Thanks to Christopher Mitchell (of ILSR) for passing on article on the latest on FiberNet from the Timberjay Newspaper (Range fibernet project at a crossroads).

The project is at a crossroads. According to Hoyt Lakes Mayor Marlene Pospeck, the Iron Range Network Joint Powers Board is still committed to a high speed network. But the method is in question.

For a long while, FiberNet was working with Dynamic Cities. Last Fall, Hiawatha Broadband got involved with a much lower bid than Dynamic Cities. (I don’t know that the price was the reason for the change.) Initially, Hiawatha was going to build and run the network – but earlier this year, they decided to leave the operation of the network to the cities.

Some people had an issue with the government operating the networks. It wasn’t something they wanted to do.

Well now they have called in Tim Nulty (who was instrumental in the network in Burlington Vermont and East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network) to offer a proposal to help the project. Tim’s plan would not require public funds, he has a program where cities would pay an annual lease fee that would be equivalent to a mortgage payment, and then the cities would cover the cost of the fee through the revenue the network would collect from the sale of services

Apparently there is a meeting on Thursday where decisions will (hopefully) be made about how to move forward.