Category: Reports & Articles

Press Release: Correction to “Municipal Fiber in the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance”

In a press release published on May 26, 2017, several days after the initial publication of “Municipal Fiber in the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance,” the report’s authors acknowledge errors in reviewing the bond documents for several municipal fiber networks including:  Chattanooga, TN; Lafayette, LA; and Wilson, NC.

“The statements in the study characterizing these projects as requiring large balloon payments toward the end of the bond periods are thus inaccurate. The authors regret the error.”

View Press Release HERE

Municipal Fiber In the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance

Study from Professor Yoo at the University of Pennsylvania analyzes cities’ ability to pay back bonds for municipal broadband networks.  Although concerns about the validity of some of the financial data used in the study have been raised, Professor Yoo has also acknowledged limitations of the study including short time span of data, emergence of new models and usage, state law restrictions’ significant financial impact on projects, economic development impact of municipal networks, etc.

Municipal Fiber In the United States: An Empirical Assessment of Financial Performance (published May 2017)

Casey Lide, “Dark Fiber Transactions Involving Local Governments: Primer on IRUs, Dark Fiber Leases and Related Legal Matters,” paper prepared for IMLA 2016 Mid-Year Seminar

IMLA2016_ Lide_ dark fiber 4-15-16 (9 page Word document)

Joanne Hovis and Marc Schulhof, Jim Baller and Ashley Stelfox, “The Emerging World of Broadband Public-Private Partnerships: A Business Strategy and Legal Guide,” The Benton Foundation (Feb 2016)

Hovis and Schulhof, Baller and Stelfox, The Emerging World of Broadband Public-Private Partnerships: A Business Strategy and Legal Guide (2-16-16)

Casey Lide, “Balancing the Benefits and Privacy Concerns of Municipal Broadband Applications,” N.Y.U. JLPP, Spring, 2008

A 2008 article by Casey Lide in the N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy exploring privacy issues relating to video surveillance, electronic sensor systems, and other privacy-sensitive applications that may utilize municipal broadband networks.

“Economic Development: The Killer App for Local Fiber Networks,” Broadband Communities Magazine, Nov-Dec 2014

Jim Baller, Joanne Hovis, Ashley Stelfox, Masha Zager, “Economic Development:  The Killer App for Local Fiber Networks,” Broadband Communities Magazine, Nov-Dec 2014

An approach to forecasting requirements for the period 2013-2023

This paper sets out the methodology and results of a model that seeks to forecast UK domestic demand for broadband capacity. As far as we are aware, it is the first such model to be put into the public domain. It has been developed by Communications Chambers, and commissioned by the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) with support from BSkyB, BT, Ofcom, TalkTalk, Three and Vodafone.

Cost of Connectivity 2013

From New America Foundation

Last year, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute published The Cost of Connectivity, a first-of-its-kind study of the cost of consumer broadband services in 22 cities around the world. The results showed that, in comparison to their international peers, Americans in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC are paying higher prices for slower Internet service. While the plans and prices have been updated in the intervening year, the 2013 data shows little progress, reflecting remarkably similar trends to what we observed in 2012.

Evolution and Prospects of Cable Networks for Broadband Services

In the summer of 2012, an excellent TNO report appeared, describing the evolution and prospects of Cable networks for Broadband services. In it, TNO set out how owners of a coax cable network can upgrade in steps and withstand the competition from an optical fiber network as long as possible. The provision of Gigabit broadband services is the new challenge for cable networks. With existing DOCSIS3.0 techniques, cable networks are marketing broadband services to 150 Mb/s.

National Broadband Plan relies on communities to drive innovation

Blair Levin is one of the premier communications strategists in the country who led in the creation of the National Broadband Plan and now serves as executive director of Gig.U. His remarks this summer during an exclusive interview remain of great value to the networking community in the Triangle, which is why it was chosen to represent the seventh day of this year’s 12 Days of Broadband.

Strategic Networks Group: “e-NC Strategy Report”

e-NC and SNG announced the findings of a comprehensive study of residents and businesses in the state of North Carolina.  In all, 30,000 households and 70,000 businesses and organizations were surveyed to uncover utilization of broadband and e-solutions statewide, with 1,492 households and 6,266 businesses and organizations responding. The e-Solutions Benchmarking and accompanying e-Strategy report from SNG was funded by a grant to the e-North Carolina Authority by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce

Innovation and Employment in the Intelligent Community

In 2013, Intelligent Community Forum will examine the relationship between innovation – one of the Intelligent Community Indicators – and employment in communities around the world. A massive body of evidence points to the fact that innovation creates prosperity. The prosperity flows from new demand – who needed an iPod or iPad until one was created? – or from empowering us to do more with the same resources of raw materials, people and money. But prosperity is not always the same as employment. In each recession of the past 50 years, job recovery has been significantly slower than in the previous recession. The recent recession in the industrialized world is only the most dramatic example of a “jobless recovery” – and that is in nations managing to post positive economic numbers at all.