What better place to talk about how vital “Local” is than in the uniquely local community of Austin, Texas. Come join us on Monday, April 30, in Austin, for CLIC’s important strategy session on “The Vital Role of Local Internet Choice,” at the foot of the Broadband Communities’ conference: “Fiber: Putting Your Gigs to Work.”
Great nations are built on great cities and towns. Over the last few years, communities across America have come to realize that their ability to achieve greatness, or even success, in the years ahead will depend on their ability to acquire affordable access to fiber-rich communications networks. That is so because fiber networks, like electric power systems a century ago, are platforms and drivers of simultaneous progress in just about everything that is important to communities, including economic development and competitiveness, education, public safety, health care, transportation, environmental protection, government services, democratic discourse and much more.
As a result, diverse local communities across the country are increasingly stepping forward to secure their communications futures by working with willing incumbents, entering into partnerships with new entrants, establishing their own networks or developing other creative options that work for them. On top of this, the Federal Communications Commission’s recent elimination of network neutrality protections has fueled a surge of interest in public broadband networks. At the same time, the communications industry has mounted an aggressive campaign to undermine local authority. Before Congress, the FCC, the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee and numerous states, the industry has sought to portray local governments as impediments to rapid broadband deployment, particularly next-generation wireless broadband. Traditional local powers, they claim, should be sharply curtailed or even preempted.
So join us at 1p.m. in Austin on April 30, where we will continue to help local communities and our allies be as effective as possible in opposing barriers to local Internet choice. Emphasizing the positive, we will showcase successful local initiatives reflecting the benefits of local control for the community’s economic and broadband future. We will discuss the factual and legal arguments that work best in refuting the new wave of objections to community broadband and public-private partnerships. And we will finish with a deep dive into the experience of a small rural community that furnishes an excellent example of how the public and private sectors working together can build a great community and an inclusive and advanced workforce. The full agenda can be found here.
CLIC Members can register here with our CLIC discount ($350) using the code CLIC350 or CLIC2018. This registers you for CLIC and the entire BBC conference (May 1-3rd). Or become a member of CLIC by joining here (it’s free).