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Comment by natdempk | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have a good playbook around getting fiber started/prioritized in your city? My city has done some brief exploration, but seemingly is dragging its feet on fiber in general and I'd love to see that change, especially if we could capitalize on a municipal offering that would benefit the city + residents.

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Reach out to cities that have succeeded and contact them on the ins and outs.

Does 5G tech open up a possibility for a municipal network that isn't in need of burying fiber/cables? Or is there no spectrum to intercommunicate?

https://go.siklu.com/blog/the-32-flavors-of-5g-and-how-smart...

"Smart City" sounds like a corporate buzzword and tied to the moribund standards quagmire of IoT, but all we really need is connectivity. Is there a reserved spectrum for municipal 5G networks?

I have a Starlink and while it is expensive, if you are rural, it is like having cable internet (as in, not-gigabit) anywhere you need it.

There's already fixed point wireless, WISP services, that are fairly easy for any town to set up and install. The issue isn't so much getting the physical layer down (although that is always going to be a big stopping point) but keeping it running

A couple suggestions:

- Community Networks, part of ILSR, is a great resource. They also have a good podcast called Community Broadband Bits. (https://communitynets.org)

- If you or someone else you know is involved with the city in any way (an employee, elected official, city board member, etc), the Fiber Broadband Association has a Public Officials Committee Meeting every month where we discuss these things. Many of the members are from municipalities that have their own municipal broadband

Commenting because I am also curious in this.

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