Local communities are developing different strategies to create...
Local communities are developing different strategies to create their own broadband networks, said panelists at a community broadband event at the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Tuesday. Westminster, Md., has about 18,000 residents, but two thirds of…
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the city commutes on a daily basis, which can stifle innovation, said Robert Wack, Carroll Cable Regulatory Commission vice chair. The city is creating its own dark fiber network because no ILECs were interested in developing broadband to the city, said Wack. “We are pursuing the least risky option where we can use this for 30 years with bonding,” he said. “We are not competing with the private sector, but we are looking for active private-public partnerships.” The Westminster project is in its engineering phase, with two pilot projects in development near the airport and a residential community, said Wack. North Carolina State is working with Gig.U to create a regional broadband network to four colleges in that state, said Marc Hoit, NC State vice chancellor-information technology. “Seventy to 80 percent of innovation in the U.S. comes from college communities,” he said. “We don’t know how the network will work yet but we want bandwidth not to be a limitation, but an innovation.” UC2B, a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grantee, is becoming a nonprofit entity in order to have private discussions with interested parties that want to develop their network in Champaign and Urbana, Ill. “We want to be able to connect to businesses and bring network funds back into our communities,” said Mike Smeltzer, who wrote the NTIA grant application for UC2B.