2020.11.13 – Open Broadband News

Let’s get giggy with it! CityFibre chooses Middlesbrough for £42 million investment
Nearly every home and business in Middlesbrough will gain access to next-generation broadband thanks to a major investment by CityFibre, the UK’s third national digital infrastructure platform.

The state-of-the-art infrastructure is forecast to boost business productivity and innovation, deliver millions of pounds in economic benefits for Middlesbrough and help the region to recover from the economic downturn – while giving residents and businesses access to the UK’s fastest broadband services of up to 1,000 megabytes per second.

“Our network build is already progressing well in Newcastle, so it’s exciting to now look to our £42m Middlesbrough Full Fiber investment. We are working in close partnership with Middlesbrough Council to transform the town’s digital infrastructure, ensuring that the digital needs of those working and living in the town are met now, and in the future,” said Jason Legget, City Manager at CityFibre.

Community broadband gets a boost on the ballot

As the dust from the US general election continues to settle, at least one thing is clear: voters in two major cities demonstrated overwhelming support for municipal broadband programs, according to Light Reading.

Community broadband was on the ballot in Denver and Chicago, where the majority of voters backed proposals that would allow for the creation of municipal broadband projects to close the digital divide.

Responding to the question on the ballot, ‘Should the city of Chicago act to ensure that all the city’s community areas have access to broadband?’ 90% of voters said yes.

Meanwhile, 80% of voters in Denver chose to opt out of an existing state law that was preventing the city from developing a broadband network, thus restoring its right to “provide high-speed internet access, telecommunication services, and cable television services, including any new and improved high bandwidth services based on future technologies, to residents, businesses, schools, libraries, non-profit entities and other users of such services either directly or indirectly with public or private sector partners.”

Piaui and Alagoas to receive Brazilliant internet connectivity

Brazil’s Ministry of Communications has extended internet connectivity in the states of Piaui and Alagoas via the SGDC satellite operated by Telebras.

The state of Piaui already has 465 antennas installed for the provision of public Wi-Fi services, and 15 free access points have been installed. A new Wi-Fi antenna was also installed in Alagoas, providing broadband internet at a speed of 20 Mbps, taking the total broadband internet points to 439.

In the whole country, there are more than 12,000 access points provided by the state programme in about 3,000 cities.

Canada takes a leaf out of Telesat’s book

The Canadian government is going ahead with its $600 million plan to ‘bridge the digital divide’ for its citizens.

The scheme will invest in satellite operator Telesat to ensure affordable, high-speed broadband connectivity across all of Canada with Telesat’s forthcoming Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. Telesat estimates that just 41 per cent of Canada’s rural households have access to fast, reliable broadband.

“Telesat LEO will transform connectivity in Canada, and this agreement will bring affordable enterprise grade, high-speed connectivity to underserved Canadians no matter where they live and work,” said Dan Goldberg, CEO at Telesat. “We applaud the Government of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for leveraging revolutionary technologies like Telesat LEO to drive widespread social and economic benefits. We look forward to working with Canadian service providers to provide this capacity to qualified communities across the country to get all Canadians connected as soon as possible.”