TechTonic Tuesday – Michael Anderson and the Northern Sierra Fiber Broadband Cooperative

      In the year 2000 the United States had the best broadband in the world, based upon speed and price. Today, 20 years later, there are 20 countries ahead of us. Over 16% of China’s premises are connected to the Internet with fiber optic cable. In America that number is only 6%.

      Wireless and wired broadband are not competitive, we need both technologies in the 21st century. They work together, and fiber optic cable is what connects wireless broadband to the Internet.

      The top wireless speeds today are 100 megabits per second or less, and ten years from now it will be somewhere between 2 gigabits and 10 gigabits per second at best. A single fiber optic cable today is capable of carrying 25 terabits per second, which is 25,000 gigabits per second! Wireless and fiber are different things.

      America’s cable and telecom incumbents are not investing in fiber broadband to any great degree. We need to get this work done ourselves. The way to do that is by democratically controlling the transport layer of broadband. Fiber optic broadband cooperatives are springing are over the United States, mostly in rural areas. Here is an article that describes this phenomenon in detail: https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-12-Rural-Coop-Policy-Brief-Update.pdf

      Look at the map of broadband coops across the country. Yes California is way behind, but our time has come. Michael Anderson will be hosting a broadband cooperative workshop at the Nevada County Tech Hub to discuss among other things the board and bylaws for the proposed Northern Sierra Fiber Broadband Cooperative. Please join us!

Event begins at 5:30 PM on Tuesday Jan. 21st at the Nevada County Tech Hub at 104 New Mohawk Road. As always, enjoy networking with like-minded colleagues. We appreciate a $5–15 donation to cover facility costs. ???? We’ll see you there!