There may be one famous Orange County already — the one in California is home to Laguna Beach, Disneyland, and The Real Housewives — but Orange County, Indiana, will soon be making a name for itself with world-class connectivity thanks to the local electric cooperative.

Arkansas 

In Arkansas, “digital redlining” could leave thousands without healthcare by Sarah Holder, CityLab

California

A newly operational dark fiber network, built by the city of Valparaiso, Indiana, is already proving to be a hot commodity for area businesses and institutions. Since going live in May of this year, ValpoNet has received dozens of inquiries from companies and organizations looking to build upon its unlit backbone.

Rural electric cooperatives in Arkansas are stepping up and making the investments to bring broadband connectivity to their members. We recently described plans taking shape from North Arkansas Electric Cooperative.

If you live in Alamance County, North Carolina, here’s your chance to share your Internet access experiences with your county leaders. The county asks that as many residents as possible take a few moments to complete their Internet Speed Survey.

Broadband Competition Quite Limited in Rochester Region, Despite Flawed Federal Statistics

The FCC’s data has confused some elected officials into thinking Rochester doesn’t have a broadband problem. It does.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

Statescoop delves into our recent report which finds national broadband coverage is grossly over-represented by FCC data.

It’s no secret that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) broadband data is unreliable. Many people, including U.S. Senators, have pointed out how federal data collection methods overstate connectivity across the country. Rochester, Minnesota, is no exception. In this policy brief, we highlight the gulf between FCC broadband data for Rochester and what’s actually available to residents by examining local competition.

Just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Grosse Pointe communities and institutions are considering whether to work with local Internet service provider Rocket Fiber to build an institutional network (I-Net).

One of the many states where legislators introduced broadband bills in 2018 was Ohio, where HB 378 appeared to offer a promising answer to funding rural broadband deployment.

California

California is trying to pass a net neutrality bill — and broadband providers are trying to gut it by Ro Khanna, Los Angeles Times

Illinois

Next Century Cities is busy organizing another get-together for broadband advocates, community leaders, and policy gurus. “Connected New England: Local Solutions for Broadband Development” will happen on November 8th in Hartford, Connecticut. Save the date!

Burlington Telecom (BT), the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) ISP in Burlington, Vermont, has been celebrating two pieces of recent good news. The ISP received praise from customers in a BT survey, and became the first fiber provider in its region to be “fiber certified.”

Local fall referendums are still a few months away, but at least four additional Colorado communities have decided to put local broadband authority on the ballot.

California

How Silicon Valley can use community input to bridge the big broadband gap by Mohammad Shakouri and Jon Walton, Silicon Valley Business Journal

Georgia

Spanish Fork, Utah, was recently highlighted in a promotional video touting the successes of its municipal Internet service.

Lobbyists from the cable and telecom industry succeeded in using the legislature to firm up their rural Massachusetts monopolies this session. Communities that rely on state funds for local publicly owned broadband infrastructure projects now face restrictions on the reach of their high-speed networks.

A Long Trip Through the Legislature

Great Lakes Energy (GLE), Michigan’s largest electric cooperative and third largest energy utility, is constructing a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network to bring gigabit connectivity to its 125

If you’ve never visited the Great Lakes Region in the autumn, you’ve missed out. Now is your chance to redeem yourself and to increase your knowledge for your community.

Interest in broadband as a utility continues to rise across the country and in places where elected officials need a show of support, grassroots groups are stepping up. Recently in Portland, Oregon, a group of locals launched Municipal Broadband PDX, an effort to grow an already increasing momentum in the Rose City.