source: 57 Cities Now Have Free Wi-Fi, But They’re Not Thinking Big Enough
In August, Los Angeles, began research on a program that would make it the largest city in the country to blanket the city in free Wi-Fi. Currently, over 57 U.S. cities are providing “muni Wi-Fi” on some level. These cities hope “muni-Wi-Fi” will provide job opportunities to their underserved populations, facilitate waves of innovation, and brand the city as tech-friendly.
A 2011 study demonstrated that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3%.
In a 2012 survey 90% of professionals in economic development organizations agreed that a broadband speed of at least 25-50 Mbps is needed to attract new business to a city, with over a quarter concurring that 1,000 Mbps would be needed.
Since first offering its fiber optic service in 2012, Chattanooga, Tenn. has generated $400 million in new business investments and 6,000 new jobs. Additionally, fiber optic networks generate significant revenue, allowing cities to cover operating expenses and pay down initial costs. In 2014, Chattanooga is expected to bring in $93.6 million in revenue from its more than 50,000 fiber optic subscribers.
Problems:
- 31% of Texas adults don’t have broadband — high-speed internet — at home
- Prohibiting rural municipalities from creating their own broadband network hurts private sector job creation
- 39% of rural Americans (23 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps.
- Hundreds of Cities Are Wired With Fiber—But Telecom Lobbying Keeps It Unused
- In 2009, the Federal Communication Commission’s Broadband Task Force reported that approximately 70% of teachers assign homework requiring access to broadband
- Acknowledge the issues and challenges with previous state and federal funding by encouraging municipal financing
- Internet providers are thinking of placing ‘data caps’ on home internet similar to internet usage on phones
- The FCC has re-classified broadband speed as 25mbps
Solutions:
- Amend the Texas constitution so municipalities can build and sell broadband services similar to 29 other US states
- Amend the Texas constitution allowing for referendums so municipalities can build and sell broadband services similar to 4 other US states
- Implement a feasibility study of using state TANF funds to provide discounted internet access for families that are up to 200% of the federal poverty guideline, similar to the federal lifeline program
- Wi-Fi enabled school buses for rural communities
- Municipal fiber network will let customers switch internet service providers in seconds
- Although cities are prohibited from selling broadband, they could offer access for free like other cities
- Pass a ‘mandatory access’ law for Multiple Dwelling Units. When resident requests a given internet and cable service provider, then the building owner must let that service provider into the building, subject to some requirements related to space limitations, compensation for costs directly incurred, and other stipulations. (similar to 19 states and multiple US cities)
- Free wifi on park and ride, light rail, transit centers and specific bus routes/stops with heavy traffic
- Ban mobile throttling in disaster areas
San Antonio Business Journal – GVTC continues roll out of gigabit-speed fiber internet in Boerne
Brookings – Closing the broadband access gap in American cities
Next City – Mayors Must Step Up for Broadband
Next City – How the Tiny Town of Leverett, MA Got Itself the Internet
Next City – Are Public-Private Partnerships the Best Path to Municipal Broadband?
Fast Compnay – Wi-Not? South Korea’s Seoul To Blanket The City With Free Wi-Fi
Houston Maters – Why is Municipal Broadband Illegal in Texas? And Could that Change?
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Houston Chronicle – Cities have no business monopolizing broadband
Texas Municipal League – FCC Decides Municipal Broadband Petitions and Net Neutrality
Slate – The Lobbyists and Legislators Who Kill Municipal Broadband in America
Slate – Republicans Are Coming Around to This Public Internet Idea
Cities, States Face Off On Municipal Broadband
CNN – Chattanooga’s super-fast publicly owned Internet
The Guardian – Chattanooga’s Gig: how one city’s super-fast internet is driving a tech boom
Tennessee sues FCC to stop expansion of municipal broadband
New Yorker – Why the F.C.C.’s Municipal-Broadband Ruling Matters, Too
Business Journal – Google Fiber could be a game changer for San Antonio economy, mayor said
The Stranger – Municipal Broadband in Seattle Took a Small Step Forward Today
The Stranger – Mayor Murray Makes Encouraging Noises About Broadband Internet
Net Neutrality: What You Need to Know Now
Electronic Frontier Foundation – Net Neutrality
New York Times – U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace in Delivering Broadband Service
New York Times – Chattanooga’s Innovation District Beckons to Young Entrepreneurs
New York Times – Bridging a Digital Divide That Leaves Schoolchildren Behind
New York Times – Broadband Law Could Force Rural Residents Off Information Superhighway
The Guardian – New Yorkers to get free Wi-Fi via old phone booths in Google-funded project
57 Cities Now Have Free Wi-Fi, But They’re Not Thinking Big Enough
Wired – The Connected City and the Future of Free Wi-Fi
Wired – Chattanooga Is Offering Internet Faster Than Google Fiber
Wired – The First US City With 10 GB Internet Is … Salisbury
Wired – Comcast’s Google Fiber Rival Will Be Laughably Expensive
Wired – Schoolkids Don’t Just Need iPads. They Need Data Plans
Business Insider – 9 Cities With The Best Free Wifi
Free Press – New Initiatives Aim to Bridge San Francisco’s Digital Divide
NPR – See The 10 States With The Fastest Internet Connections
NPR – Monticello municipal broadband slugs it out
NPR – As Cities Push For Their Own Broadband, Cable Firms Say Not So Fast
NPR – Frustrated Cities Take High-Speed Internet Into Their Own Hands
Motherboard – After Legal Defeat, US Mayors Vow to Continue Municipal Broadband Fight
Motherboard – The 21 Laws States Use to Crush Broadband Competition
Motherboard – The Path to Community Broadband Runs Through an Army of Telecom Lawyers
Motherboard – Hundreds of Cities Are Wired With Fiber—But Telecom Lobbying Keeps It Unused
Motherboard – Why It’s So Hard to Bring Gigabit Internet to the US
Motherboard – Why Internet Access in the U.S. Is Slow and Expensive: There’s No Competition
Motherboard – South Korea’s Internet Is About to Be 50 Times Faster Than Yours
Motherboard – Huntsville’s Model for Google Fiber Is the Future of Broadband
Motherboard – Bandwidth: How First Nations Kids Built Their Own Internet Infrastructure
Common Dreams – Win for Telecom Giants as Court Puts Dagger in Municipal Broadband
City Lab – Why Are There No Big Cities with Municipal Broadband Networks?
Pew – Cities, States Face Off On Municipal Broadband
Pew – The numbers behind the broadband ‘homework gap’
State Tech Insider – Newark, Del., to Study Municipal Broadband Options
The American Prospect – Municipalities Dream Big on Broadband
The Hill – Study: Half of telecom subsidy goes to phone company overhead
The Tennessean – Chattanooga mayor: Gigabit speed internet helped revive city
The Recorder – The City of Rowe (Massachusetts) to self-finance broadband
Boston Globe – State to pay Comcast $4m to build out rural broadband
Daily Journal – Rural communities left behind due to lack of high-speed internet
Huffington Post – Bridging the Homework Gap
Cleveland initiative to help bridge digital divide, homework gap
PBS – Wi-Fi-enabled school buses leave no child offline
The Atlantic – When Students Can’t Go Online
Mic – Lifeline Could Revolutionize Welfare and Bring Wi-Fi to the People — But It’s Not Enough
Fusion – This is what it’s like to be one of the 75 million Americans living without Internet access
Truth Out – These Cities Built Cheap, Fast, Community-Owned Broadband
Truth Out – The FCC Can’t Save Community Broadband — but We Can
Minnesota Post – To close rural broadband gap, Minnesota communities consider public option
Choctaw Nation – Rural broadband dream way becoming reality
USA Today – Louisiana city blazes high-speed Web trail
USA Today – Let cities compete for broadband: Our view
USA Today – Google Fiber may expand to Dallas
Bill Moyers – Bringing High-Speed Internet to Cajun Country
Washington Post – 7 Colorado communities just secured the right to build their own broadband
ARS Technica – Colorado’s municipal broadband ban overridden in 44 communities
ARS Technica – Most of the US has no broadband competition at 25Mbps, FCC chair says
ARS Technica – Google Fiber joins forces with municipal broadband network
ARS Technica – Municipal fiber needs more FDR localism, fewer state bans
ARS Technica – “AT&T is the villain” in city broadband fight, Republican lawmaker says
ARS Technica – City ISP makes broadband free because state law prohibits selling access
Public Integrity – How big telecom smothers city-run broadband
Public Integrity – Where states stand on municipal broadband
Albama Gov. Bentley’s plan to bring broadband access to rural Alabama
Quartz – Nearly one in three American households have no choice when it comes to their internet
Texas Tribune – In Rural Texas, Living Without Home Internet
Statesman – Broadband map shows the bare spots in Texas
Statesman – Greg Abbott announces goal of bringing broadband access to all schools
Dallas News – Texas will strive to expand broadband access to all students by 2018
Dallas News – Susan P. Crawford: The case for publicly owned Internet service
Dallas News – Google Fiber’s high speed internet may come to Dallas
Rivard Report – How Google Fiber in San Antonio May Deter Internet as a Public Utility
Bloomberg – Let America’s Cities Provide Broadband to Their Citizens
Bloomberg – Let America’s Cities Provide Broadband to Their Citizens
Philly – What other cities should learn from Philly’s failed municipal broadband effort
Consumerist – Internet Giants Come Out In Support Of Municipal Broadband
Rocky Mount Telegram – Court halts broadband in Pinetops
ILSR – The Secrets Behind Partnerships to Improve Internet Access
ILSR – RS Fiber: Fertile Fields for new Rural Internet Cooperative
Deseret New – The communication needs of rural America cannot be neglected
Killeen Daily Herald – Coryell County residents want better Internet options
Johnson City Press – Cooperative companies on the frontline of rural broadband access
Arkansas Business – Broadband Efforts Take Cues from Rural Electrification
Alaska Dispatch News – How a fiber-optic cable could forever change life in Arctic Alaska
Business Journal – A tiny Oregon city has already built its own gigabit Internet
Pacific Standard – The Town That Made Its Own Internet
Times Free Press – ‘AT&T is the villain’ in battle over rural broadband access, Gardenhire says
Forbes – How One Proactive Kentucky Municipal Utility Lowers Overall Electricity Costs To Customers
Government Technology – Kentucky’s Statewide Broadband Network Moves Forward with Build-out
Lexington Herald – Kentucky’s high-speed internet project should be done by mid-2019, Bevin says
Arkansas Business – Arkansas Cooperatives Apply Rural Electrification Model to Internet Access
Christian Science Monitor – No more dropped calls: NYC subway to get cell service, WiFi
Star Tribune – Pilot program brings Wi-Fi to some Metro Transit routes
San Diego Union Tribune – Free Wi-Fi back on Coaster trains
Streetsblog USA – More Transit Agencies Adding WiFi on Buses
How Governors Island became the launchpad for NYC’s 5G initiative
Best internet service in Texas? It might be in tiny Mont Belvieu
The Head of the FTC Just Debunked the FCC’s Favorite Excuse for Killing Net Neutrality
Texas lawmaker wants to ban mobile throttling in disaster areas
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