Like nearly all offices, Gravitate Coworking was quiet throughout 2020 as many worked from home. While its two locations never closed last year and precautions were in place, visitors to the space remained slim. But since the vaccine for COVID-19 became available, numbers have steadily returned to normal levels, and founder Geoff Wood said this […]
Hongwei Zhang and other researchers installed hardware at the Iowa State University’s Research Park for CyNet, an advanced wireless networking system that’s a predecessor to the new ARA rural broadband project. Photo provided A $16 million rural broadband research project will cover nearly 40 miles of rural communities and farmland, researchers told state and industry […]
The Technology Association of Iowa is launching the first Iowa Technology Roadshow, which will travel to ten rural communities from April to October in 2020. The organization is partnering with with regional economic development and chamber organizations to tailor appearances to each community; TAI will visit Burlington, Ottumwa, Grinnell, Indianola, Council Bluffs, Decorah, Waverly, Fort […]
Microsoft Corp. and Nextlink Internet are partnering to expand the Microsoft Airband Initiative, the Microsoft program dedicated to closing the broadband internet accessibility gap by investing in rural internet access infrastructure. Microsoft’s partnership with Nextlink will expand Nextlink’s existing deployments in Texas and Oklahoma, and begin new deployments in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska. “It’s […]
Iowans launch network to connect providers, communities seeking better service Recall the last year your home had dial-up internet service, the once great, shining beacon of communication in America. As you nudged your modem awake, a sound that an Economist writer once described in 2007 as “the distorted screams of two modems introducing themselves” disturbed […]
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s, gives the opening keynote at the 2019 EntreFEST conference/festival in Cedar Rapids. Photo contributed/Andrew Ravera, NewBoCo The perception of competition is a funny thing. It can bring out the great innovations in companies, the leaps in service or quality or product — or, as Jerry […]
Iowa applicants applying for the USDA “ReConnect” Grant Program will have an advantage applying for the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced this week. The program, announced in December 2018, makes about $600 million in grants and loans available for broadband providers in rural areas that do not have sufficient access to […]
Whoops. Federal Communications Commission chief Ajit Pai admitted that broadband growth numbers announced by the FCC in February were actually inflated by millions, reports Ars Technica. The errors were first published by advocacy group Free Press, which found a new ISP called BarrierFree falsely reported to the FCC that it went from serving zero customers to 20% […]
CenturyLink has announced the completion of new broadband to about 21,000 rural Iowa homes and businesses, reports the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The company announced last week the expanded broadband services, which reach more than 30 Iowa communities, including Muscatine, Winterset, Independence and Indianola. The expanded broadband was funded through the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America […]
Gubernatorial staff members gathered in Des Moines this week seeking best practices from across the U.S. to build good jobs in their own states, during the National Governors Association’s third Good Jobs for All Americans workshop in the Renaissance Savery Hotel. The two-day workshop was led by Govs. Kim Reynolds, Larry Hogan of Maryland and […]