Community Connections - Jason Hardebeck, Baltimore

Monday July 11, 2016

Residents and businesses in Baltimore have been dealing with poor access for years. In 2015 the city's mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake named a 27-member task force to address the problem and has spoken out about the need for more investment.

In this episode of Community Connections, Christopher Mitchell caught up with Broadband Coordinator Jason Hardebeck to talk about about his city's challenges and opportunities.

Hardebeck is tasked with developing a strategy that puts his city's residents and businesses first. These challenges are familiar to many cities across the United States and this interview serves as a good illustration of why owning some conduit and dark fiber can be a big benefit to cities as they try to solve the problem of the digital divide.

Anacortes, Washington, Will Survey Community About FTTH

By on Aug 25, 2017

Bit by bit, Anacortes has been taking steps to cultivate better connectivity in their community of approximately 16,000. Earlier this week, city leaders decided to move forward with a survey to determine if residents and businesses are interested in service from a municipal Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network.

Considering The Next Steps

Community Connections - Anne Schweiger, Boston, Massachusetts

By on Aug 17, 2016

In this week's Community Connections, Christopher chats with Anne Schweiger, Broadband and Digital Equity Advocate for the city of Boston. Schweiger talks about the challenges that Boston faces, including a lack of competition and adoption of broadband in the home. She talks about the importance of "baking good broadband practice" into building codes for cities.

Community Connections - Terry Huval from Lafayette, Louisiana

By on Aug 4, 2016

"We Speak French, Eat Crawfish, and Have the Fastest Broadband in the World."

Terry Huval's fascination with fiber started with the fiber on his fiddle strings, so it's pretty appropriate that he regailed Christopher with his skills during this Community Connections episode.

Community Connections - Joey Durel: Lafayette, Louisiana

By on Jul 27, 2016

The city of Lafayette, Louisiana had an export problem. For years they had seen their young people become educated and move away from the small city, but local leaders like Joey Durel listened to experts like Terry Huval when they encouraged him to look into building a citywide fiber network.

ConnectArlington to Offer Dark Fiber Services to Local Businesses in Virginia

By on Apr 8, 2014

We last reported on Arlington County, Virginia, in the summer of 2012 when they were into phase II of their publicly owned fiber network deployment. At the time, the community planned to use the dark fiber network for public schools, traffic management, and public safety.

The State of State Preemption: Stalled – But Moving In More Competitive Direction

Mr. Monopoly sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil

Sean Gonsalves

on Nov 1, 2024

Today, we unveil our updated list of the 16 states in the U.S. with preemption laws still in place that either prevent or restrict local municipalities from building and operating publicly-owned, locally-controlled networks. These states maintain these laws, despite the fact that wherever municipal broadband networks or other forms of community-owned networks operate, the service they deliver residents and businesses almost always offers faster connection speeds, more reliable service, and lower prices.

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