We need better infrastructure to bridge urban digital divide
The broadband stimulus program committed nearly $500 million to narrow the digital divide through broadband adoption campaigns and building computing centers in low-income areas. After distributing...
View ArticleWhat the Green Bay Packers can teach us about broadband
If Green Bay, Wis., a town of 105,000 people, can raise $70 million to rehabilitate its football field by selling $250 stock shares, I bet $250 there’s a community in America that can raise $2 or $3...
View ArticleLegislators aim to turn states into broadband backwaters
Regressive, telco industry-influenced state legislators are at it again, trying to kill communities’ right to determine their own broadband futures. Anti-community broadband bills are rearing their...
View ArticleWe need a Broadband-to-Work program
The Federal Communications Commission should look to welfare reform legislation from 1996 for clues in revamping its Lifeline program. The program, which provides basic phone service for the poor, is...
View ArticleWhat if broadband can’t save your economy? Create a new one.
Everywhere from the White House to the local White Castle people are heavily promoting broadband as an antidote to economic woes. But what if a local economy is so far in the tank it appears to be on...
View ArticleMaybe it’s time to rethink how we fund broadband
Last week’s announcement that a $200 million broadband investment fund is in play courtesy of Gigabit Squared is part of a quiet trend of communities searching for new ways to fund broadband....
View ArticleDoes Kansas City own the business of broadband?
Studying the more than 150 successful community broadband networks (see map), and listening to mayors of cities that are driving significant innovations with broadband, a serious question comes to...
View ArticleWho’s driving your broadband bus?
Want to control your broadband as a community? Then you you have to own the process that determines how the technology is used. An article in Friday’s Kansas City Star puts a fine point on that...
View ArticleChattanooga unleashes the power of gigabit computing at GigTank demo day
Over a dozen teams of entrepreneurs and students worked feverishly all summer in Chattanooga, Tenn.’s GigTank startup accelerator to develop gigabit apps that showcase the power and practical value of...
View ArticleTo meet the FCC’s Gigabit Challenge, cities will have to get political
A few weeks ago, a tremor was felt in the Force as FCC Chairman Genachowski announced his Gigabit City Challenge – an initiative to get at least one citywide gigabit network per state by 2015. The...
View ArticleGigaom: Utah cities score broadband deal that rivals Kansas City and Google
Google isn't the only big company trying to bring gigabit fiber networks to the U.S. Australian infrastructure financing giant Macquarie is investing in Utah broadband.
View ArticleMaybe you don’t need a gig. Wireless might bridge the broadband gap
When it comes to getting high speed broadband in rural areas or underserved communities, fiber-to-the-home may not be the answer. Several companies are trying to develop high speed wireless options that…
View ArticleCan telemedicine help communities justify better broadband?
Telemedicine can encompass everything from robotic surgery to remote consultations with far-away doctors. But telemedicine needs super fast broadband, so communities are trying to provide it as a way...
View ArticleGigaom: The killer gigabit app? It’s not what you think.
ISPs and naysayers will argue the consumers and businesses don't yet need gigabit broadband because there's nothing people can do with it yet. But that's not the point. The speed is…
View ArticleGigaom: Mr. Wheeler, tear down these walls: The economic case for removing...
The FCC has been gently pushing for the end of state laws that make it difficult to build out municipal broadband networks. It should push harder.
View ArticleGigaom: States, stand down! Let community broadband innovate.
The effort to bring competition to the U.S. broadband market depends on the eradication of laws in 19 states that make it difficult or impossible for communities to build their own…
View ArticleGigaom: Simplicity, innovation and the death of anti-muni network laws
State laws that hinder efforts to build municipal broadband networks can be repealed or dismantled, and showing startups using gigabit networks and the promise of economic development is a good place…
View ArticleIf state barriers to broadband drop, what happens next?
Laws that prevent cities from operating their own broadband networks have a long history -- but things are changing.
View ArticleSuccess in public-owned broadband: It’s about Main St., not Wall St.
Public network failures are greatly exaggerated by critics who misinterpret what exactly community broadband success is.
View ArticleSacramento’s Hacker Lab calls AT&T’s gigabit bluff
Hacker Lab, together with its partner Consolidated Communications, proved that communities needn’t fear the wrath of giant incumbents or grovel in hopes of receiving their broadband largess.
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