champaign-urbana

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Big Broadband Breaks Ground in Illinois

Wed, September 21, 2011 | Posted by christopher

The Champaign-Urbana "Big Broadband" stimulus project as broken ground. This will be an interesting project, as it is connecting a community that was intimately involved in shaping the Internet as we know it today via the University there.

Tuesday's ceremony was the kickoff to the construction phase of a huge, multi-agency, multimillion-dollar project to deliver that broadband access to 2,500 homes and businesses and 137 community buildings.

The agencies, the cities of Champaign and Urbana and the University of Illinois, were notified 18 months ago that they were to be the recipients of a $22.5 million federal stimulus grant to build the Internet infrastructure. That was paired with a $3 million grant from the state of Illinois and hundreds of thousands dollars more from the local agencies.

After spending the intervening months planning the network, officials gathered in Douglass Park on Tuesday with shovels and hard hats in hand. Construction crews will be burying 278 miles' worth of fiber throughout Champaign-Urbana during the next months, and organizers hope to be delivering Internet and cable service to eligible businesses and homes within the next year.

Urbana Logo

The goal is ultimately to connect everyone -- residents and businesses -- with the best network possible, allowing independent ISPs to offer services. However, this approach is somewhat new, with a lot of diverse stakeholders trying to work together so it will undoubtedly be a project to watch and learn from.

Follow the project and learn more about it on their site.

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Stimulus Updates

Fri, August 07, 2009 | Posted by christopher

  • NTIA head Larry Strickling has suggested that if an incumbent wants to veto a stimulus grant in its territory, the data it uses to show the area is served will be on the public record. As this is a step in the direction of making such information public, it is good. However, there is still no clear method of appealing such a veto.

  • Craig Settles has called for letters to the NTIA asking for a deadline extension for the first round of grant applications. Muniwireless.com published a commentary explaining why a delay is a good idea.

  • West Virginia, one of the most-underserved states by broadband providers, is starting to worry much of the state may not qualify for broadband funds according to the Charleston Daily Mail. Unfortunately, they are relying on data from the industry-backed Connected Nation operation, so who knows? Being so heavily influenced by incumbents, Connected Nation significantly overstates existing coverage.

    However, the story is interesting in pointing out that the approach taken by NTIA will not result in sustainable network. Because network deployers must stick to the areas of least density, they have no revenue base with which to cover operating costs. Once the stimulus money goes away, one wonders how many of these networks will fold -- though NTIA has claimed that networks must demonstrate fiscal viability after the grants run out.

  • Champaign-Urbana is planning a fiber network contingent on stimulus funds. They have had to scale back plans for the network due to the stringent definition for "underserved." Illinois has set aside $50 million to help Illinois applicants as each applicant must provide 20% of the project cost to qualify under stimulus rules. The project will fund connections to the home in 11 census blocks that are currently underserved, create 35-40 computer labs for public use, and create a more advanced lab to assist the public computer labs. It will also build fiber rings to connect over 100 anchor institutions (hospitals, schools, government buildings) that may later be useful to expand access to the network.

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