We’re pleased to announce that Next Century Cities recently celebrated our one year anniversary from our launch in Santa Monica, CA in October 2014. In the intervening 12 months, we’ve grown from 32 member cities to 120, representing over 25 million Americans. Some other highlights from our first year include:

• Four NCC-hosted events– events included our launch event in Santa Monica, the Envisioning a Gigabit Future field hearing in Chattanooga, TN, a Financing for Next-Generation Broadband workshop in Lexington, KY, and the Digital New England regional summit in Portland, ME.

• Testimony before the House of Representatives – in July, Executive Director Deb Socia testified before the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on broadband investment as critical infrastructure. And while not technically in our first year, Deb testified again before the same Subcommittee on barriers to broadband deployment last Wednesday.

• Policy agenda on broadband planning and deployment – this summer, Next Century Cities released Connecting 21st Century Communities: A Policy Agenda for Broadband Stakeholders. This document, informed by the experiences of communities across the country in developing and deploying broadband networks, provides guidance to communities that similarly seek to ensure access to high-quality Internet.

• Regular members’ webinars – a series of members’ webinars, held each month, focus on important topics in broadband network practice, such as the importance of connecting anchor institutions. Additionally, a bimonthly series of webinars addresses important and timely topics in broadband policy, such as the Federal Communications Commission’s rules on special access.   

Check out the infographic below (downloadable here) for more information on our key accomplishments from year one.

Thank you to all our members for a first year that far exceeded our wildest dreams – we’re excited to see what the next 12 months have in store!