NATOA Announces Recipients of 2011 Community Broadband Awards for Outstanding Broadband Endeavors
September 8, 2011 9:47 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Alexandria, VA – September 8, 2011 – The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Board of Directors today announced the recipients of NATOA’s 2011 Community Broadband Awards. These honors are awarded to exceptional leaders and innovative programs that champion community interests and broadband deployment in local communities nationwide. Recipients will receive their awards at NATOA’s 31st Annual Conference, to be held in San Francisco, CA from September 20 – 23 at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District Hotel.
“NATOA’s Community Broadband Awards proudly honor the people, communities, and organizations that lead the nation in improving government and public options in broadband technology,” said Ken Fellman, president of the NATOA Board of Directors. “The award recipients were chosen based on their extraordinary efforts, achievements, and innovation in community-based approaches to broadband. We applaud their efforts to ensure that more American communities and citizens benefit from new technology.”
The 2011 Community Broadband Award recipients are:
Community Broadband Hero of the Year
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Catharine Rice for their heroic efforts to stand up for the rights of North Carolina localities to determine their broadband and economic futures.
Community Broadband Visionary of the Year
Councilmember Bruce Harrell of Seattle for devising the Great Student Initiative, a partnership between the City and the private sector to provide low-cost, high-speed Internet access, hardware and software for low-income students in the Seattle Public School district.
Community Broadband Fiber Network of the Year
The One Maryland-Inter-County Broadband Network (ICBN), a fiber middle mile network owned by 10 local governments in the state of Maryland that came together as a regional consortium to build public fiber that would be locally owned but regionally interconnected to maximize the benefits of the fiber capacity both for public sector use such as public safety and for private sector use to reach underserved areas that were previously too costly to access with last mile services.
Community Broadband Wireless Network of the Year
The City of Asheville, NC for deploying a wireless wide area network to replace the I-Net that was once provided at affordable cost but had become unacceptably costly as the result of state legislation benefitting the incumbent provider. The City chose to build its own infrastructure to meet its public safety and public service needs and accomplished this goal in record time with no loss of service to users.
Community Broadband Organization of the Year
The Greater Austin Area Telecommunications Network (GAATN), a 15-year partnership among the City of Austin, TX, Austin Independent School District, Travis County, Austin Community College, the University of Texas, State of Texas and Lower Colorado River Authority, in which 350 route miles of fiber connect 496 sites in the Austin area. This network serves as the foundation for public communications in the area and is renowned for being among the first networks to deliver 10gig connectivity to key community anchor sites, including health care, public safety, telemedicine, education, library services, and government efficiency. GAATN is the largest partnership of its kind in Texas.
Community Broadband Project of the Year
The combined efforts of Google, Kansas City MO, and Kansas City KS to demonstrate how collaborative efforts between public and private sector can enable construction of fiber to American homes and businesses.
Honorable Mentions for 2011 Community Broadband Awards:
- Chemung County and the City of Elmira, NY
- Chris Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- Clackamas County, Oregon
- Mary Beth Henry of the City of Portland, OR
- Northeast Minnesota Middle Mile Fiber Project
NATOA is a national trade association representing
local government jurisdictions and consortiums, including elected and
appointed officials and staff, who oversee communications policies and
services in local governments throughout the country.
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