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AAPB Calls For Help in Developing Public Broadband Handbook
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*In partnership with Broadband Breakfast, we occasionally republish each other's content. The following Broadband Breakfast report was originally published here.
The American Association for Public Broadband is calling for industry help in creating a handbook that helps communities examine their option to create and maintain public broadband networks.
The handbook will be a “hands-on, high-level resource for moving through the entire process including getting started, building community support, technology and business case analysis, role of partners and finance,” said Gigi Sohn, executive director at AAPB.
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Sohn asked for leaders for public broadband networks, including both government-owned and cooperatives to complete a public broadband inventory. AAPB will sort through the submissions and select folks to interview for more details.
The inventory asks for network elements, public benefits of the network, what financing has been used to build and operate the network, among other questions. Respondents can indicate whether the data in the survey is available to be publicly released or not.
The AAPB will consider how it can fully capture value from this inventory and may decide to include all or much of it online in a database.
Responses are required by Friday, September 8, 2023.
Vendors, consultants, and other leaders in public broadband are invited to share the survey with those that are eligible to respond.
Below is a recent interview Gigi did with Christopher Mitchell, host of ILSR's Community Broadband Bits podcast. In the episode, the freshly minted AAPB Executive Director talks about standing up support systems to promote and defend community-driven models to double the number of municipal systems in the next five years - including providing resources and countering dark-money astroturf campaigns:
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