For-profit, corporate ISPs are a cancer on society: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/18/with-hr-3557-broadband-monopolies-are-pushing-a-bill-that-would-crush-your-towns-ability-to-stand-up-to-them/

#municipalbroadband #internet #isp #isps #regulatorycapture

For over 20 years, the city of Palo Alto, the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley,” has flirted with the idea of building a city-owned municipal fiber network

Now after years of debate, numerous studies, several false starts, and many unfulfilled RFPs, they’re finally moving forward with a city-owned fiber network

Our story from @KarlBode here

#broadband #MunicipalBroadband #Internet

https://communitynets.org/content/after-decades-talk-palo-alto-drives-forward-municipal-fiber-build

Edison, NJ is considering whether they will build the first city-owned and operated fiber network in the state.

Why?

Because, as Mayor Sam Joshi says, the regional telecom monopoly Optimum (owned by French telecom giant Altice) "is a terrible service provider that provides absolutely pathetic service ... I promised to end Optimum’s monopoly for our families."

Link to our story below

#MunicipalBroadband #broadband

https://communitynets.org/content/edison-new-jersey-nabs-2-million-city-owned-fiber-network

Well, a #a2council agenda item (CA-5 tonight, http://a2gov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6279159&GUID=6E934724-BA86-495D-9EBF-A224174BA0AB&Options=&Search=) dug up some seriously interesting and under-reported stuff on #MunicipalBroadband in #AnnArbor. It turns out the city operates fiber networks in a limited capacity. These connections are seemingly exclusively commercial use. I recently wrote about the legal challenges involved with running a municipal network, but the city seems to be operating freely in this context. I have more digging to do now.

Ann Arbor for Public Power is gaining traction. Why isn't there a similar push for a public ISP when we're "lucky" to have two good options at a given address? Big telecom companies and the state government are to blame. I explore the subject in a brief blog post that I just published:

https://bellamazz.com/where-is-the-push-for-ann-arbor-public-internet/

#a2council #MichiganPolitics #MunicipalBroadband

#USA #Broadband #Lobbying #BigTelcos #MunicipalBroadband: "That means providers have to compete, unlike many parts of the US where people are lucky to have even two real choices of ISP and subsequently pay some of the highest rates in the world.

I tell Austin that he’s just described the waking nightmare of AT&T, Comcast, Charter, Cox, Lumen (CenturyLink), and Frontier. We both laugh. But it’s not really a joke – not when tens of billions of dollars in federal funding are at stake.

The United States is about to deploy $41.6 billion to expand high-speed internet access across all 50 states and every major US territory through a program called Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD). It’s the largest public investment in US broadband ever, and the Comcasts of the country will try their damndest to make sure that public money winds up in private hands.

But in many states, the fight will be over before it even begins — because of lobbyists."

https://www.theverge.com/23763482/municipal-broadband-biden-internet-funds-telecom-lobbying?mc_cid=61f92ea1f5&mc_eid=eb527a594e

Ars Technica: Colorado kills law that made it harder for cities to offer Internet service https://arstechnica.com/?p=1936108 #Tech #arstechnica #IT #Technology #municipalbroadband #Colorado #Policy

Voters say it's GO time in Waterloo, Iowa

My colleague @KarlBode has the scoop on how Quentin Hart, the city's first African-American Mayor, is leading the charge to build a citywide municipal fiber network after years of frustration with the private duopoly providers

#MunicipalBroadband #DigitalEquity

https://communitynets.org/content/waterloo-iowa-voters-go-forward-municipal-fiber-network

LA County is accelerating its plan to deliver affordable broadband access to the city’s unserved and underserved, with an eye toward building one of the biggest municipal broadband networks in the nation.

Yet another example of community broadband advocates taking the bull by the horns and breaking the monopoly grip of Big Telecom

Good story here by my colleague @KarlBode

#MunicipalBroadband #broadband #digitaldivide #digitalequity #communitybroadband

https://muninetworks.org/content/la-county-selects-pilot-communities-major-broadband-expansion

2. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is vital to get ppl who can't afford high-speed Internet service online BUT...

B/c Chattanooga built/owns a city-wide fiber network, over 17,000 low-income fams get a decade of free fiber service w/o needing the ACP

#MunicipalBroadband has diff incentives than Big Telecom. One cares abt shareholders; the other considers #broadband a utility like roads/water systems.

We created a short vid explaining how HCS EdConnect works

https://muninetworks.org/content/new-video-diaries-highlight-chattanoogas-long-term-solution-broadband-affordability-gap

When Big Telecom tries to convince you that #MunicipalBroadband is a "financial boondoggle," tell them to tell that to EPB Fiber in Chattanooga TN

The city invested $220 mil to build out a city-wide fiber network and an independent study by the Univ of Tenn found the network reaped the city a $2.7 billion ROI in first 10 years of operation

https://muninetworks.org/content/study-finds-chattanooga-fiber-network-10-year-roi-269-billion

read this absolute banger

#MunicipalBroadband

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/15/useful-idiotsuseful-idiots/#unrequited-love

@pluralistic Terry Gross did a great interview with Susan Crawford about how behind the U.S. is in high speed internet back in 2014. Little has changed. #Tech #internetaccess #publicpplicy #PUC #municipalbroadband https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/02/06/272480919/when-it-comes-to-high-speed-internet-u-s-falling-way-behind

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: Councilors consider how to improve internet access for all in Somerville https://binjonline.com/2022/12/07/bridging-the-digital-divide/ #news #broadband #cable #municipalbroadband #SomervilleMA #Massachusetts

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: Councilors consider how to improve internet access for all in Somerville https://binjonline.com/2022/12/07/bridging-the-digital-divide/ #news #broadband #cable #municipalbroadband #SomervilleMA #Massachusetts

A misdirected email reveals Cable One wants to fight publicly funded ISPs tooth and nail, referring to blocking government grants to its competition as one of its "most important tasks."

#CableOne #CableInternet #AntiCompetition #ISP #MunicipalBroadband
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/11/cable-companys-accidental-email-to-rival-discusses-plan-to-block-competition/