nextcentury

On Aug. 10, a federal appellate court ruled against a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan that would have allowed municipalities to build their own broadband networks, despite state laws explicitly prohibiting such buildouts. Such laws limiting government entry into the commercial broadband market exist in varying forms across 19 states. The ruling is seen by […]

A partisan battle is brewing over publicly-owned broadband networks. Now that a federal court has blocked an effort by the FCC to boost community broadband, Congress should respond by passing a bill making it easier for cities to build affordable, high-speed networks for citizens, according to public interest advocates…

Wednesday’s Sixth Circuit Court ruling that reversed the FCC’s municipal cable authorizationshas predictably raised new questions about what happens next. Supporters of the rejected FCC policy now expect to accelerate their efforts in state legislatures and not just North Carolina and Tennessee where the contested muni cable projects were scotched…

An Appellate Court overruled the Federal Communication Commission’s ruling that would have allowed Chattanooga to make its own decisions about broadband access in the area. The ruling means that Chattanooga’s EPB and other similar municipal providers in the state can’t expand to areas they aren’t currently authorized to serve, such as rural areas of Hamilton

In a setback for municipal broadband advocates, a U.S. federal court ruled today that the Federal Communications Commission cannot preempt state law to let cities expand publicly-funded Internet services…

The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) has come up with an “action plan”—actually a series of 10 policy papers—for getting those institutions connected to next-generation high-speed broadband and making that a national priority…

A new Senate caucus wants to do for broadband what FDR did for electricity. In the 1930s, just 10 percent of people living on U.S. farms or in other rural areas had electricity, even though it was common in cities. Enter President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose ambitious New Deal programs included those to electrify the

Senators from rural states are taking a lot of interest in broadband these days. Just one day after a group of 26 senators  sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asking him to take action on a Universal Service broadband mobility fund some of the same senators yesterday launched what they are calling the