CBAN - Pathways to Better Broadband for Communities

In March, a new organization was launched to help communities that are trying to bring better broadband to their citizens. It's not just about talk, it's about action.

The Community Broadband Action Network (CBAN) was established to provide a collaborative network and marketplace for communities, community-based broadband providers, and solutions providers. CBAN’s goal is to provide pathways for successful action by enabling communities to:

• Explore and Advocate
• Plan and Analyze
• Design and Build
• Launch and Operate
• Leverage and Reinvest

---

The Community Quandry

Many communities find themselves with broadband services that are not meeting their citizens' needs. Incumbent providers are too big or profit driven to address concerns over reliability, availability, speed, and other shortcomings. The challenge they face is how to improve broadband, which has become an absolute necessity for community growth and development in the 21st century.

Advocates and community leaders who want to solve this challenge are usually left to their own initiative to determine where to start and, once beginning the process, where to go next. 

CBAN was founded by Curtis Dean, Todd Kielkopf, and Jon Anne Willow to assist these communities by:

• Lowering information barriers
• Increasing the number of partnerships
• Making network construction and operations more viable

CBAN offers free membership to communities and advocates seeking solutions for better broadband in their communities.

Become a CBAN Community Member

Become a CBAN Advocate Member

Communities and Providers - Natural Allies

Natural allies exist in today's broadband landscape...communities with broadband challenges and existing community-based broadband providers. Although the business models vary - from municipal utilities to independent telecommunications companies, cooperatives, and mutuals - they share the common focus of serving their communities to the best of their abilities.

Community-based providers can benefit from working with the "have not" communities that are striving for solutions. These collaborative efforts can take many forms, including joint ownership, joint operations, wholesale relationships, and others. 

CBAN offers free membership to community-based providers who are interested in partnering or collaborating with communities that are looking for better broadband.

Become a CBAN Provider Member

Vendors - Connecting The Dots

At some point in the process of evaluating their options for better broadband, communities will need services from the experts that provide consulting services, construction, technology, software, and other needed resources. That's where CBAN's Vendor Membership enters the picture.

​Companies who provide these services are always trying to identify where their next opportunity will be coming from.  Not knowing where communities are in their process means that these solutions providers unnecessarily spend time and efforts contacting community leaders who are not in a position to work with them.

CBAN's Vendor Membership allows these companies to become part of an ecosystem that will help grow their business in the municipal market.

Become a CBAN Vendor Member

​Questions about CBAN? Give me a call or drop an email!
Curtis Dean
CBAN Co-Founder
515-650-0251
curtis@smartsourceconsulting.com