Community Broadband Media Roundup - Sept 11

Featured Stories

FCC's Sohn Urges Cities to Build Own Broadband by John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable

Don't wait for incumbents to supply requisite service Sohn told NATOA that rather than viewing themselves as taxers and regulators, her audience should see themselves instead as facilitators of the kind of service they have been "begging" incumbents to provide "for years."

FCC's Sohn: Forget Incumbents, Build Your Own Broadband Networks by Karl Bode, DSL Reports

Sohn was quick to highlight successes in places like Sandy, Oregon, and the surge in public/private partnerships like the one between Ting and Westminster, Maryland. Sohn also highlighted the important fact that after fifteen years of apathy, the FCC is finally taking aim at protectionist state laws written by incumbent ISP lawyers, which prohibit towns and cities from wiring themselves -- even in cases where nobody else wants to.

How to Build a Better Internet by Adam Clark Estes, Gizmodo  

If America wants a better internet, it’s going to take work. We’re going to have to dig holes and install new equipment. Local governments will need to help startup ISPs compete with big telecom in a fair way. We need to hold companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable accountable for selling shitty service for high prices. After all, we invented the internet. We should make it better.

Georgia

City to study building broadband service by Ben Nelms, The Citizen

 

Maine

Maine PUC Considers Rule Changes to Increase High-Speed Broadband Statewide by Darren Fishell, Bangor Daily News

 

Minnesota

Completion of Lake County broadband Internet project on track, officials say by Northland NewsCenter

 

New York

Providing High-Speed Network and Massive Bandwidth by Samuel Greengard, Baseline

 

South Carolina

Spartanburg group plans to increase local broadband access by Trevor Anderson, Go Upstate

 

Utah

Spanish Fork upgrades to fiber network by Danielle Downs, Herald Extra

 

West Virginia

Frontier says sharing West Va. dark fiber network with Citynet would chill investments by Sean Buckley, Fierce Telecom

"If the FCC and the West Virginia Public Service Commission were to adopt Frontier's desired position, the outcome would be that Frontier would no longer be required to provide dark fiber to competitive providers," said Jim Martin, CEO of CityNet, in a Charleston Gazette-Mail article. "The end result would be that the rural markets of West Virginia would continue to be served by Frontier as an unregulated monopoly with little or no hope of ever attracting competition for service, meaning that these areas will not ever experience the benefits associated with the free market."

General

Calix partners with 10 cities on new municipal broadband networks by CivSource