The next edition of CBAN's Lunch and Learn will premiere on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at Noon CST.

In our first webcast of 2022, CBAN discusses how libraries have responded to the Coronavirus pandemic with a panel of librarians and library advocates. Our guests are Larra Clark, Deputy Director of the Public Library Association; Natalie Caula-Hauff, Deputy Director of Innovation at the Charleston County, South Carolina Public Library, and Joan Grothoff, Director of the Eldora, Iowa Public Library. In particular, the panel will discuss how libraries played a vital role in keeping American’s connected during the pandemic for education, health care, and remote work.
 
CBAN co-founders Curtis Dean, Todd Kielkopf, and Jon Anne Willow will also discuss the Affordable Connectivity Program, funded through the recent federal infrastructure bill, that provides a $30 monthly internet service subsidy for low-income Americans.

The webcast premieres on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at noon CST on the following CBAN pages:
YouTube
LinkedIn

Click the link below to add a calendar reminder!

Last summer, the US Treasury Department released interim rules on how cities and counties could use their allocations of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLRF) funds from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA). The rules provided some guidance on what broadband projects could be funded, but left some questions unanswered. Many local governments decided to wait until the final Treasury rules were released before identifying broadband investments while others moved forward.

The final rules have now been released and, in a win for local control, they provide more latitude for broadband investments than even the interim rules.

For cities and counties that have been considering the use of these ARPA funds for broadband projects, now is the time to make plans. With long lead times for telecommunications supplies and equipment,  it will take time to put those plans into effect.

Colorado Springs Utilities has announced plans to build fiber-to-the-home network in the Colorado city of 460,000. Rather than operate the fiber utility itself, the utility has signed an agreement with Ting Internet.

Under the agreement, Ting will be the anchor tenant on the network, which will begin construction in the second half of 2022. When completed, the network will pass nearly 200,000 homes and businesses. CLICK HERE for more information on the project from the Colorado Springs Utilites website.

As we edge closer to the end of 2021, CBAN's growth continues to accelerate. We now have 112 members in 12 different states. Our two newest Advocate members are both based in Michigan.

• Center for Change Northern Michigan Advocacy
• MichiganINTER.net

We'll share more information about both of these organizations in a future edition of Broadband Bytes!

Starlink, a low-Earth orbit satellite internet provider owned by Elon Musk, holds a lot of promise in bringing better broadband to the hardest-to-reach corners of the globe. But right here in the USA, its performance appears to be waning a bit.

According to an article at PC Magazine, the Starlink speed tests measured by Ookla have declined in the US by about 10 megabits per second on the download. Meanwhile, performance in other nations such as Canada continues to impress.

This performance drop is likely why Starlink has not simply provided service to every person in the US. Although the company continues to launch satellites by the dozens, it takes time for those new birds to reach their final orbits and become part of the operational constellation. 

As Doug Dawson of CCG Consulting told us on our most recent edition of "Lunch and Learn" (and posted in his annual predictions post at his Pots and Pans blog, "Starlink is going to be unspectacular." Starlink's trajectory certainly deserves close monitoring in the coming year.

The Iowa Office of Chief Operations Officer, which serves as the state's broadband office, has announced the applications it received in the latest round of the Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant Program. The latest round, Notice of Funding Opportunity 7 (NOFA 007) includes 188 applications by 82 applicants seeking $396 million in funding to build broadband in unserved areas.

The NOFA 007 round, which closed to applications in late November, has a budget of $200 million that was designated by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds from the state's American Rescue Plan allocation. With nearly double the amount of requests than funds available, many applicants will go away empty-handed in this round, just as they have in previous rounds.

Most of the applicants in Iowa are independent telecommunications cooperatives and mutal companies as well as a number of municipals. Among the applicants are CBAN Provider members Indianola Municipal Utilities, Manning Municipal Utilities, Grand Mound Cooperative Telephone, Mahaska Communications Group, Waverly Utilities, Osage Municipal Utilities, Vinton Municipal Communications Utility, ImOn Communications, and Router 12 Networks.

ImOn Communications, a CBAN member, is picking up the pace on construction of its fiber-to-the-home network in Iowa City and Coralville, Iowa.

As highlighted in an article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, ImOn's pace of construction in the two adjacent communities picked up significantly this fall, with the goal of completing construction by the end of 2022. Based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ImOn is also building out fiber in Dubuque, Iowa. ImOn has also partnered with several municipal fiber providers in Iowa to provide wholesale services.