Municipalities have the power to significantly reduce the capital costs of broadband infrastructure deployment. Whenever possible, cities and counties can put in place policies and ordinances to help encourage broadband investment. These policies can be implemented to facilitate investment from the private sector and can also be used to gain substantial assets that can be leveraged for broadband deployment.

Advanced Broadband Service is no longer a luxury. It is a utility that is as important as water or electricity. This paper discusses why we should care about broadband infrastructure for our communities.

In 2005 the Colorado Legislature passed Colorado Senate Bill 05-152 (SB-152) at the urging of the largest telecom providers. This took away local governments’ ability to compete with the private sector within the broadband marketplace including high-speed Internet, telecommunication and cable services. In essence, the law prohibits the use of municipal or county funds to be used to improve local broadband infrastructure and service.

While broadband service is increasingly seen as a utility, advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.

Updating the last mile in America’s telecommunications networks with high-bandwidth, direct fiber optic connections to homes and businesses will deliver substantial environmental benefits in the short term – outweighing the environmental costs of deployment in as little as six years – according to a study released by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Google has made an impressive and aggressive announcement to built FTTH networks to serve up to 500,000 subscribers. Read Broadband Properties’ Steve Ross’ take on Google’s FTTH iniative.

A study by Navigant Economics of how many jobs would be created by federal incentives to deploy competitive next-generation networks.

A study for the FTTH Council, performed by the telecommunications strategy consulting firm CSMG, on future applications that all-fiber networks will make possible and their value. The study was submitted to the Federal Communications Commission by the Council as it considers a National Broadband Plan.

A study from CSMG. a strategy consulting firm specialized in telecommunications and technology, that Corning and the FTTH Council presented to the Federal Communications Commisson on October 13, 2009 concerning the cost of deploying FTTH across the US. Based on real experience in deploying FTTH networks, it shows that investment requirements for FTTH have decreased substantially over the past few years and vary considerably depending on the topography being served.