Sonic brings gigabit service to the East Bay’s Brentwood

on February 12, 2015

Sonic, the regional ISP that is transitioning from a copper-based DSL and telephone company to a fiber-to-the-home provider, has announced plans to expand its fiber construction to Brentwood, a Silicon Valley commuter town that will join Sebastopol, Calif., in getting gigabit networks. Sonic CEO Dan Jasper told me last week that the pilot network in San Francisco is still under construction and he has no sense of the timing on when it will go live, but plans to head to Marin next.

Chattanooga paper fires columnist who blasted the president & lamented gigabit fiber

on August 2, 2013

Drew Johnson, a columnist for Chattanooga Free-Press newspaper, recently wrote an editorial that blasted President Obama, “Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough.” The editorial, which lamented the gigabit fiber network built in Chattanooga, generated a lot of attention, but earlier this week Johnson was fired by the paper for changing the headline of the editorial without permission. The new headline for the editorial is – President Obama’s policies have harmed Chattanooga enough. Johnson later tweeted that he was the first person to be fired for writing the most read article in the newspaper’s history. The episode illustrates the heated debates around municipal funded networks (fiber or otherwise), often fueled by the lobbying dollars incumbent monopolies.

Seattle’s planned fiber network: The gigabit is in the details

on December 14, 2012

Seattle, the University of Washington and Gigabit Squared have teamed up to build out a gigabit network. The plan was announced on Thursday but I followed up with Gigabit Squared’s president to get more information on costs, technologies and when this network might be live.

Bristol, another Tennessee town is getting Gigabit broadband

on November 19, 2012

With current broadband market is essentially a comfortable duopoly of cable and telecom operators with little competitive pressure that leads to forward looking features. It is no surprise that cities are looking to take matters in their own hands taking a cue from Bristol, Tennessee.

Is the FCC planning to propose some new broadband math?

on September 25, 2012

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke today on the state of U.S. broadband. He didn’t break new ground, but he did push for faster and higher capacity broadband in the U.S. The question is whether he plans to get the agency to do anything about it.