community networks

Libraries are the killer app for Chromebook

1 April 2013 by Steve Blum
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Fastest library in the West?

Google’s Chromebooks have found a very useful niche in California libraries, thanks to a pilot program by the State Library. Jarrid Keller, acting deputy state librarian, outlined the project in a presentation to the California Broadband Council.

Internet access is an increasingly important – maybe the most demanded – service provided by public libraries. A recent survey by the Institute of Museum and Library Services found that 45% of library customers connect to the Internet any time they visit.… More

Real world planning brings real free WiFi to Santa Clara


Free WiFi coverage in most of Santa Clara.

It’s a beautiful thing when the pieces fall into place and a city can maximize the value of past investments and decisions. Particularly when it means better and cheaper broadband service.

Santa Clara is rolling out an elegant solution for universal Internet access. The city owns and operates its own electric utility, and put in a fiber optic network to support it. The fiber’s reach is limited – it’s definitely not FTTH scale – but it’s enough to make broadband connectivity relatively easy throughout the city and keep the cost of Internet bandwidth down.… More

Building a broadband economy pint by pint

16 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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Tapping into Cybeer space.

Ripping fast fiber optic-powered Internet access has found a worthy application this St. Patrick’s Day weekend: connecting a British pub to the Sierra Nevada brewery in California for an online beer festival.

The Celebration of Beer at the Driftwood Spars Inn in St. Agnes, Cornwall features a live conversation with Sierra Nevada’s Terence Sullivan and Ken Grossman in Chico and an onsite tasting of their signature Pale Ale. The “Cybeer tasting” event follows similar hook-ups between the pub and winemakers.… More

Surf's up for Georgia municipal broadband

8 March 2013 by Steve Blum
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A Grand Old Party for elephant seals too.

When the best thing you can say about a proposed new law is that everyone who’s really mad about it is exempt from it, maybe it’s time to fold your hand. Georgia representative Mark Hamilton, the sponsor of a bill to effectively prohibit local governments there from pursuing municipal broadband projects, decided to play it through to the end. And he lost.

The George house of representatives, the (structural, if not intellectual) equivalent of the California state assembly, spiked the bill yesterday with a vote of 70 in favor and 94 against.… More

San Leandro is a model for the country, says FCC chair Genachowski

“It’s a wonderful thing that San Leandro is doing here, and OSIsoft and Lit San Leandro,” said Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski. “You join a small but important number of communities that share your vision.”
He was delivering a keynote speech at an event last Wednesday celebrating Lit San Leandro and the partnership with the City of San Leandro that made it possible. The video from that event has been posted. You can watch the entire program here.… More

CASF consortia producing broadband projects


ESCRBC meeting in June Lake last November brought broadband supply and demand together.

Race Telecommunication’s proposal to build fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems in four Mono County communities shows how middle mile fiber can make last mile service possible and how the regional broadband consortia funded by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) can bring together the right people at the right time.

Those four small systems would be built along the Digital 395 route between Reno and Barstow.… More

Bay Area cities offer FCC chair a glimpse of the future


FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sees a gigabit city in San Leandro.

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) visited San Leandro today, taking a look at the economic progress kindled by the Lit San Leandro project and delivering a keynote speech to local leaders, business people, city staff and proud residents. I’ll have more on his remarks later.

I was fortunate enough to be invited as one of the opening speakers. My assignment was to give some background on efforts in the Bay Area and around California to develop our economy by developing broadband infrastructure:

Here in the Bay Area, we are surrounded by the fattest Internet pipes on the planet.

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Race is on for five CASF proposals


Race’s High Desert project area, in the Tehachapi Pass area, west of the town of Tehachapi.

Last October, Race Telecommunications asked for $13 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to build fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems in the desert towns of Mojave and Boron. The areas proposed were not completely unserved by CASF definitions – as required in the October round – so they’re back with expanded plans.

Race has five projects on the table now, totaling $38 million in grant requests.… More

CASF application stack gets a little shorter

25 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) cleaned up the in-box today, putting two more California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant applications into the review process and tossing out two more. The grant request total shrunk to $239 million, still about $90 million more than is currently available from the CASF program.

There’s a smaller revolving loan program. The total requested from it now stands at $1.8 million, bringing the grand total for the February 2013 application round to $241 million.… More

Bills to extend CASF introduced in California legislature

24 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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Pork is in the eye of the beholder.

Two bills proposing three changes to the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) made it into the legislative sausage grinder by Friday’s deadline. The changes could be good or bad, depending on your point of view.

Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat representing the San Fernando Valley, introduced SB740, which would 1. add $100 million to the fund and allow five more years to collect it, and 2.… More