Philadelphia has delayed releasing its detailed plan for a wireless broadband infrastructure from early February to an unknown time. There’s a missing piece in this coverage that I wanted to mention: Dianah Neff keeps saying “broadband” while Comcast and Verizon say “broadband” and they don’t mean the same thing.
Library
Does Municipal Supply of Communications Crowd-Out Private Communications Investment?
There are 2,007 municipalities across the United States that provide electricity service to their constituents. Of these, over 600 provide some sort of communications services to the community. An important policy question is whether or not public investment in communications crowds out private investment, or whether such investment encourages additional entry by creating wholesale markets and economic growth.
Port deal with Google to create jobs
Google, the California-based company that helps people find information on the Internet (identified in the agreement as Design LLC) agreed to pay a total of $1.87 million for 30.19 acres of land that comprise the state-certified industrial site within the port’s Chenoweth Creek Industrial Subdivision.
USA Today editorial supports Lafayette fiber project
Lafayette, a city of 116,000 in southwest Louisiana, has plenty of Cajun spunk. Creativity, too. Just ask telecommunications giant BellSouth, which is trying to block Lafayette’s plan to save its citizens’ money and time by giving them high-speed access to the Internet.
Jim Baller Etopia interviews
USA Today feature on Lafayette fiber project
To hear BellSouth talk, high-speed fiber lines are the way of the future. So why is it so determined to stop Lafayette, La., a rural community in the heart of Cajun country, from installing its own fiber?
Light Reading Triple Play Conference – Washington, DC, December 7, 2004
Platts BPL Conference – Washington, DC, December 7, 2004
Columnist admits serving as Comcast’s consultant
Post-Election Fallout at ‘Kane County (Ill.) Chronicle’ Over Columnist’s Role In Chicago’s far west suburbs, a prominent newspaper columnist was also doing PR work for Comcast, which was publicly opposing a local ballot measure.
APPA Community Broadband Conference – San Francisco, CA, October 10, 2004
Keynote Address to FTTH Conference 2004 – Orlando, FL, October 5, 2004
Jim Baller responds to SBC’s examples of supposed municipal failures
In its written testimony to the Indiana legislature in support of HB 1148, SBC claimed that “the landscape is littered with examples of misjudgments and miscalculations by local government officials who, understandably, bought into the Field of Dreams scenario.” SBC gave seven examples. Not one was correct or supported SBC’s position.
Virginia Municipal League Annual Conference – Alexandria, VA, October 4, 2004
Jim Baller in Broadband Edge
The growing movement backing municipally owned fiber-to-the-home networks has many champions at the local, state and national levels. But none are as well versed in the history behind this movement as Washington attorney James Baller.