Community Broadband Media Roundup - December 18

California 

Santa Cruz forges 'homegrown' fiber optic Internet partnership by Jessica A. York, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Santa Cruz, Ca unleashes innovative public-private broadband partnership by The Coalition for Local Internet Choice

Canada

Town's only ISP shuts down, leaving residents unserved by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

Maryland

Westminster, Md., tackles gigabit broadband by Colin Wood, GovTech

Council narrowly agrees to municipal broadband study by Karie Simmons, Newark Post Online

Massachusetts

Mass Broadband and WiredWest have a 'good meeting' in Boston after public conflict by Mary Serreze, Mass Live

Mass. Broadband on July 30 issued a policy that individual towns must retain title to their own broadband infrastructure. WiredWest then apparently continued to advance its plan for collective ownership, as reflected in its business plan and operating agreement released in October and November.

..."Ownership of the network does remain the biggest sticking point," he said. "But the good news is that the board of Mass. Broadband agreed to take another look at the ownership issue. That's big."

Gigabit Internet prices in this small town may one day beat Google Fiber by Clinton Nguyen, Motherboard

Massachusetts town builds iteself 2 Gigabit fiber for $75 a month by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

Michigan

Gigabit service in small rural towns by Joe Ross & Jessica Steely, Broadband Communities Magazine

Minnesota

Op-Ed: Competition and community savings by Christopher Mitchell, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Even for those of us living in metro areas that have comparatively high speed access, we don't have a real choice in providers and most of us lack access to next-generation gigabit speeds.

The big cable and telephone companies excel at restricting competition by manipulating markets, state and federal government policy, and other means. This is why so many local governments across the nation are themselves expanding Internet infrastructure: to ensure local businesses and residents can access affordable next-generation services and create a real choice. We should be encouraging these local approaches.

New York

Attorney General says new website can measure Internet speed by Al Vaughters, WIVB-TV

Schneiderman’s office suggests, if you find you are getting cheated by your Internet Service Provider, take the test, get a screen shot of it, and forward the screen shot to his Consumer Frauds Bureau, or call the Consumer Hotline at 1-800-771-7755.

Tennessee

The techie mayor who may be Tennessee's next governor by Nick Fouriezos, Ozy

Utah

Op-Ed: Spanish Fork' success shows municipal Internet networks work by Christopher Mitchell, The Salt Lake Tribune

General

The more bits you use, the more you pay: Comcast CEO justifies data caps by Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica

Comcast itself acknowledges that monthly data caps are not driven by any technical needs. Leaked customer service documents say Comcast's data caps are not related to congestion management, and a Comcast VP recently said that setting the monthly data limit at 300GB is a "business policy" rather than a technical necessity.

Big cable's sledgehammer is coming down by Susan Crawford, Medium

Don’t be fooled. The usage-based billing playbook was developed by the mobile wireless industry, which itself is nothing more than a duopoly (Verizon Wireless and AT&T) with a fringe of a few other firms with similar business models. I’ve been predicting for years that usage-based billing will be used as a sledgehammer by other internet access providers like Comcast. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ve been proven right.

The best way to stop Comcast's data caps from ruining the Internet by Brad Reed, BGR

AT&T fools entire media with giant gigabit fiber bluff by Karl bode, DSL Reports

Broadband funding: If you build a vision, it will come by Craig Settles, American City & County

City officials push for greater broadband access but note challenges by Phil Goldstein, State Tech Magazine

Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio defends AT&T's right to write bad state broadband law by Karl Bode, TechDirt