Public Private Partnerships

April 13, 2015 - Attention on the significance of community-based Gigabit Networks rose dramatically when President Obama included an announcement about the importance of community broadband networks in his State of the Union address in January, and in remarks in Cedar Falls, Iowa, one week before the speech. At the same time, the White House also released a report of its own on community-based broadband solutions, which highlighted the growing demand for Gigabit Networks, and also focused on some of the laws that restrict municipalities' involvement in broadband. Somewhat overlooked in the process, however, was an important report released on January 14 by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In a blog post that day, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling recapped the investments of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program: Upgrading 113,000 miles of fiber, and connecting 25,000 community anchor institutions. The Commerce Department also released an important 16-page report, "BroadbandUSA: An introduction to effective public-private partnerships for broadband investments,"  that bears re-examination. [...] Keep Reading