Voters Back Community Internet, ATIS Boosts Next G Alliance, A New State-Federal Broadband Partnership

Voters in Chicago and Denver have shown overwhelming support for local broadband projects.

Roughly 90 percent of voters in Chicago approved a referendum question that asked: “Should the city of Chicago act to ensure that all the city’s community areas have access to broadband Internet?”

This could allow the city to treat broadband more like a utility, potentially taking the form of community-run fiber networks.

In Denver, 83.5 percent of voters favored question 2H, which asked if the city should be exempt from a 2005 law that restricted Colorado towns and cities from being able to build their own local broadband alternatives. Nearly two-dozen states had restrictions similar to Colorado, which are pushed by communications giants that want to prevent the creation of local networks. Colorado’s provision has language that allows voters to opt-out of the provision.

According to a study by BroadbandNow, 42 million Americans do not have access to broadband. Studies conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance estimate that roughly 83 million more Americans live under a broadband monopoly, with Comcast being the most common solo-provider.

The number living under a duopoly is astronomically higher—tens of millions. They are usually serviced by a combination of  a cable giant and a regional communications company selling a copper digital subscriber line.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance argues that local broadband networks tend to be more responsive because they’re run by community members, people who generally have a greater incentive and interest in the success of the network.

ATIS adds new members to its Next G Alliance

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions added 11 new partners to its Next G Alliance founding members on Thursday. They include Apple, Charter, Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Keysight Technologies, LG Electronics, Mavenir, MITRE and VMware.

The Next G Alliance hopes to “establish North American preeminence in the 5G evolutionary path and 6G development,” according to ATIS, and will be involved in the full lifecycle of research and development, manufacturing, standardization, and market readiness.

New members will join AT&T, Bell Canada, Ciena, Ericsson, Facebook, InterDigital, JMA Wireless, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., Samsung, T-Mobile, TELUS, Telnyx, UScellular and Verizon for the alliance’s meeting on November 16 to establish the initiative’s strategy and direction.

“Our founding members represent leading industry stakeholders driving innovation in the mobile ecosystem,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. “They demonstrate their commitment to setting the course to advance North American mobile technology leadership into the future.”

California Emerging Technology Fund hosts a post-2020 election forum on digital equity

The groups are calling for a new state and federal Internet For All Now Partnership that aims to unite leaders from all levels of government in advocating for “expanded and updated broadband infrastructure, modernized regulatory initiatives that meet 21st-Century mandates, and emboldened public and private-sector leadership.” They are hosting an event on Friday, November 13, at 12:30 p.m. ET.

The partnership actions come after research and on-the-ground-experience, including setting national goals and performance metrics for broadband deployment such as capacity and speed of and adoption all with a timetable and assigned responsibilities.

To achieve these goals, the partnership plans to launch a $100 billion digital inclusion initiative to ensure deployment and adoption at a time certain.

The partnership also plans to propose a regulatory framework to promote and reward public-private partnerships and investment, leverage federal investments, establish an Internet Lifeline  Program, and incorporate digital inclusion into all federal programs and initiatives.

California’s Governor recently issued an Executive Order as a “calling to action” for Broadband For All. He directed the California Broadband Council and State Agencies to prepare an updated Action Plan by the end of 2020.