NEW YORK CITY – Melbourne, Australia, won “Intelligent Community of the Year” this week at the at New York-based Intelligent Community Forum’s annual ICF Summit.

The ICF also for the first time called for affordable broadband to be declared a utility for public benefit by cities and official agencies. The prestigious annual award measures communities on six “Intelligent Community Indicators”: Broadband, Knowledge Workforce, Innovation, Digital Equality, Sustainability, Advocacy.

Melbourne impressed the ICF and its international jury by the city’s commitment to fill broadband gaps left by of monopoly or duopoly providers, for its population of 130,000 in the larger metro area of 4.5 million people. Nearly 47 per cent of Melbourne’s people have a university degree. Frustrated users outside the core area pushed to develop a 100 Mbps service called “Lightning Broadband” using optical fiber and wireless to provision underserved areas.

Read the full story at itworldcanada.com.