Last week was the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association’s 2018 conference. NNECAPA met at Point Look Out in Northport, ME to discuss a myriad of issues centered on this year’s theme, “Defining Resiliency for Northern New England.” OTELCO was proud to be a presenter and sponsor of this conference, weighing in on the importance of municipal broadband, and how planners can help bring fiber to the premise to their communities. Maine… Read more »
Technology. Tradition. Together.® You just might have heard these words before if you have anything to do with OTELCO. Technology is obvious; we’re a communication company. The fact that we’ve been serving rural communities for more than a century, speaks to Tradition. This story is a fabulous example of where Together comes in. Granby, Massachusetts is a small town in the western part of the state. The Granby Telephone and Telegraph Company, now part of… Read more »
Recently, I worked with a City Councilor in Cambridge, Massachusetts to try and help the Council overcome a severe case of community broadband sticker shock. It seems that the town had hired a consultant who had submitted a $200 million estimate for a city-wide fiber to the home network without first understanding what the City’s appetite would be for such expenditure – or, indeed, if the network being proposed was really necessary to achieve the… Read more »
This Session, the Maine Legislature is considering no fewer than 20 bills related to broadband access. Some of these bills focus on applications such as education and telehealth, while others focus on how networks are built and broadband infrastructure funding. One bill from this latter group is LD 140, An Act To Authorize a General Fund Bond Issue To Support Entrepreneurial Activity, Attract Business and Enhance Demographic In-migration by Investing in High-speed Broadband Infrastructure and… Read more »
We have been talking about Municipalities and their desire to have reliable broadband and fiber to the premise for their communities for quite some time now. Since every community is unique, there is no clear-cut model of what a municipally initiated fiber network should look like. There are different examples all across the country. Most recently, we talked about our new relationship with Leverett, MA. Having become very well acquainted with the Leverett model, we’d… Read more »
Virtual Reality (VR) is quickly becoming the next fad when it comes to... More »
The holiday season is officially underway! As we all get ready to spread... More »
It’s that time of year again! With the holidays approaching, we’re all... More »