Chattanooga, TN and its public utility, EPB, recently announced symmetrical 1 Gbit/s service to residential customers. This includes 170,000 customers, many spread out over a total of 600 square miles. That's a density of of only 283 customers per square mile, an expensive proposition. Syracuse has a density of 2,400 customers per square mile, much less expensive.

Sascha is the Director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative and Research Director of the Foundation's Wireless Future Program. Below are two short videos very much to the point on the reasons for creating community-owned networks, and why government should insist on greater openness and interoperability of communications products.

The FCC has been holding closed-door meetings with telecom lobbyists on Internet policy. Why public interest groups were not invited is unclear. To alert the public, FreePress.org, a pro-consumer advocacy group, placed a full-page ad in the Washington Post.

Well, actually, they have been doing it for many years. But with cell phones, the call record includes the cell tower you are using, so your whereabouts can be easily tracked by time and location (within a mile, roughly). If telcos can access your phone's GPS location, your location can be recorded precisely.