community networks

The more broadband, the more interest in more broadband


Click to download the presentation.

One of the thousand or so communities, companies, organisations and private individuals that’s expressed interest in participating in the FCC’s rural broadband experiment program is the City of Marina, on Monterey Bay, which is where I live and work, at least when I’m not traveling somewhere.

It came out of a conversation I had with the city’s economic development coordinator, Marilyn Lidyoff, and a member of the economic development commission, Steve Emerson, at a local regional economic development conference back in March.… More

LA asks for gigabit fiber and free service, but keeps its crown jewel off the table


Just the facts. Assets, not so much.

The City of Los Angeles has taken the next step in its quest to have gigabit class fiber optic service available to every home and business. An official request for information (RFI) has been released for the Los Angeles Community Broadband Network (LACBN), with a 30 June 2014 deadline for responses. It’s only a preliminary step towards formally requesting proposals for the project. It’s also optional – not responding won’t keep anyone out of the running when the time comes.… More

Illinois says Gigabit Squared lied repeatedly, wants $2 million back

Once upon a time, it was strictly formal dress for sunrise.

The company that sold magically cheap fiber and a business case built on fairy dust to Seattle, then left town owing fifty grand is in even bigger trouble in Chicago. The state of Illinois gave Gigabit Squared a $2 million grant to deploy “ultra high speed” Internet access on the city’s south side and, to say the least, isn’t seeing results, according to a story in the Chicago Sun-Times (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer)…

Gigabit Squared, a Cincinnati-based company that last May touted the high-speed project in nine South Side communities, “has lied repeatedly” about its intentions and may have spent only $250,000 of the grant money for legitimate purposes, said David Roeder, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which issued the grant.

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Faster speeds collide with costly caps in Alaska

22 March 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click for a bigger map and more details.

Consumer broadband service is getting faster in Alaska, although data caps and a high cost for exceeding them will still limit its usefulness. GCI is the largest cable company in Alaska, and it just announced a no cost upgrade of its flagship Red service to 200 Mbps download speeds, starting in Anchorage. GCI’s plan is to hit a gigabit by the end of next year, at least in the neighborhoods where it decides to invest in fiber-to-the-home deployments…

GCI will prioritize the neighborhoods to get the new 1 gig service, based on the number of homes that have expressed interest…Recruit your neighbors.

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CPUC expands broadband subsidy eligibility, toughens requirements


It got a little harder to clear the bar today.

Local governments and independent Internet service providers can apply for broadband infrastructure construction subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), under new rules approved this morning by the California Public Utilities Commission.

There are pluses and minuses in the decision. On the whole, the commission is requiring these newly eligible application to meet requirements that are very similar to those imposed on regulated telephone companies, but without granting the same operational privileges – pole attachment and interconnection rights, for example.… More

FCC-funded rural broadband experiments have to walk the legacy telephone line


Eligible areas in the Golden State.

With the deadline for what the FCC is calling expressions of interest in its rural broadband experiments coming up fast – a week from Friday, on 7 March 2014 – the California Public Utilities Commission has put together some helpful tools for prospective applicants.

The list includes…

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Google joins FCC chair in waving the muni broadband flag at incumbents

21 February 2014 by Steve Blum
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Call it motivation.

Google is stoking the fires of gigabit demand and keeping the heat on major cable and telephone companies with its announcement that it’s talking to 34 more cities about fiber-to-the-home projects. That’s completely consistent with a strategy of goading incumbents into upgrades that they’d prefer not to do. Whether it’s the also the first step in a national roll out remains to be seen.

There’s no actual promise to build, as Google makes very clear…

We hope to bring Google Fiber to every city on this list, but there are a few circumstances that might make it tough and even impossible to build our Fiber network in a city…If a city doesn’t want to proceed with us and chooses not to complete their checklist, we won’t be able to bring them Google Fiber.

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FCC chair's muni shout out is just a first step on a hard road


Unmistakably, if not perfectly, clear.

FCC chairmanTom Wheeler stirred up a lot of excitement yesterday when he floated the idea of encouraging municipal broadband as a way of increasing telecommunications market competition…

The Commission will look for opportunities to enhance Internet access competition. One obvious candidate for close examination was raised…namely legal restrictions on the ability of cities and towns to offer broadband services to consumers in their communities.

He’s absolutely right that cities and other public agencies can create competition for incumbent telecommunications providers.… More

Cities, independent ISPs not welcome in FCC rural broadband experiment

FCC keeps friends close, and telephone companies closer.

Only traditional telephone companies, or companies and agencies that jump the same regulatory hurdles, can apply for grants to take part in the FCC’s upcoming rural broadband experiment program. That’s the word today from the California Public Utilities Commission.
Commissioner Catherine Sandoval led a workshop at the CPUC’s San Francisco headquarters this morning to look at how the FCC’s request for “expressions of interest” in its rural broadband program plays out in California.… More

FCC rural broadband experiment explained, for now


Seeking logical expressions of interest.

The details of a federal initiative to fund high speed broadband trials in rural areas of the U.S. are becoming clearer. The chief of the FCC’s office of strategic planning and policy analysis, Jonathan Chambers, offered some insight about the initial phase of the program during a webinar this morning, organised by the National Rural Assembly.

“Can we do better for rural Americans than is currently being contemplated?” Chambers asked.… More