This guide is a self-assessment tool designed to help determine the readiness of your town, city, county or region to join the one-gigabit broadband world. It offers a clear snapshot of where different communities fall along a continuum of readiness-from the stage-one community with a minimum of the necessary technology and applications to the stage-four community, which has very advanced technology and ubiquitous applications. Wherever your community falls along the continuum, this guide will provide a framework to facilitate discussion, drive decisions and produce results.