Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Localism

Broadband Mapping By and For Communities

benton — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 16:15:25 +0000

On Monday, September 26, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Director of Research and Fellowships Dr. Revati Prasad hosted an online panel discussion, From the Ground Up: Broadband Mapping By and for Communities, on how communities and states are collecting data on local broadband availability as the Federal Communications Commission rolls out the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program. The panel was moderated by Dustin Loup, the Program Manager at the National Broadband Mapping Coalition, the event's co-sponsor. He framed the discussion by highlighting that inaccurate broadband deployment data has not only overestimated the percentage of U.S. households with access to broadband, it has also prevented some communities from being eligible for federal and/or state programs that subsidize broadband network buildout. Read what the panel had to say at the link below.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/broadband-mapping-and-communities

Teaser:

Recapping From the Ground Up: Broadband Mapping By and For Communities

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Mon, 10/03/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/30/2022

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Fri, 09/30/2022

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Reporting

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Benton Foundation

The Wires That Bind

benton — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 11:31:06 +0000

For years, people have quietly endured exploitative and increasingly expensive internet services while relying on crumbling infrastructure. That all changed recently when a new local cooperative built internet infrastructure in Southwest Detroit. This new internet option, a point-to-point mesh network, is run by organizers from Grace in Action. Created in 2015, the program is called the Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) and is a partnership with the Detroit Community Technology Project. Instead of relying on Comcast Xfinity, the city’s major internet provider, EII builds and maintains a fixed wireless network that is owned and operated by neighbors. Customers say this new network is just as fast as Xfinity, but the biggest sticking point is the cost: unlike Xfinity, which charges up to $120 a month for customers and can include lots of hidden fees, EII charges a flat $10 a month for everyone. When the pandemic hit, EII became free.

[This multimedia project is supported by Humanity in Action and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. It was written by Benton Fellow Adam Echelman in collaboration with Inside Southwest Detroit.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/digital-divide-diaries/wires-bind

Teaser:

“Para mi es tan importante como tomar agua el Internet.” -Violeta Ramirez

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Adam Echelman

Send date:

Mon, 07/11/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 7/8/2022

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Mon, 07/11/2022

Coverage Type:

Affordability/Cost/Price

Universal Broadband

Localism

Wireless Internet

Helping communities prepare for broadband opportunity

benton — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:27:36 +0000

The Roman philosopher Seneca said that good luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. In what the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society has called “our broadband moments,” preparation requires bold community leadership that moves a community to gather data and build trusted relationships allowing them to be ready to act when opportunity arises. President Biden has pledged to make sure that every American has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet. Full participation in our twenty-first century economy requires no less. Through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress is giving states the support needed to achieve that goal. The federal government is beginning to distribute billions of dollars to states to deploy high-speed broadband networks everywhere in the country. States, in turn, can only succeed by committing to close and ongoing coordination with the communities that stand to benefit from these unprecedented investments. To ensure their communities are not left behind, local leaders must be prepared to propose and implement projects The Accelerate community broadband planning program educates and supports community leadership teams as they create their community’s broadband vision and goals and pursue the best possible broadband solutions for their area. By delivering the Accelerate process to multiple communities or counties simultaneously through a cohort approach, state broadband officials can provide high-quality education and guidance that empowers communities to effectively spur broadband deployment through a variety of deployment models, including public-private partnerships.

[Bill Coleman assists communities develop and implement broadband infrastructure and market development programs. As an accomplished community planner and technology consultant, Bill ensures that communities make sound technology decisions using innovative, collaborative strategies. His facilitation techniques lead to quick victories and sustained effort.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/helping-communities-prepare-broadband-opportunity

Teaser:

Communities must be prepared for this broadband moment

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Bill Coleman

Send date:

Fri, 06/17/2022

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Daily Digest 6/16/2022

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Fri, 06/17/2022

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Six Community Broadband Networks

benton — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 11:27:35 +0000

One might think this is the moment for community broadband networks. The truth is, locally-directed networks have been serving their communities for a long, long time. In discussing his administration’s plans for broadband, President Joe Biden noted that municipal and cooperative networks should be favored because these providers face less pressure to turn profits and are more committed to serving entire communities. The Biden administration sees value in creating competition in underbuilt markets dominated by monopoly providers and recognizes that community-owned networks tend to drive down prices for high-speed internet service—even for those subscribers who choose to stick with the large incumbent providers. MuniNetworks.org—the Institute for Local Self-Reliance clearinghouse of information about local government broadband policy—has published thousands of stories about municipal networks and conducted hundreds of interviews with those who have built, operated, or worked in the ecosystem. But for someone trying to get a sense of the range of municipal broadband approaches, there is no single document that encapsulates the variety of models. In Six Community Broadband Networks Demonstrate Diversity of Approaches to Connectivity Challenges, we offer a taste of the variety.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/publications/community-broadband-networks

Teaser:

One might think this is the moment for community broadband networks. The truth is, locally-directed networks have been serving their communities for a long, long time.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Christopher Mitchell

Sean Gonsalves

Jericho Casper

Send date:

Wed, 07/28/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 7/26/2021

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Tue, 07/27/2021

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Internet/Broadband

Competition/Antitrust

Broadband for America Now

benton — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:17:54 +0000

In October 2019, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society issued Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. The agenda was comprehensive, constructed upon achievements in communities and insights from experts across the nation. The report outlined the key building blocks of broadband policy—deployment, competition, community anchor institutions, and digital equity (including affordability and adoption). The agenda called for everyone to be able to use High-Performance Broadband by the end of the decade. When we released the report last fall, we promised a refresh in 2020 because we knew there were issues that required additional development and more success stories that needed to be told. What we did not know was that the world would be changed permanently by COVID-19, creating health, economic, and social crises, resulting in the worst economic setback in America in decades and unveiling a connectivity crisis that spans rural and urban places, threatening to create an even more divided America. This essay offers our key recommendations by describing the likely pattern of changing broadband usage once the present crisis recedes, and by emphasizing how federal, state, tribal, and local governments should work together to implement a comprehensive broadband agenda.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/publications/broadband-america-now

Teaser:

This essay offers key recommendations by describing the likely pattern of changing broadband usage once the present crisis recedes, and by emphasizing how federal, state, tribal, and local governments should work together to implement a comprehensive broadband agenda.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Jonathan Sallet

Send date:

Thu, 10/29/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 10/28/2020

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Thu, 10/29/2020

Coverage Type:

Research

Headlines Specific Topic:

Benton Foundation

Coronavirus and Connectivity

How Can America’s Communities Secure the Benefits of Fiber-Optic Infrastructure?

benton — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 11:06:01 +0000

How can America’s communities secure the benefits of fiber-optic infrastructure? Our answer is that local governments need not accept a binary option of waiting for the private sector to solve the problem—which the private sector already would have done if it made business sense—or taking on the challenge entirely as a public enterprise. Rather, public-private collaboration can disrupt this binary and give communities options. Indeed, in recent months and years, a range of collaborative public-private models—involving various levels of risk-sharing—have emerged and proved worthy of emulation. In some of the most promising of these partnerships, the public entity funds, builds, and owns the underlying communications infrastructure and the private entity does the rest: It provides the electronics and service over that infrastructure and deals with the complexities of running a broadband business. This Public Infrastructure/Private Service model puts the locality in the business of building infrastructure, a business cities and counties know well after a century of building roads, bridges, and utilities. The model leaves to the private sector most aspects of network operations, equipment provisioning, and service delivery.

A new paper—authored by the Coalition For Local Internet Choice (CLIC) and published by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society—defines and describes the model (and related variations, such as private-private and public-public) from both a business and a technical standpoint, and it summarizes case studies across the country of partnerships solving problems today. We provide a strategic overview of the basic Public Infrastructure/Private Service model and its variants, together with a framework for public-sector entities to consider as they evaluate potential technical approaches and levels of risk-sharing. And we address the key legal issues that arise in public-private partnership deals.

[Joanne Hovis is president of CTC Technology & Energy. Jim Baller is president of Baller Stokes & Lide, PC, a national law firm. David Talbot, Principal Analyst & Researcher at CTC Technology & Energy, is an experienced researcher and analyst who conducts a range of analytical, research, and needs assessment tasks. Cat Blake, Civic Technology Analyst at CTC Technology & Energy, works with clients to develop infrastructure and funding strategies to meet community needs and performs a range of research and writing tasks related to civic technology and digital equity.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/how-can-americas-communities-secure-benefits-fiber-o…

Teaser:

Neither All-Private nor All-Public Models Will Fully Bridge Our National Broadband Gaps

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

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Send date:

Wed, 10/14/2020

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Daily Digest 10/13/2020

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Wed, 10/14/2020

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Media, Government, Us

benton — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 18:28:49 +0000

The media merger pot keeps boiling. It appears that the Federal Communications Commission is about to approve another damaging deal, this one between Nexstar and Tribune. Nextar owns 171 television stations in 100 markets and Tribune has 44 stations in 33 markets. That translates into a national audience reach of 72 percent of U.S. households. The merged entity will be the largest broadcaster in the country, wielding an unprecedented amount of control over our local media. If, as expected, the Republican majority at the FCC green-lights this transaction, we can expect more reporter layoffs, closed or consolidated newsrooms, less deep-dive investigative reporting, and many fewer locally-originated programs. That’s the history of mergers. In short, more news deserts. Government is the tool of the people; government is the people—when the people insist upon it. Insisting upon it is what the 2020 elections should be all about.

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. In 2012, former Commissioner Copps joined Common Cause to lead its Media and Democracy Reform Initiative.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/media-government-us

Teaser:

Government is the tool of the people; government is the people—when the people insist upon it. Insisting upon it is what the 2020 elections should be all about.

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author:

Michael Copps

Send date:

Thu, 09/05/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/4/2019

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Publish Date:

Wed, 09/04/2019

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Localism

Ownership

Broadband is the New Railroad

benton — Fri, 10 May 2019 11:54:27 +0000

Again, and again, I’ve heard that when people live in areas unserved and underserved by broadband networks, businesses are hard-pressed to start, grow, or stay there. Without the economic development and individual prospects enabled by competitive, advanced, and affordable broadband, people will find it harder to secure good-paying jobs, get training for future positions, or seek higher wages. The link between broadband and local economic growth reminds me of the railroads, which makes sense in a way because today, May 10^th, is the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Remember that Abraham Lincoln was a railroad man. He ran for president pledging to build the first railroad that would link the East and West Coasts. Once in office, he put the weight of his presidency behind the passage of the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, which supported construction of that transcontinental railroad with government loans and grants of land. In succeeding decades after the Golden Spike was driven, the transcontinental railroad re-worked the American economy. Railroads were reliable and fast, lowering the cost of shipping, which boosted manufacturing. As a consequence, goods were cheaper and consumer choices greater. And the nation was transformed as a result — its commerce, its laws, its business arrangements, its settlement, even the way it told time.

[Jonathan Sallet is a Benton Senior Fellow]

Benton Content:

https://www.benton.org/blog/broadband-new-railroad

Teaser:

Throughout the history of the Republic, support for networks – with distinct, crucial leadership roles at the federal and state/local levels – has worked to spark economic growth and increase individual opportunity.

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author:

Jonathan Sallet

Send date:

Fri, 05/10/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 5/9/2019

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Publish Date:

Fri, 05/10/2019

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Cities (and States) are Doing it for Themselves

benton — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:16:12 +0000

No matter who you voted for or what party you belong to, I think we can agree on one thing - access to high-speed broadband is one of the most important issues in the US today. In Congressional race after Congressional race, in Maine, Vermont, Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico, just to name a few, voters said that broadband access was a top three issue, sometimes coming after health care and jobs, and other times, like in Vermont, coming in as the number one concern for voters. There’s a strong consensus that one must be connected to broadband in order to participate fully in our society, our economy and our culture. But while the Trump Administration and Congress addressed health care and jobs in its first two years, it has done little to ensure that every American is connected to high-speed broadband Internet. I have no doubt that the most important work to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable, high speed broadband is happening in local communities like Chicopee and Taunton, Massachusetts, Longmont Colorado, Imperial County California, Fairlawn Ohio and Kent County Maryland.

[Gigi B. Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow, Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/cities-and-states-are-doing-it-themselves

Teaser:

The American people owe a debt of gratitude to the communities and states that are working to ensure universal and affordable access to an open broadband Internet

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author:

Gigi Sohn

Send date:

Tue, 11/13/2018

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 11/9/2018

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Publish Date:

Fri, 11/09/2018

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The FCC Ignores Reality in 5G Proposal

benton — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 11:52:07 +0000

The Coalition for Local Internet Choice and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors asked for my view of the Federal Communications Commission’s pending order, proposing to cap the fees that state and local governments may charge for small-cell attachments. According to the FCC’s draft order, these price‐caps will save the industry $2 billion in costs to operate in metropolitan areas—which will translate into $2.5 billion in new wireless investment, primarily in rural areas. Here are my concerns:

First, focusing on state and local government fees and processes is a distraction from the real obstacles to accelerated and ubiquitous deployment of next-generation mobile services, which are that broadband deployment economics are very challenging and have to be addressed at all levels of government and through creative collaboration with the private sector.
Second, local governments have a strong recent track record of endeavoring to enable and facilitate broadband deployment, as the Google Fiber experience conclusively demonstrated.
Third, the FCC’s draft order is based on a fallacy that no credible investor would adopt and no credible economist endorse: that reducing or eliminating costs for small cell mounting on public property in lucrative areas of the country (thus reducing carriers’ operating costs), will lead to increased capital expenditures in less lucrative areas– thus supposedly making investment more attractive in rural areas.
Finally, the draft order presents a framework in which industry gets all the benefits (reduced fees to access state and local property) with no obligations to reinvest the resulting profits in rural broadband—even though the purported rationale for the reduced fees is that they will lead to new investment.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/fcc-ignores-reality-5g-proposal

Teaser:

I am deeply troubled by the FCC’s draft order, the options it ignored, and the fallacious logic on which it rests.

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author:

Blair Levin

Send date:

Wed, 09/19/2018

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