State Telecom Activities

摘要

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance hopes to “go on offense” in making its telecom prioritiesnknown, said Telecom Director Chris Mitchell Wednesday in a podcast the institute recorded. “Now we’renreaching out to a larger segment of the public.” The institute has prioritized communities’ ability to build their own networks and focused on many consumer issues, recording these accounts in blog posts and casenstudies, as Mitchell said. State and federal regulators should “roll back barriers” and make sure communitiesnhave the freedom to decide whether to build their own networks, he said. This year has featured anconcerted effort to make these concerns known to “a broader public,” which Mitchell said he has tried tondo in the form of op-eds and working with established nonprofits and organizations. His current projectsnhave focused more on conduits and pole attachments, so cities can make it easier for networks to be deployed,nhe said. Mitchell criticized when “massive, out-of-state corporations” control a community’snbroadband network. He focused not just on traditional incumbents but pointed to aspects of Google’s fibernrollouts as “still concerning.”