Wow, we are sooo far behind

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I went to the USA because I knew there were things happening in the States that the UK and EU needed to be aware of. What I had not realised was a) how little the information sharing is happening between States let alone US and the Rest of the World and b) how far ahead some networks are, especially rural community driven projects. And the winners? No stimulus funding. Overlooked by the equivalent of BDUK, the best projects have JFDI without federal or state interventio, or with full co-operation of the City Fathers and community but little ouside money. Take note.
This blog post can be read at 5tth.blogspot.com

Before I set off for the Broadband Communities Summit in Dallas back in April, I had already made contact with many broadband networks in the USA over the previous decade. Two years ago, I was lucky enough to visit UTOPIA, and for all the bad press you may have seen, you can only know what is actually occurring by going to see for yourself and meeting Todd and his team. I had been to Lafayette, and I had been lucky enough, back in 2004, to be a guest and speaker at Dave Isenberg's WTF prototype of Freedom to Connect F2C, which I was also lucky enough to attend a month ago in Washington DC. However, I could have had no idea when I left these shores just how many fibre networks I would be fortunate enough to visit in 7 weeks travelling around 16 States. I have been incredibly privileged in being welcomed into networks from north to south, large and small, new and established, shown into more central offices and head ends than I could ever have imagined, seen behind the scenes, shared business plans and brainstormed the future developments, as well as meeting many consumers, businesses and public sector bodies who benefit from the existence of the fibre networks that have been built on their doorsteps. Even when those doorsteps can be 600+ miles wide and 300 miles deep! I am just acclimatising to Brtish Summer Time, and accompanying weather, so please bear with me if blog posts are sporadic and disjointed for now, as I am dragged around to be quizzed about what I found. I feel I should share some of it more publicly so the JFDIUSA 2012 book will be out shortly and will cover many of the discoveries that I was fortunate enough to be permitted access to and can share. Many thanks to the sponsors who made JFDIUSA possible: Broadband Properties, Gigaclear, Calix, Jaguar Communications, Abacus Marketing, ECFiber, and my uber tolerant friends and family.