kutztown

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Kutztown Encourages Citizens to Keep Money in Community

When I visited Hometown Utilicom in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, I snapped this photo of a sign they have posted in their office to remind people how supporting the local network helps the local economy.  Not a very good photo, I'm afraid, but it conveys the message.

Hometown Utilicom Marketing

Muni FTTH Snapshot - Kutztown, PA

Publication Date: 
December 1, 2008
Author(s): 
Broadband Properties Magazine
Publication Title: 
Broadband Properties

Kutztown, a small community in Pennsylvania, built a fiber-to-the-home network in 2002. The small town network was taken very seriously by major networks, like Verizon, that pushed to create laws in Pennsylvania that would make it difficult for other communities to build the networks they needed.

This snapshot from Broadband Properties offers some history and technical specifications of the network.

Telco Lies and the Truth about Municipal Broadband Networks

Publication Date: 
May 11, 2005
Author(s): 
Ben Scott, Free Press
Author(s): 
Frannie Wellings, Free Press

The telecom and cable kings of the broadband industry have failed to bridge the digital divide and opted to serve the most lucrative markets at the expense of universal, affordable access. As a result, local governments and community groups across the country have started building their own broadband networks, sometimes in a purely public service and more often through public-private partnerships. The incumbents have responded with an aggressive lobbying and misinformation campaign. Advocates of cable and DSL providers have been activated in several state capitols to push new laws prohibiting or severely restricting municipalities from serving their communities. Earlier this year, Verizon circulated a “fact sheet” to lawmakers, journalists and opinion leaders proclaiming the so-called “failures” of public broadband. Many of the statistics come from a widely discredited study of municipal cable TV networks published in 1998. This paper debunks these lies case by case, juxtaposing information direct from the city networks with quotations from the telco propaganda. The results are unequivocal and damning.

Kutztown Bullet Points

Publication Date: 
March 19, 2003
Author(s): 
Frank Caruso - Director, Information Technology for Kutztown

In this short two-page summary of Kutztown's progress, Frank Caruso briefly explains the benefits of the network and the reason behind their investment.