Broadband office is contemplating a statewide subsidy program should federal money for affordable internet dry up
municipal broadband
Posted inTechnology
Colorado awarded $826.5 million from Biden administration to get everyone in the state decent broadband
The money, part of the federal Infrastructure Act of 2021, was more than state officials expected. It’s enough to get 99% of households to “adequate” internet service.
Posted inTechnology
Colorado repealed law limiting municipal internet, making it easier for towns to build their own
More than 160 cities, towns and counties opted out of Senate Bill 152, and some built their own gigabit service that was 4,000 times faster. But there were other reasons for the repeal.
Posted inBusiness, Equity, News, Technology
How some low-income Colorado households are getting gigabit-internet service
Federal funding to pay for internet service took off in the pandemic with programs that provided up to $50 a month to Americans who couldn’t otherwise afford a broadband connection. But even before COVID, many local internet providers had taken it upon themselves to lower the cost of broadband. There’s a push to address digital […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, Education, News
Students disappeared from classes when they lost internet. A rural Colorado school district’s creativity got them back online.
Marsha Cody calls it a “Christmas miracle.” Two days before Christmas, she got a call from Ciello, one of the local internet providers in the San Luis Valley. As the interim superintendent of the Alamosa School District, Cody was stumped about what to do as several students seemed to disappear each week. They no longer […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, News, Technology
Spurred by the threat of wildfires, an Estes Park broadband project moved at the speed of light
As the Cameron Peak fire burned in the distance on the morning of Oct. 17, Josh Cramer sprung into action. He worried the fire might reach Estes Park and cause a literal meltdown that could wipe out the town’s internet, emergency lines and prevent reverse 9-1-1 calls. The town needed access to backup broadband. But […]
Posted inBusiness, Education, News, Politics and Government, Technology
Little-known internet network plans Western Colorado expansion to link students, nonprofits to supercomputers
The text-heavy website looks like it’s stuck in the 1990s. But peering past the Front Range GigaPop’s pages full of Times New Roman font and blue underlined links, you’ll understand what the fuss is about. The broadband network, long exclusive to universities and federal research labs, offers unthinkably fast speeds and access to the brightest […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology
Internet service in western Colorado was so terrible that towns and counties built their own telecom
Internet outages became a distant memory this month as a good chunk of western Colorado turned on a new broadband system. But this wasn’t built by a typical telecom. It took a band of local governments and partners from 14 rural communities to stitch together the 481-mile network, dubbed “Project Thor.” Communities from Aspen to […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology
Rural Colorado sees more broadband options coming online. But getting up to speed is taking longer than anticipated in some areas.
A rush of broadband service is moving into the outskirts of the state, where internet faster than 10 mbps seems scarcer than the number of people who live there. Ting Internet, already rolling out gigabit service to residents in the city of Centennial, acquired a Durango-based internet provider last month and just announced it will […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Here’s a roundup of the most important 2019 local election results in Colorado
Coloradans decided on two major statewide ballot measures on Tuesday, but they also made key choices in a number of local races that will shape the state for years to come. From the Aurora mayoral contest to a big Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights question in Jefferson County and the future of oil and gas drilling […]