State Telecom Activities

摘要

The Fiber to the Home Council Americas released a six-page document (http://bit.ly/1415zAq) onnhow to become a “fiber-friendly community,” released Wednesday in tandem with its gigabit conferencenin the Kansas City area this week. “A community can make a real difference in whether a network getsnbuilt,” it said. The document offers several tips for municipalities. It recommends they develop clearnbroadband plans with a committed community of stakeholders involved, expedited permitting and innovativenconstruction techniques. Municipalities should “make poles available on clearly defined, reasonablenterms through a rapid approval process,” it said. Communities should coordinate maintenance of thesenpoles and other assets and proactively improve existing infrastructure, the council said. “Comprehensivenapproval for an entire project, instead of repeated approval requirements for different stages of a project,ngreatly reduces delays that add costs to a project,” it said. Communities that want better broadband shouldnconsider different ways to crowdsource their support, said broadband analyst Craig Settles, a consultantnfor municipalities, in a Thursday op-ed on the news website Gigaom (http://bit.ly/18yIXuD). Settles focusednthe op-ed on a meeting in the Kansas City area. Settles described the success of Kickstarter and discussednhow communities may make use of opportunities tied to Neighbor.ly and the Free Network Foundation.n“Neighbor.ly plans to soon announce support from a major foundation, which will allow it tonbuild out a lot more of the platform infrastructure the company wanted to build initially,” Settles said.nThe company has a strong interest in helping communities set up wireless mesh networks, he said.n“Adding to the company’s horsepower, it also is working with a civic business accelerator that will enablenthem to help neighborhoods implement high speed networks.” Civic pride and fundraising become importantnconsiderations in crowdsourcing broadband networks, he said.