Ry Marcattilio-McCracken

Two Initiatives to Foster Local Broadband Solutions

Two new programs will help leaders and local government officials address their community’s needs in practical, efficient, clear-eyed ways, with sensitivity to all the things that make their community unique: the "Urban Digital Equity Bootcamp," (UDEB) and the "Let's Get Going Broadband Program" (LGGB).

Tracking Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Winners

The Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is still in the process of authorizing bids from its $9.2 billion auction conducted in December 2020. Areas for which winning bids are authorized will have a much harder time going after Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funding.

The Fate of the Affordable Connectivity Program

The White House made much ado of an announcement that it had secured commitments from a collection of large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to adjust speed tiers and monthly costs for their existing plans so as to be able to offer a $30/month, minimum 100 megabit per second (Mbps) download offering for low-income households across the country.

Is High-Speed Internet Access Getting More Affordable, Really?

A recent report by BroadbandNow made the rounds in February 2022, with the authors concluding that the average price for broadband access across all major speed tiers for Americans has fallen, by an average of 31 percent or nearly $34/month, since 2016. At a glance, this is great news – perhaps affordable Internet access for all is within reach? Yet the reality is that this report from BroadbandNow, unfortunately, poorly frames the national broadband marketplace.

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction: One Year Later

The Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Reverse Auction was completed a little more than a year ago to much fanfare and spilled ink, and though we’ve seen irregular updates over the last twelve months, we thought it worth the time to round up what we know so far in an effort to see where we’re at and determine what is likely to come. The RDOF was built to award up to $20.4 billion in grants over 10 years using competitive reverse auctions generally won by the lowest bidder.

Nonprofit Directs Efforts to Improve Internet Access in Southern Pennsylvania

Nonprofit Alleghenies Broadband is leading a cohesive effort across a six-county region in south-central Pennsylvania to bring high-speed Internet access to areas that are unserved or underserved by reliable networks. Part of its work is a recently completed Request for Proposals (RFP) in search of forming a series of public-private partnerships to help identify target areas and offer robust solutions to bring new infrastructure to the businesses and residents who need it most.

A Home-Grown, Citywide Fiber Network in the Heart of Oklahoma

When the local cable company and only universal wireline Internet service in Tuttle (OK) went bankrupt a decade ago, local leaders rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Originally projected to be a five-year project, Tuttle's citywide fiber-to-the-home network was completed in Fall 2020 after just 3 years. The network hit an important milestone shortly after construction was finished: its financial break-even point.

How One Minnesota County Got on Track to Become Most Connected in State

Over the last three years, Le Sueur County (MN) has assembled a task force of citizens, local officials, and business leaders which have succeeded in dramatically improving broadband for thousands of residents who previously had poor or no connectivity.

Wilson Hits a Fiber-to-the-Home Run with Greenlight Municipal Broadband Network

In 2008, Wilson (NC) began building a citywide Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network called Greenlight. Access to high-speed, reliable, affordable Internet connections has helped the community cope with the public health crisis while continuing to bring a host of other benefits. Over the last 12 years, the Greenlight network has given the city claim to the best broadband anywhere in North Carolina.

Free Community Wi-Fi is a Health Imperative in Rhode Island Neighborhood

When the pandemic hit American shores this past spring and cities around the country began to practice social distancing procedures, Rhode Island-based nonprofit One Neighborhood Builders (ONB) Executive Director Jennifer Hawkins quickly realized that many of those in her community were going to be hit hard. As spring turned to summer, this proved especially to be the case in the Olneyville neighborhood in west-central Providence, where Covid-19 cases surged among low-income residents with fewer options to get online to work, visit the doctor, and shop for groceries.

Ohio City Hopes to Spur Competition with New Internet Infrastructure

After years of fielding complaints from residents about the speed, reliability, and poor customer service of the city’s single wireline broadband provider, Springboro, Ohio (pop. 19,000) has decided enough is enough. Over the next year, the city (situated ten miles south of Dayton) will build a 23-mile fiber loop for municipal services and, at the same time, lay five additional conduits to entice additional Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to come in and offer service, stimulating competition and economic development in the region moving forward.

How One Tennessee County Plans to Reach Universal Broadband Access

More than a year and a half of planning and negotiation will culminate in fiber infrastructure laid to every household in one Tennessee county over the next few years.

AT&T Is Abandoning Tens of Thousands of American Households in the Deep South Who Have No Other Internet Access Option

AT&T has stopped making connections to users subscribing to its DSL Internet as of Oct 1st. It looks like the most conservative number of those affected by the decision will be about 80,000 households that have no other option. Analysis using the Federal Communication Commission’s Form 477 data shows that the Deep South will be hit the hardest, with 13,200 households in Georgia, 11,700 in Florida, and 9,700 in Mississippi. South Carolina and Texas have just under 8,000 households affected.

San Antonio Leverages Its Fiber Infrastructure to Extend School Networks to 20,000 Students in Need

A new initiative called Connected Beyond the Classroom will leverage city-owned fiber infrastructure and $27 million in CARES Act funds to connect students across San Antonio’s 50 most-vulnerable neighborhoods in a bid to close the digital divide and ensure teachers, students, and their parents can continue to learn this fall and beyond. While state law limits the communications services that municipal

New 5G Rules Showing Impact in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, is currently experiencing firsthand the consequences of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC's) 2018 preemption of local governments’ authority to regulate 5G infrastructure in their cities.

Going HAM: How Rural Pennsylvanians Went Wireless

Tucked away in Kishacoquillas Valley (also known as Big Valley) (PA) between Stone and Jacks Mountains lies a 120-foot repurposed HAM radio tower, now the base of operations for the Rural Broadband Cooperative (RBC), a group bringing fixed wireless to a rural Pennsylvania community. RBC remains one of the many groups around the country making use of community ties to address connectivity issues in places where monopoly Internet service providers have for decades refused to invest.

The DIGITAL Reservations Act: A Practical Answer to Tribal Connectivity Today

On July 27, Rep Deb Haaland (D-NM) and Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced the Deploying the Internet by Guaranteeing Indian Tribes Autonomy over Licensing on Reservations Act (DIGITAL Act), a bill which ends the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) practice of selling wireless spectrum rights on the lands of Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations and grants ownership, management, and governance of all spectrum to those groups in perpetuity.

Maine Asks Voters About New Funding for Internet Infrastructure

In less than a month Maine will hold a Special Referendum election which includes a measure with significant ramifications for Internet access in the state. On July 14, Mainers will be asked to vote Yes or No on Question 1, a $15 million Internet Infrastructure Bond Issue designed to bring high-speed service to the approximately 85,000 households in unserved or underserved areas.

Dark Fiber Brings the Light: A Public-Private Partnership in Colorado

After years of hearing from its citizens and business owners that Internet access was one of Fort Morgan’s most pressing problems, the Colorado city of 11,000 decided to do something about it. Like dozens of other communities around Colorado, in 2009 residents approved a ballot measure to opt out of SB 152, the 2005 state law preventing municipalities from offering broadband.

Vermont Emergency Broadband Action Plan Proposes Universal Access Road Map

Vermont’s Department of Public Service recently released an Emergency Broadband Action Plan that is among the most aggressive of all state responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The state currently has 944 cases of COVID-19, with 54 attributable deaths.

Fact Checking the New Taxpayers Protection Alliance Report, GON With the Wind

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance has returned with another puzzling attempt to discredit municipal broadband networks. TPA’s report offers 30 short case studies and there is no explanation of how TPA chose this odd subset of municipal networks. Yet they allege a failure of the network or failure to pay debt in only 9 of its examples.