Top 10 Gigabit Nation Interviews for 2014

When Gigabit Nation speaks…the show racks up over 100,000 listens in 2015 for its live and archived shows. Here are the Top 10 Interviews for 2014 that helped the show pass this pretty amazing threshold. Thank you to all the fans and supporters who continue to make the show a big success.

There are currently over 200 hours of interviews covering many aspects of broadband, making this the most extensive audio resource for community broadband. Gigabit Nation should be bookmarked for every broadband project team and community stakeholder who want faster, better broadband for their constituents.

Interview with Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke for Gigabit Nation 3rd. Anniversary show.

As we get into full swing in 2015, expect plenty more good interviews, especially with the White House and Senate pushing aggressively to end states’ anti-public network laws. In addition, it seems every week there’s a new public network being planned or launched, and an increasing number of success stories. Also expect highspeed and data-heavy applications to become a bigger part of our news-you-can-use landscape. Gigabit Nation will continue to bring you the folks who are getting broadband done.

And just in case you missed it, Jan 23rd was the re-scheduled interview with Cedar Falls, IA to discuss President Obama’s visit to celebrate their utility’s 20-year broadband success story and rev up support for public-owned networks. We also noted how Iowa’s 28 public utility-owned broadband networks are profiles in success that other U.S. communities can emulate.

Top 10 Interviews (beginning with the most popular) 

• Forget Gig Cities. RST About to Turn NC Into a Gig State
• Take Me to the Pilot, Show Me the Money!
• Incumbents Drop Nuclear Option on Kansas Community Broadband
• How to Get Your Slice of the New FCC Broadband Funding Program
• Re-Thinking Broadband, eRate, Education and Your Local Economy
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Broadband Competition
• The New York City Hunger Games for Broadband
• Culture, Broadband and Economic Development Go Hand in Hand
• Utah Legies Bypass Cities, Attack the Heart of Capitalism
• Lack of Broadband Competition? Here’s How We Prevail Anyway

Many thanks to sponsors Calix and Hiawatha Broadband Communications. Your partnership keeps this project going strong, each year better than the one that went before. We’re adding new sponsors shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POTUS Rocks the Broadband World!!

A small army of community broadband activists, advocates, experts and coalitions have waged ceaseless war on behalf of communities’ right to make their own choices for bringing faster, better broadband to their constituents. Today, our band of stouthearted souls is reinforced by the ultimate big gun in this good fight.

The President of these United States is speaking out in full force about the value and virtues of community-owned broadband network, and denouncing the laws restricting public networks in 21 states. Last week I predicted there would be a surge in efforts to challenge these laws, and this pretty much guarantees it to be so.

In today’s remarks by the President from Cedar Falls, Iowa, (read how they became a gigabit city), he acknowledges the efforts of the 50 cities in the Next Century Cities coalition (recently interviewed on Gigabit Nation) and 37 research universities of Gig.U. President Obama also announces several initiatives by his administration to advance broadband deployments in the U.S., including the Dept. of Commerce’s BroadbandUSA program and the Dept. of Agriculture’s revamped broadband loan program.

What undoubtedly will capture the lion’s share of media attention is the President’s focus on the barriers to public broadband in 21 states. My report I released last week, How to Navigate, Mitigate or Eliminate the Impacts of State Restrictions on Public Broadband, details these laws and offers recommendations on how communities can work with or work around them.

Tearing down anti-muni broadband barriers in 2015?

I’m going to go out on a limb and make a couple of New Year’s predictions, a practice I’ve always avoided like the plague. But after my research for my latest Community Broadband Snapshot Report that addresses state legislative barriers to public-owned broadband, I feel pretty confident about this.

First, I predict there will be a surge of effort to counter the impact of current state laws that prevent municipalities and public utilities from building or expanding their broadband networks. Second, there will be a number of legislative bodies that, at the behest of giant telco and cable company lobbyists, will try to add new restrictive laws to the books, which I expect will be met with fierce opposition.

If-Then Laws	Minefield Laws	Total Bans
Alabama	Florida	Arkansas
California	Louisiana	Missouri
Colorado	N. Carolina	Montana
Iowa	S. Carolina	Nebraska
Michigan	Utah	Tennessee
Minnesota		Virginia
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Washington
Wisconsin