I see a pattern developing here...
As an alternative (or supplement) to working with MVPD's to distribute their content, yet another major programmer is developing it's own paid OTT app. This time, it's Fox News.

Fox Nation is launching on November 27th and will feature original content not found on the linear Fox News Channel.  

The service has been priced at $5.99 a month or $64.99 a year.

In one of the most comprehensive and well-written articles on the topic, CNET outlined the challenges facing rural residents when it comes to better broadband - and the challenging economics of providers who are responsible with serving them.

It's a great article and a must-read for anyone who has an interest in bringing better broadband to rural communities.  CLICK HERE to read the article on the CNET website.

The next Lunch and Learn webinar sponsored by the Community Broadband Action Network (CBAN) is Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 12:00pm CDT.
This month's topic is "Building A Consensus for Action".  Click this link to join:  https://zoom.us/j/764464311

Moderator Curtis Dean will talk with panelists Mark Erickson of RS Fiber in Minnesota and  Kurt Karr with iVinton.  These two individuals were intimately involved in helping solve their communities' broadband deficits by organizing efforts to move projects from the discussion phase to action.  
 
About The Panelists
 
Mark Erickson is the Economic Development Authority Director for the city of Winthrop, Minnesota. He served as both city administrator and EDA Director from 2008 to 2014 and worked closely with the RS Fiber Cooperative project in Sibley, Renville, Nicollet and McLeod counties in Minnesota.
 
Prior to Winthrop he was employed by Hiawatha Broadband Communications in Winona, Minnesota, working with communities interested in building a Fiber To The Home networks.
 
He currently serves on the RS Fiber Cooperative Board of Directors, the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association Board of Directors and chairs the League of Minnesota Cities Telecommunications Task Force. He is a former member of the CK Blandin Foundation’s Telecommunications Strategy Board.
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Kurt Karr is Principal at MonkeyThis, a marketing agency in Vinton, Iowa. Kurt has been involved in trying to improve broadband in Vinton for a number of years, most recently as Chair of iVinton, a grassroots group that has been advocating for community broadband since 2015. Kurt has been part of both unsuccessful and successful referendum campaigns and has experienced first-hand the challenges in forming a community consensus to take action to achieve better broadband.

https://zoom.us/j/764464311

There are just a few days left to register for the IAMU Fall Broadband Meeting on Wednesday, September 26th at the IAMU Office and Training Complex in Ankeny.

As a reminder, here is the agenda for this year's gathering:

For a more detailed agenda, CLICK HERE.

Register on the IAMU website at www.iamu.org.  We'll see you next week!

Two northeast Iowa communities 20 miles apart are embarking on a common path to bring fiber networks to their citizens.

This week, the City Council in Charles City, with support from the Charles City Broadband Commission, approved an agreement with Lookout Point Communications and NewCom  Technologies to design a fiber-to-the-home system. Lookout Point and principal Eric Lampland also conducted the feasibility study for Charles City that estimated a total project cost of $11.5 million.

Next door, the New Hampton Municipal Light Plant Board also approved a contract with Lookout Point/NewCom for their FTTP network design. The New Hampton network would cost an estimated $5.7 million.

As both communities move forward on designing their individual networks, they are also having discussions on how they can work together on other aspects such as operations. 

The design process in the two towns is expected to be completed late this year or in early 2019, with a goal of going out for bids during the winter and breaking ground in the spring of next year.

he Iowa Heartland Chapter of the SCTE is presenting its annual Vendor Day and Golf Outing on Wednesday, October 3rd at Kirkwood Community College in Hiawatha and at the Airport National Golf Course.  

​During the morning at Kirkwood you can visit with vendors including Power & Tel, Communications Supply Group, and many others. The Vendor Show begins at 8:30am and goes until 11:30am.  There is no charge to attend the Vendor Show at Kirkwood.

Following the Vendor Show, you're invited to join us for a fun afternoon of golf at Airport National Golf Course in Cedar Rapids. We'll begin with lunch at noon followed by a shotgun start at 1pm.  Golf is $30 for SCTE members and $35 for non-members, and includes 18 holes of best-ball golf and use of a cart.

We'd love to have you join us! To register, visit the registration page on Iowa Heartland SCTE website at ​www.iowaheartlandscte.org/registration.html

You may have seen our earlier article here in Broadband Bytes about the Community Broadband Action Network (CBAN), a new organization focused on bringing communities, providers, and vendors together to help improve broadband.  To help inform everyone about what CBAN plans to accomplish, we are going to be holding a "Lunch and Learn" webinar on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 from noon to 1pm.

During the webinar, CBAN founders Curtis Dean, Todd Kielkopf, and Jon Anne Willow will discuss how the organization plans to assist communities that are trying to solve their broadband issues by bringing them together with other community-based providers that can help, as well as vendor companies that provide expertise, solutions, hardware, software, and technology needed to build and operate networks.

The CBAN Lunch and Learn webinar is FREE and open to community based providers, vendors, community representatives, and broadband advocates.   To register, fill out the form below and we will email you a link to the webinar before the day of the Lunch and Learn.  We hope you can join us!

Don't forget to register for the 2018 IAMU Fall Broadband Meeting. The event will be held on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 at the IAMU Office and Training Complex in Ankeny.

The schedule for this year's meeting includes the following topics:

• ACA Update with new municipal utility liason John Higginbotham
• Meet The New Neighbors, a panel discussion with Iowa's newest municipal telecom utilities and hopefuls. Representatives of Indianola Municipal Utilities, Vinton Municipal Utilities, and New Hampton Municipal Utilities are scheduled to share their stories.
• New Video Delivery Options, a look at ways to deliver a linear cable lineup without the use of traditional (and expensive) set top boxes. You'll see presentations from both Minerva and Innovative Systems on their platforms.
• Tech Roundtable and Marketing Roundtable, a place to share ideas and trade notes

The cost for IAMU Members is just $35.00 per person. Non-IAMU members may register for $50.00.  Registration information is available on the Events page at www.iamu.org.  If you'd like to take a look at a PDF copy of the agenda, CLICK HERE.

In late August, city leaders in Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa signed agreements with Indiana-based MetroNet Fiber to build FTTP networks in the two communities.

Both cities have been working for several years on options to leverage existing city fiber assets to expand fiber coverage to more of the community. Davenport went through an RFI process three years ago to try to find a partner to develop a project, but that effort did not bear fruit. Under the agreement with MetroNet Fiber, the city will assist with expedited permitting and help with some tax credits but will otherwise not be an owner of the network.

CLICK HERE to read an article in the Quad City Times.

A recent report by the Institute for Local Self Reliance in Minnesota points out the problems with the FCC's National Broadband Map.

The National Broadband Map, based on Form 477 information submitted by ISP's, has come under fire across the industry as painting a much more rosy picture of broadband availability than actually exists. The ILSR report narrows its focus to a defined geographical area around Rochester, Minnesota to show just how bad the federal statistics are. 

The report's findings are not at all surprising. Spend a few minutes on the FCC's map and you'll start to notice numerous discrepencies, likely caused by errors on Form 477 as submitted by ISP's or as inputted by FCC staff. For example, does anyone really believe that Lenox Municipal Utilities has fiber-to-the-home in a 4 square block area of Pella, Iowa (just one of the discrepencies your author has scratched his head about when looking at the map)?

Hat's off to Christopher Mitchell and his team at ISLR for their continued hard work at supporting community broadband and helping cut through the noise of self-promotion that large ISP's have created.