Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Foundations Work Together to Improve Broadband Service in Low-Income Communities
Fifty municipalities are now turning their attention to understanding how to best bring broadband to their citizens, whether that's figuring out how to build out Internet connections to historic buildings or passing bonds to pay for new fiber networks.
Though the group is in its infancy, its early expansion is a signal of what seems to be a shift in the way Americans are thinking about high-speed Internet access: the idea that cities will the battlegrounds for the playing out of the broadband debates. One effect of these cities working so closely with Google as it rolls out its fiber network in places like Kansas City and Austin is a realization that mayors can take broadband into their own hands -- whether that's through a municipal solution like Chattanooga's gigabit network or through partnering with traditional Internet service providers such as Comcast or Time Warner Cable....