Community Broadband Media Roundup - October 16

Community Broadband News By State

 

Colorado

Gardner pushes broadband bill in Senate by Charlie Ashby, The Daily Sentinel

Fort Collins voters to weigh in on broadband services by Kevin Duggan, The Coloradoan

Gigabit city: Fort Morgan putting together 'shopping list' for building out fiber system to residents, businesses by Jenni Grubbs, The Fort Morgan Times

Summit County cell tower referendum explained by Noah Klug, The Summit Daily

 

New York

N.Y. County, Private Sector Partner to Reel in State Broadband Funding by Joe Mahoney, GovTech

 

Tennessee

Tennessee Lawmakers Plan Push to Extend Muni-Broadband Boundaries by Tim Omarzu, GovTech

Chattanooga boosts citywide broadband capacity to 10 gigabits by Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times Free Press

The city-owned utility announced today that it is now offering 10 gigabit broadband to any of EPB's 170,000 customers. The 10 Gig service will be offered to any residential customer for $299 per month, compared with the $69.99 for EPB's current single gig service.

Chattanooga appears to be the third city to offer such a service, but it is by far the largest. Vermont Telephone offered 10-gig service to its 18,000 customers in Springfield, Vermont in June 2015, and Salisbury, North Carolina offered to service to its 33,000 customers in North Carolina in September. 

EPB and city leaders are announcing the new service today during Chattanooga's Startup Week, which is trying to capitalize on Chattanooga's faster broadband connections to attract and nurture more tech startup businesses.

Chattanooga Is Offering Internet Faster Than Google Fiber by Klint Finley, Wired

 

General

The Need for (Broadband) Speed by Colin Wood, GovTech

Community Broadband Easily Explained by Craig Settles, GovTech

Show Me the (Hidden) Money for Community Broadband by Craig Settles, CJ Speaks

Battling to become gigacities by Kristyn Martin, Al Jazeera English

“You have municipal networks that will build a network in the absence of real competition. But that creates real competition,” said Christopher Mitchell, the director of the community broadband initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “When they’re facing competition from a local government, they phrase it in such a way as to say, ‘It’s unfair.’ But when you look at their actions across the board, they’re trying to restrict competition in all manner of ways against private companies. They’re looking for an advantage in every single way that they can get.”

Cities combat state laws in the quest for faster, cheaper Internet by Krystin Martin, Al Jazeera English

VIDEO: Building the gigabit economy by The Washington Post