DCN News - May 15, 2015

In this issue:

1. Classes
2. Gigabit Fiber for Davis
3. FCC Title II broadband reclassification

1. Classes
DCN is providing another set of educational opportunities to members of the public. Specifically 2 classes are offered during our Spring 2015 sessions.

Davis Community Network presents a free talk about the "Internet of Things," to be held at 6:30 - 7:30pm on Thursday May 28th at the Davis Makerspace. In no small way, lots of new household devices could have a small computer, which provides Internet connections to these normal everyday things. Some you can think of right away would be VOIP phones and IP cameras. Find out about others, and some good things to be aware of regarding these devices as they enter your home. We will also play with some web tools you can use to explore and connect to these devices. Talk will be given by Robert Nickerson, CEO and Internet Engineer, from a local ISP. Talk is free but donations are graciously welcomed in support of the non profit missions of: Davis Community Network(www.dcn.org) and Davis Makerspace(www.davismakerspace.org)

2. Gigabit Fiber for Davis
At its April 2015 Board meeting, the DCN board voted, to support in concept, the efforts of a new citizens group, DavisGIG, to bring community owned fiber optic Internet service to Davis. DavisGIG, a group of Davis citizens, believes a community owned Fiber Optic Internet system is the water that will float a lot of innovative technological business growing within the city, raise city revenues, and be the right move for our City. DCN's board will be directing efforts this year and next to help make this happen for our city.

Here's how it might work, the city and its citizens would pass a bond measure or take an infrastructure bank loan to build and deploy the fiber network throughout the town to all homes and businesses. A local community non-profit comprised of stakeholders and citizens, would make sure the network works properly, and manage it on behalf of the town. Citizens pay a small monthly utility fee or annual property tax to recover the costs of the network, and enjoy the benefits of fast fibers, which would include high speed connections between homes, businesses, and campus, and a small bandwidth (3-5Mbps) access to the Internet. Then the community leases access to the fiber to a variety of private providers who get to sell faster Internet (10-1000Mbps), TV, and Phone services to city residents, over the city owned network. This public private model will result in lower costs over all, provide much needed revenues to the city, and address economic access and digital divide issues.

It's my belief, having been an Internet operator for over 17 years, that upward price pressures on monthly Internet bills will never go away, unless the infrastructure to provide the access is decoupled from the provider selling the access. If you want to learn more, or register your support, please see www.davisgig.org

3. FCC Title II broadband reclassification
Want to know what this title II reclassification is all about? How it affects you and the Internet environment you operate in? We provide some helpful links below. Unfortunately, although it is lauded as a victory, the best provisions for Title II for the consumer, are not being enforced at all. Here is a nice seminar provided by the Wireless Service Provider Association of America, WISPA, targeted to other ISPs but has good and detailed information about what was specifically ordered. The link is here. Also some good articles talking about what is not being enforced in the Title II reclassification decision, from Public Knowledge and Medium.