Broadband

Links to go along with June 10 "broadband" community roundtable at Williamstown, Mass.

• The Lafayette, La., community-owned broadband network
  

"The municipal network, which took on its first residential customers in 2009 and now offers 1-gigabit-per-second service for as little as $70 a month, has also given the city a tech-forward sheen . . . At least 500 communities have community-owned broadband networks, according to data from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an organization that promotes the idea."

• After a decade and two referenda, Longmont, Colo., begins connecting businesses to public-owned broadband
  

"Vince Jordan and the Colorado city of Longmont took on the major Internet-providing telecommunciations companies -- and won. But it was only round one. Now he's working to prove that Longmont Power & Communications -- the city owned utility -- can use 144-strand fiber-optic cabling installed in the 1990s to deliver exceptionally fast Internet to city's businesses and residents."

• It’s time for western Mass. to get up to broadband speed (B.J. Roche)
  

"Monica Webb . . . chairs the board of directors of WiredWest — a group trying to bring broadband Internet to Western Massachusetts . . . In about 30 communities up and down the hilly spine of Western Massachusetts, voters this year will decide whether to spend tax dollars to build out the “final mile” of broadband."