All the latest on the topic.
Last year, Broadband Communities Summit attendees anticipated soon-to-flow federal and state money. This year, the Summit provided a space to prepare for those now in-process developments and covered issues well beyond the deployment of high-speed broadband. Affordability and access to training and devices were all part of a broad push toward digital inclusion and digital equity. Following are some highlights.
Don’t look to a polarized Congress, possibly deadlocked FCC, or a chance for peace in Ukraine to make your business plans work. Fortunately, you may not have to. At least a partial cure lies in good contingency planning and exploration of new financing methods. Here’s how to get it done.
In Cleveland, Ohio, the senior citizen residents of Riverview Tower can now access high-speed broadband for telehealth appointments and other everyday uses thanks to DigitalC, a nonprofit wireless broadband provider. Broadband Communities thanks Katie Grootegoed, director of strategic partnerships and empowerment at DigitalC, and Jeffery Patterson, CEO of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, for helping gather information for this profile.
Speakers at the Broadband Communities 2022 Summit, held in Houston in May, agreed that every community wants – and needs – great broadband. How best to deliver it to MDUs, master-planned communities, underserved towns and rural areas is still debatable. Following are some highlights of speaker presentations.
The Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, Fiber Connect, held in Nashville in June, highlighted many fiber community success stories and innovations that promise to expand fiber deployment. In addition to highlighting fiber’s role in delivering symmetrical broadband speeds to residents, the show considered the growing role of municipalities, electric cooperatives and vendors. It also looked at the ways alternative providers build middle-mile networks to connect the dots of last-mile networks throughout states and communities.
A regional planning board syncs up with local providers to bring fiber-based broadband to the state’s hardest-to-reach communities.
The Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, Fiber Connect, held in Nashville in July, showcased many fiber community success stories and a variety of innovations that promise to expand fiber deployment. As one of the telecom industry’s first in-person trade shows since the pandemic began, it highlighted fiber’s role as the preferred way of delivering symmetrical broadband speeds, state and federal funding mechanisms, open-access, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks and pricing. It also brought to light how broadband newcomers, particularly municipal broadband providers, need to overcome political and lobbying challenges from incumbents and think tanks, and the significance of public-private partnerships.
The first virtual edition of the Fiber Broadband Association’s annual conference, Fiber Connect, held in December, showcased many fiber community success stories and a variety of innovations that promise to expand fiber deployment. The show highlighted how communities are banding together and working with state and federal agencies to build out broadband in underserved communities. It also brought to light the need to increase bandwidth and provide flexible service during the pandemic, along with the problem of permitting obstacles and other challenges.
The emerging model presents a scalable option for communities that lack the expertise or interest to operate networks or act as ISPs themselves but want to own and control the core communications assets in their communities as a means of securing the benefits of broadband internet. Here’s a look at the model’s business case, technical elements and risks.
Landmark on Grand River offers MSU students a 10 Gbps high-speed broadband network and a connection with the rest of the East Lansing, Michigan, community. Broadband Communities thanks Richard Laing, CEO of Spartan Net, and Brian Bell, COO of Harbor Bay Real Estate, for helping gather information for this profile.
Two typical rural exchanges are likely to remain underserved even after upgrades supported by the Connect America Fund. This study, conducted by the Blandin Foundation, concludes that CAF funding is insufficient to support rural economic development and that more transparency is needed if states and localities are to supplement CAF funds strategically.
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