchell titled Carolina’s Connected Community: Wilson Gives Greenlight … Read More
Following the collapse of key industries, a town of 50,000 in eastern North Carolina had to make a hard choice. It wanted to support existing businesses and attract new ones but the cable and telephone companies were not interested in upgrading their networks for cutting edge capacity. So Wilson decided to build its own fiber optic … Read More
