By a vote of 6-1, with two councilors absent, the Loveland City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance allowing the city to issue the bonds. Loveland staff will now begin the three-year process to construct a city-wide fiber broadband network that is capable of offering up to gigabit speeds for any resident or business. The city and its consultants will immediately start the process of bonding for about $97 million (the exact amount depends on a number of factors, including the interest rate on the bonds, the term of the bonds and structure of the financing).
Speaker backs rural broadband proposal
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston announced that he "supports a plan to fund rural broadband by sticking a new tax on e-books, steaming services and other digital goods while lowering an existing tax on traditional services such as landlines and cable TV." In a statement discuss...
America desperately needs fiber internet, and the tech giants won’t save us
In a conversation on fiber with Recode’s Peter Kafka and Harvard Law School professor Susan Crawford, Crawford "explained why nationwide access to high-speed fiber internet — already standard in parts of Asia and Europe — is important for everything from the future of work t...
Lack of funding poses challenges for expanding broadband access in Pa.
"A group representing rural Pennsylvanians says expanding high speed broadband internet access in the state needs to be a priority this year," but acknowledged that funding for infrastructure upgrades continues to be an imposition. Vince Philips with the Pennsylvania State Grange,...
Broadband reforms welcome, but public must remain vigilant
The Sun Community News Editorial Board published an editorial highlighting concerns about New York State’s broadband program. The editorial encouraged "local lawmakers to develop a systemic structure to capture and direct all telecommunications-related concerns" from residen...
Rep. Lisa Stone Barnes to tackle broadband in first term
One of the first things that North Carolina Rep. Lisa Stone Barnes wants to focus on in the legislature is "expanding broadband coverage in rural areas of her district." Barnes said that "lack of broadband access cuts her constituents off from educations and health care opportunit...
Report: Charleston lags behind other SC towns in high-speed Internet availability
A report from BroadbandNow shows only 9.4 percent of Charleston County residents have access to high-quality, high-speed fiber Internet service. Meanwhile, 17.9 percent of South Carolinians can buy fiber Internet if they wish, and 27.1 percent of all Americans can. The Charleston ...