Add Austin to your 2019 travel plans! Come join CLIC on April 8, 2019, on the first day of the Broadband Communities Annual Summit, scheduled from April 8-11, 2019 at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin. On April 8, CLIC will detail its Action Plan for Local Internet Choice for 2019 and Beyond. During this half day session, national legislative experts and local champions will address the cha…
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CLIC Responds to FCC Commissioner O’Rielly: Community Broadband Increases Democratic Discourse
FCC Commissioner O'Rielly has recently made some claims regarding risks to the First Amendment that he sees as arising from community and municipal broadband efforts. The Commissioner makes clear his unhappiness with municipal broadband efforts generally, but particularly calls out what he considers to be First Amendment concerns that arise from community provision of communication services. As…
read moreJim Baller Applauds Botetourt County’s Pro-Active, Open Minded Search for Broadband Solutions
CLIC President, Jim Baller, last week delivered the keynote address at the BoCo Summit in Botetourt County, Virginia. In his address, Jim spoke of the proud history of local Internet and broadband innovation emanating from rural Virginia and then offered some big picture suggestions to aid in that continuing success. Jim Baller, Keynote Address, The Rural Broadband Technology Solutions Summit…
read moreBlair Levin: FCC Small Cell Draft Order Would Exacerbate the Digital Divide
Earlier this week, CLIC advisor Blair Levin sent CLIC and NATOA leadership a letter detailing his concerns with the FCC’s draft small cell order, an order that preempts local authority while purporting to advance broadband deployment. Blair’s letter describes why the draft order will have the opposite impact and is likely to exacerbate the digital divide while tying the hands of local governme…
read moreJOIN CLIC in Ontario, CA: Making Local Internet Choice Happen!
Join CLIC in beautiful Ontario, California, at the DoubleTree Hilton Airport Hotel on October 23, as we hold an important strategic discussion on "Making Local Internet Choice Happen in a Changing Environment: Opportunities and Challenges in 2019. At the start of the Broadband Communities Economic Development conference: Fiber for the New Economy, we will address the challenges and opportuniti…
read moreJoin CLIC October 23 in Ontario, CA: Making Local Internet Choice Happen
Join CLIC in beautiful Ontario, California, on October 23, as we hold an important strategic discussion on "Making Local Internet Choice Happen in a Changing Environment: Opportunities and Challenges in 2019. At the start of the Broadband Communities conference, we will bring together some of the key thought leaders in the field to talk about what we have learned this year and to develop a gam…
read moreRemembering Senator McCain: A Champion of Local Internet Choice
by Jim Baller, CLIC President Senator John McCain was a very special person. As is evident from the outpouring of tributes following his death, he touched millions of Americans with his patriotism, his wisdom, his courage, his fundamental decency, and his grace. In these divisive times, we need many more leaders like him, from all political parties. Senator McCain was a particular hero …
read moreThe Secret to Smart Policies About Smart Cities
On July 23, 2018, Blair Levin, Executive Director of Gig.U, and Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institute's Metropolitan Policy Project, provided opening remarks at the Next Century Cities Making Connections Regional Broadband Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In a powerful speech, he identified "learning" as the secret to smart policies about smart cities, and then widened…
read moreBlair Levin on Cities, the FCC and Gigabit Networks
On June 26, 2018, Blair Levin, Executive Director of Gig.U, and Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institute's Metropolitan Policy Project, provided keynote remarks at the Kansas City Gigabit Summit. As he did in Austin, Mr. Levin again took the FCC's BDAC process to task, and suggested better ways for cities and carriers to advance 5G networks -- such as through smart local negot…
read moreRemembering Why: Broadband Leadership for the 21st Century Economy
Some things are worth repeating. Recognizing that North Carolina was at the vanguard of technology deployment in the 1990s, CLIC’s North Carolina chapter, NC Broadband Matters, engaged a keynote speaker in April who received a standing ovation after he spoke about how North Carolina can be a technology leader again. The speaker, four-term Governor James B. Hunt (1977-1985, 1993-2001) dre…
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