Municipal Networks

Does your wireless company participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program?

 This is the third in a series of articles looking at which providers are opting to offer services supported by the Affordable Connectivity Program. Here, Benton looks at the offerings of the largest wireless companies in the United States. According to wireless trade association CTIA, all three national providers and numerous regional providers support the Affordable Connectivity program—representing approximately 95% of existing wireless subscriptions and covering more than 99% of all Americans.

Our Challenge to Finally Close the Digital Divide

This is a historic time for broadband investment. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the high costs of being offline. In response, Congress, over the past year, passed two laws—the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan—with an unprecedented amount of funding devoted to promoting digital equity. Communities should be engaged now to help craft long-term connectivity goals and ensure that diverse voices are part of the discussion—and that’s our job.

Six Community Broadband Networks

One might think this is the moment for community broadband networks. The truth is, locally-directed networks have been serving their communities for a long, long time. In discussing his administration’s plans for broadband, President Joe Biden noted that municipal and cooperative networks should be favored because these providers face less pressure to turn profits and are more committed to serving entire communities.

Broadband Prices are Soaring. Competition is the Answer

Despite clear evidence to the contrary, lobbyists have long claimed that U.S. broadband is extremely competitive and incredibly affordable.

Broadband for America Now

In October 2019, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society issued Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. The agenda was comprehensive, constructed upon achievements in communities and insights from experts across the nation. The report outlined the key building blocks of broadband policy—deployment, competition, community anchor institutions, and digital equity (including affordability and adoption).

Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s

The purpose of Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s is to collect, combine, and contribute to a national broadband agenda for the next decade, enlisting the voices of broadband leaders in an ongoing discussion on how public policy can close the digital divide and extend digital opportunity everywhere. Leaders at all levels of government should ensure that everyone is able to use High-Performance Broadband in the next decade by embracing the following building blocks of policy:

Investment in Broadband Infrastructure Can Create Cost Savings and Community Self-Empowerment

Building new broadband infrastructure is a big investment for any municipality. While the cost of that investment shouldn’t be overlooked, it’s equally important to consider the significant cost savings that can be reaped with publicly owned infrastructure. Many cities have slashed the cost of connecting their schools to broadband by opting to build their own infrastructure, instead of continuing to pay a private provider for connections. Portland (OR), for example, had been paying an incumbent provider $1,310 per month for  10 Mbps connections to schools.

All Americans should be able to use the Internet. How do we get there?

It's easy to say all Americans should be able to use the Internet in the 21st century, which is probably why several leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have done just that. It’s much harder to say how to get there. Almost everyone, even on both sides of the aisle in Congress, seems able to agree on the need to fix the maps first. That’s because the Federal Communications Commission relies on coverage reports from industry, and carriers have incentive to exaggerate their reach.

Internet providers have left rural Americans behind. One county is fighting back

Congress is spending $65 billion to connect the rural United States to the world. Orangeburg (SC) knows the stakes better than anywhere. Like hundreds of rural counties across the US, Orangeburg is ignored by commercial broadband service providers who think it’s not profitable to lay fiber optic lines in the area. In the absence of service from companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Charter, counties and small towns in rural America could build broadband networks for their residents themselves, which can make the difference between prosperity and poverty.

DIY public broadband guide gives power to the people

In news that's probably not sitting well with public broadband naysayers, communities now have a handy guidebook to build their own networks.

How to Build a Public Broadband Network

For decades, public broadband networks have been successfully serving hundreds of communities with fast, robust, and affordable internet access. Unlike private-sector networks, municipal, tribal, and other community- and member-owned broadband networks are focused on ensuring universal, robust connectivity at affordable prices. The results have been remarkable.

California PUC Will Accept Loan Loss Reserve Program Applications

California's Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund is a $500 million fund that provides a credit enhancement related to the financing of local broadband infrastructure development. The reserve fund expands the ability of local governments, tribes and non-profits to secure financing for building last-mile projects, with an emphasis on public broadband networks. The Fund will provide collateral to local governments to enable more favorable borrowing rates and terms for bonds issued to deploy broadband infrastructure. The Fund was established in 2021. The benefits of the Fund include:

Edison (NJ) gets $2 million grant to kick-start municipal broadband but feasibility questions remain

The township of Edison (NJ) has received a $2 million grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to expand municipal broadband services. The Township Council passed a resolution accepting the grant, and Edison now has a 24-month period to build a portion of the infrastructure, part of which is a server, as well as a business plan which is expected to be completed soon, officials said. Previously officials have said the business plan would look at the strengths and weaknesses of municipal broadband and determine market competition.

Why Is Bardstown, Kentucky Selling Its Cable TV Company To Charter?

The city of Bardstown (KY) has reached an agreement to sell its small cable TV company Bardstown Connect to Charter Communications, ending city ownership that began nearly four decades ago. The city decided to sell because Bardstown Connect was losing cable and broadband Internet subscribers, resulting in a recent 2% drop in combined revenue stemming from increased competition from online streaming services and various Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

What you need to know about the municipal broadband debate

As communities around the US work to close their digital divides, more and more are pursuing municipal broadband networks as a solution. As a recent example, in mid-January 2024, the state of New York was awarded $228 million by the Treasury Department for a grant program that will provide funding to "municipalities, non-profits, and other entities to construct open and accessible public bro

Gigi Sohn on the fight for public broadband

Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), discusses municipal broadband networks in the US, including why and where they're popping up and which are most successful.

Martinsville (VA) sees opportunity in its municipal broadband network

Martinsville, Virginia, is looking for quick ways to create new revenue and the answer may be staring the city in the face. MiNet is a city-owned telephone and internet service provider for local businesses and residents in Martinsville. As of the 2020 census, the population of Martinsville was 13,485, but MiNet only has a total of 376 customers with 98 and of them classified as residential.

Pennsylvania's broadband authority reverses position on key state law before new federal funding arrives

The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority recently reversed its position on whether state law could cause problems for an unprecedented surge of federal investment for expanding access to high-speed internet. In the first draft of the state’s plan for administering more than $1 billion in federal funding, the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority said that to avoid a conflict with federal law it would waive an obscure state statute that restricts when local governments can build their own internet networks. But in the 

Eagle set to begin connecting city facilities, parks and first homes to broadband network in 2024

Eagle (ID) is ready to light up the first phase of its long-planned, federally-funded broadband network. Residents of the northern Ada County suburb will soon be able to take advantage of free Wi-Fi in city parks as work continues on a city-wide broadband network funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Broadband availability increases real estate attractiveness

The availability of high-speed internet has become one of the driving factors in attracting new residents to settle in the Monadnock region, giving some towns a competitive advantage for people who work or attend school remotely. Rebecca Morse, broker for RE/MAX Town Square in New Ipswich, said towns with lower internet services are generally less desirable, though not entirely off the table to most buyers, unless they have specific work-from-home needs.

As public broadband networks ramp up, so do new attacks

The US has gained an additional 47 municipal broadband networks since January 2021, bringing the total to nearly 450.

Doubling Down on Digital Equity in Tribal Communities: Introducing Two New Projects from the Tribal Resource Center

Michelson will continue growing its Digital Equity in Tribal Communities project by supporting the Tribal Resource Center (TRC), a Native American-led non-profit initiative under People-Centered Internet that is dedicated to offering trustworthy guidance for tribal communities seeking greater access to broadband. Digital inequity is especially apparent on tribal lands in California, with over a quarter of households lacking broadband service at 100 Megabit per second speeds.

Native nations with scarce internet are building their own broadband networks

On the Hopi Reservation’s more than 1.5 million acres of desert landscape in northeast Arizona, most residents live in villages atop arid mesas. Below ground, there’s a network of copper wires that provides telephone and internet service. In 2004, Hopi Telecommunications bought the company that had installed them, but has been struggling ever since to upgrade the network to broadband speeds. Hopi Telecommunications serves both the Hopi reservation and parts of the surrounding Navajo Nation.

123NET Inks Public-Private Broadband Partnership with Ottawa County, Michigan

123NET and Ottawa County's (MI) seventh largest county by population, have entered into a public-private partnership to build 380 miles of additional fiber in the county. The county board and 123NET finalized the agreement near the end of 2023. The $25 million project, funded, in part, through $14 million from Michigan’s ROBIN program, $7.5 million from Ottawa County’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, and $3.5 million from 123NET will bring fiber access to about 4,000 residents.