From: Aron Goldman Subject: [announce] Shutes-Lev Broadband Update Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 11:20:03 -0400 Hello friends. First off, tonight's meeting has been canceled. Everyone's too busy. We will meet next on July 5th, at Shutesbury Town Hall, 7pm. 1. ANOTHER VERIZON PLEA! This month's big news is that a letter baring the signatures of every member of the the Shutesbury and Leverett Select Boards went to Verizon last month imploring them to acknowledge and address the unbelievable black hole of services in Shutesbury and Leverett. Most people--including residents of Amherst, Pelham, Montague, and others--take for granted the kinds of services like DSL that we still don't have. The letter reiterates the overwhelming market demand (in order to anticipate the truly false logic that we just don't have the density to make the math work). The Select Board members also asks Verizon to not block our efforts (as it is doing in many towns across the country)--and even support us--as we endeavor to fill in these services gaps ourselves if Verizon will not step up. The complete letter, with original signatures, can be downloaded at www.slbc.us . Meanwhile new signs have popped up around town (see pics at www.slbc.us). 2. WILDBLUE: A NEW SOLUTION? A new satellite-based broadband service called WildBlue (www.wildblue.com) has just hit the market, and we think it MAY be a good option for some of us. To date, this Committee has been pretty negative about satellite Internet (expensive and flakey). But Wildblue is a little cheaper (about $500 installation, $50/month for 512K downloads, $80/month for 1.5 Mps) and may be more reliable (uses KA band). We'll see how the the user reviews sound as the emerge. 3. NEW URL: WWW.SLBC.US . More nuts-and-boltsy, I am happy to announce that we have simplified our web address to www.slbc.us . We would also like to thank Gaiahost Collective (www.gaiahost.net), based at Shutesbury's Sirius Community, for donating web hosting services that are consistent with our values: local, financially self-supporting, and environmentally sustainable. 4. THE WRONG KIND OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Many of us will be meeting at the Bison Farm on Rt. 9 on Friday at 11:45 to protest the snowballing Lowe's-Home-Depot-Wal-Mart-Supercenter movement in the Valley. A State agency is coming to evaluate local impact at one of the proposed sites. This form of exploitative, low wage, non-local, environmentally destructive, traffic-inducing, eye sore economic development is antithetical to SLBC's economic development and quality of life vision, as articulated in Our Values on the "About Us" section of the SLBC web site. (Comment letters must also be received by MEPA by June 14.) 5. SUGGESTED READING National Anti-Municipal Broadband Bill Proposed http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/64120 Rural Vermont Gets Wireless Broadband http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050522/NEWS/ 505220399/1002 Private Broadband Cooperative Formed in Nashville http://news.com.com/2061-1034_3-5700326.html? part=rss&tag=5700326&subj=news Rural Multi-City, University-Hopping Wireless Network in Louisiana http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/May/1146610.htm