Rural Americans have made large gains in adopting digital technology over the past decade, but they generally remain less likely than urban or suburban adults to have home broadband or own a smartphone.
MB Link, which has only been in business for about a year, offers 1-gigabit-per-second service to every residence in Mount Belvieu (TX). It’s run by the City of Mont Belvieu, a municipal broadband system in a state where many assume such an operation is forbidden by law. But the city’s administrators, who say they could not get existing internet providers to expand service or step up their speeds, went to court in 2017 and got a state district judge to rule that broadband internet is a utility on a par with electricity and water service.
After visiting with 5,600 residents, and making 277,000 connections, one message stands out: Loveland (CO) wants broadband internet, and they wanted it yesterday, Councilor John Fogle said.
It is no secret that partisan politics infiltrated and shook the Federal Communications Commission’s decision-making during the waning years of the Obama administration. The rise of political considerations in FCC decisions, and the concomitant decline in substantive considerations, are also symptoms of a larger problem at the FCC; namely an organizational structure that encourages a silo mentality, favors people with legal training over people schooled in analysis, and muffles expert voices. There are several options for restructuring the FCC, but any successful reorganization must emphasi
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