Community Broadband Bits (archived)

While in Iowa for the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities telecom conference, I had a chance to interview Michael Curri, the Founder and President of Strategic Networks Group - SNG. He and I have long had great discussions at events around the country and I attempted to recreate some of the key points in this interview. Michael is dedicated to measuring and tracking how increased broadband utilization impacts communities and economies.

While at the SEATOA Conference in Raleigh last week, I met Mike Foor, the President and CEO of the Georgia Communications Cooperative (GCC). Given the important role GCC is playing in expanding great Internet access in rural Georgia, we wanted to interview him for Community Broadband Bits. Back in episode 46, we spoke with Paul Belk about the North Georgia Network (NGN).

Lisa Gonzalez and I, Christopher Mitchell, are back in studio for a short conversation about the implications of a municipal network or a coop receiving subsidies from government to engage in overbuilding, where it builds a fiber network in an area already served by slow DSL and cable networks. This has become an important issue as Minnesota considers a fund that would encourage networks in areas currently unserved and possibly underserved.

Just a few weeks after releasing our case study of Santa Monica's City Net, we have an opportunity to interview Jory Wolf, CIO of Santa Monica, and the chief driver of City Net. This is episode #90 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. We talk about how City Net got its start with a smart approach to the cable franchise negotiation. Adelphia built a number of fiber paths that Santa Monica would mange to connect anchor institutions.

If all had gone according to the plan behind the 1996 Telecommunications Act, we would have lots of competition among Internet service providers, not just cable and DSL but other technologies as well. Alas, the competing technologies never really appeared and various incarnations of the FCC effectively gutted the common carriage requirements at the heart of the Act. Earl Comstock joins us today to explain what they had in mind when they spent years developing the goals and text of the Act.

Having just returned from a short trip to Sweden, Lisa Gonzalez and I discuss what I learned and how Stockholm has become one of the most connected cities on the planet. We talk about how Stockholm built a massive dark fiber network that has enabled competition at the service layer, the status of telecommunications in Sweden, and what lessons we can learn in the U.S. from their experience.

More communities are today considering how they can improve Internet access in their community than at any other time. Having a gigabit is quickly becoming the standard - not because we all need 1,000 Mbps but because we know that everything we want to do is possible on a gigabit connection. Video games aren't going to interfere with Netflix streaming or someone working from home.

Ammon, a town of 14,000 in southeast Idaho, has been incrementally building an open access, fiber optic network that has connected community anchor institutions and is starting to become available to local businesses. Ammon Technology Director Bruce Patterson joins us to explain how the community has moved forward with its model for improving Internet access. They first sought some stimulus support for the network but were not selected.

The Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency, which we have written about many times, is at a crossroads. An Australian corporation specializing in infrastructure is prepared to infuse $300 million into the project but the Utah Legislature may prohibit it from expanding and even from using existing connections outside member cities.

When the DC Circuit Court handed down a decision ruling against the FCC's Open Internet (network neutrality) rules, it also clarified that the FCC has the power to overrule state laws that limit local authority to build community networks. Harold Feld, Senior Vice President for Public Knowledge, joins us for Community Broadband Bits Episode #84 to explain the decision.