The city of Ashland, Oregon decided they need better/cheaper cable TV and Internet access so they wired the entire city with a fiber connection to every one of their 9000 households and called it the AshlandFiberNetwork or AFN. Unfortunately the project is now stalled, and no one knows when it will be finished. The Ashland City Council and the Mayor are not even aware that the project is unfinished. AshlandUnwired gets to take advantage of the very cheap broadband connections for their WirelessCommunity.

This really isn't quite accurate. There is a ring of fiber around the city, however it's just cable to the home, not fiber. What about the network is unfinished (besides crappy tech support, and lack of clue of the techs, and the unprofessional managment of the network)? Lastly, AshlandUnwired is not a WirelessCommunity per say, they unwired some coffee shops, and it's very cool, I go there occasionaly, but the motivation is different. AshlandUnwired is also dead in the water, along with AwIp, because of lack of community interest, and lack of business interest (website down currently, reffer to lack of clue and unprofessional management of the network). I have hardware to donate to unwire further locations, I just need more locations to unwire besides lithia park and some residential spots. Feel free to contact me if you live in the area and we can talk about this. --ForrestEnglish

• http://www.ashlandfiber.net/

The Ashland Fiber Network has yet to finish its underground service, which includes a substantial number of potential customers. The city has decided to use its own resources rather than engage independant contractors. This allows them to connect a new customer every few days. At the current rate of installation the system should be finished sometime in mid 2008. The Ashland Fiber Network sees no reason to hasten this process. Meanwhile its potential customers are signing up with Charter Communications. Larry Laitner

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