@communitynets.bsky.social
Internet access touches almost every aspect of our daily lives. At CommunityNetworks.org, we have assembled the nation's largest storehouse of information on communities building publicly-owned networks directly accountable to the communities they serve.
Traverse City, MI residents and businesses are thankful for the city's utility now building out a community-owned, gigabit-capable fiber network operating as TCLPfiber👏
Came in way under budget and the city has already been listed on the 2025 Broadband Communities Top 100 list! 🎉
Our story here
In an era filled with tech dipshits who never developed emotionally past the age of 13 & use their wealth to become odious monsters ...
... listen to Steve Wozniak.
Yesterday's Connect This! was 🔥
S/o Alexis Schrubbe from Ready.net for bringing her clipboard and Top 10 BEAD facts and outliers now that states have been forced by the Trump admin to give more BEAD $$ to satellite-based broadband instead of future proof fiber
www.youtube.com/live/sHafVCN...
front entrance of Fort Collins Connexion office
Municipal broadband continues to cook
Fort Collins, Colorado’s popular Connexion municipal broadband network has unveiled SmartHome, a new network management app that helps subscribers better manage the security & bandwidth-consumption of their home networks
communitynetworks.org/content/fort...
There’s a quiet power play going on w/BEAD funding where federal agencies are engaging in "secret negotiations" — pushing satellite projects instead of future proof fiber
Sascha Meinrath joins @sportshotchris.bsky.social to unpack how BEAD $$ is drifting toward satellite solutions that can’t scale
Sascha Meinrath joins Chris on our Community Broadband Bits podcast to unpack how BEAD funding is drifting toward satellite solutions that can’t scale—and why misleading speed data, space congestion, and political pressure could derail real broadband progress 🌐💻📶⬇️
21.11.2025 04:43 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Thank you Ron! Hope you got as much out of it as we did :)
20.11.2025 18:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
If you missed it, you can watch our webinar co-hosted w/ @aapbroadband.bsky.social in its entirety on our YouTube channel
“Building Smarter Cities and the Cost of Doing Nothing” was packed w/insights on the infrastructure needed and the ROI communities w/o fiber networks are leaving on the table
Tune in to this webinar, I am about to watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cij0...
20.11.2025 16:58 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Join us @ noon ET for another cool webinar w/ @aapbroadband.bsky.social “Building Smarter Cities and the Cost of Doing Nothing”
We'll explore how some cities turned infrastructure into opportunity, the economics behind these investments, and the future of intelligent infrastructure
Register here ⬇️
Our friends over at Broadband Breakfast are reporting the first 15 states who had their BEAD plans approved:
Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wyoming
🚨New report out today🚨
In it, we detail how 19 tiny towns in western MA created the most concentrated cluster of municipal broadband in the U.S.
It serves as both a history and a roadmap for other small communities seeking to bridge the digital divide through local ownership and cooperation💻🌐
We are particularly fond of the JNET team who has been an integral part of the Tribal Broadband Bootcamps founded by @matthewrantanen.bsky.social CBN director @sportshotchris.bsky.social
13.11.2025 17:22 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
🎉 Congratulations to the Pueblo of Jemez and their tribal-owned ISP JNET
They are being honored with a Project Excellence Award for their fiber-to-the-home build that’s bringing high-speed Internet to over 670 rural & tribal homes
🚨 Webinar alert! 🚨
Join us Nov 20 @ 12 noon ET for “Building Smarter Cities and the Cost of Doing Nothing” — a free, 60-minute live discussion on why smart fiber infrastructure matters and what cities lose if they sit still
Story w/registration link here ⬇️
communitynetworks.org/content/webi...
Decorah, Iowa is building a city-owned fiber network through a new public-private partnership — bringing fast, affordable Internet to every home
Bravo to Decorah who took matters into its own hands — proving small towns can lead the way on digital equity + local control
Our story here 🌐💻 ⬇️
Four years after Congress mandated broadband nutrition labels, a new study shows that many ISPs aren’t doing a great job
Meanwhile, the Trump FCC recently announced it's taking formal steps to weaken the rules as part of the agency’s frontal assault on consumer protections
Our story here 💻🌐⬇️
NTIA admin Arielle Roth recently said her agency will withhold federal broadband deployment funds fr any state that enacts affordability laws
Legal experts say it should be "laughed out of the room"
But it may be enough to dissuade some states from moving bills forward. Our story here 💻🌐📶⬇️
More cities are discovering the power of open access networks in transforming the digital landscape to bring competition to markets long dominated by monopoly providers offering subpar service
In Superior, WI its new city-owned network is now live!
Our story here on the transformation underway 🌐💻⬇️
Electric co-op's are at the leading edge of bringing fiber Internet service to rural America
Congrats to Conexon Connect for completing its seventh fiber to the home project in Georgia
Our story here 💻🌐⬇️
A new Federal Reserve Bank of NY study details how to more accurately measure the elusive nature of affordable broadband
It also points to the state of local infrastructure and how it can force poor households to choose between cell service or home Internet service
Our story here 🌐💻⬇️
Insightful story here by Route 50 that cites our own @sportshotchris.bsky.social on how federal policy failures and disinvestment keep Native and Black farmers offline but also includes examples of how community broadband is providing a way forward in solving the digital divide
23.10.2025 21:06 — 👍 4 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
The Trump administration's illegal “termination” of the Digital Equity Act continues to have devastating real world impacts on everything from affordable broadband access to protecting Americans from skyrocketing online scams
Our story here on how the legal fight expands as the fallout increases 🌐💻
As part of our ongoing series highlighting the complex challenges of bringing high-speed Internet access to multi-dwelling units...
Our story on a new California law that lets renters opt out of bulk-billing arrangements that force them to pay for Internet service from a specific provider 🌐💻📶⬇️
On our latest podcast @mmasnick.bsky.social of @techdirt.com joins @sportshotchris.bsky.social to unpack the myths around Section 230, how reform efforts could backfire, and why protecting free speech requires more nuance than most policymakers are willing to give
13.10.2025 20:20 — 👍 10 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 0
CBN director @sportshotchris.bsky.social explains to the Tribune-Enterprise in Wisconsin how the Trump Admin is forcing Wisconsin "to significantly decrease" meaningful infrastructure investment "in order to write a bigger check to SpaceX...rather than making sure everyone has good Internet access."
10.10.2025 14:25 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
At ILSR's 50th Anniversary Gala last year, we presented Jim Baller with a Lifetime Achievement Award, noting how he "worked on the first municipal broadband project (and) shaped many of the people” working in this space
It's nice to see Broadband Communities give Jim his props as well
She went on to say
"I just challenge anyone who feels like they're supposed to get out there and do something about this, do it afraid. Just get out there and do it. Everything else will fall in place. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to know it all."
One of our guests LaShawn Williamson shared something that was profound that applies to far more than broadband
"You just do it and do it afraid. And you walk by faith and not by sight. And everything that you need will come into play," she said...
Our third Building for Digital Equity livestream of the year brought together policy experts and frontline workers to explore how community-driven connectivity solutions are inextricably tied to building local trust
If you missed it, the entirety of the event can be viewed here
