The Fiber to the Home Council Americas released...

difference in whether a network gets built,” it said. The document offers several tips for municipalities. It recommends they develop clear broadband plans with a committed community of stakeholders involved, expedited permitting and innovative construction techniques. Municipalities should “make poles available on clearly defined, reasonable terms through a rapid approval process,” it said. Communities should coordinate maintenance of these poles and other assets and proactively improve existing infrastructure, the council said. “Comprehensive approval for an entire project, instead of repeated approval requirements for different stages of a project, greatly reduces delays that add costs to a project,” it said. Communities that want better broadband should consider different ways to crowdsource their support, said broadband analyst Craig Settles, a consultant for municipalities, in a Thursday op-ed on the news website Gigaom (http://bit.ly/18yIXuD). Settles focused the op-ed on a meeting in the Kansas City area. Settles described the success of Kickstarter and discussed how communities may make use of opportunities tied to Neighbor.ly and the Free Network Foundation. “Neighbor.ly plans to soon announce support from a major foundation, which will allow it to build out a lot more of the platform infrastructure the company wanted to build initially,” Settles said. The company has a strong interest in helping communities set up wireless mesh networks, he said. “Adding to the company’s horsepower, it also is working with a civic business accelerator that will enable them to help neighborhoods implement high speed networks.” Civic pride and fundraising become important considerations in crowdsourcing broadband networks, he said.