Community Broadband Bits

This week on the podcast, Christopher explores the broadband and telecommunications landscape with Blair Levin, anticipating its significance in 2024. They delve into crucial FCC issues, including the ACP and the future of Title II, while also addressing industry mergers, the evolution of fixed wireless and fiber networks, and ongoing challenges in achieving universal service and closing the digital divide. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the first podcast of the year, Christopher chats with Scott Menhart, CTO of Traverse City Light and Power, delving into the history of TCLP and the advantages of constructing a municipal fiber network for Traverse City, Michigan. Despite challenges from major corporations, they underscore the significance of persistence and meticulous planning in developing successful broadband networks for local communities. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the final podcast of the year, the team reflects on the 2023 broadband landscape, covering topics such as the BEAD rollout, municipal fiber projects, the FCC's new commissioner, and noteworthy broadband "scandals." Tune in for insights and a look back at the accuracy of last year's predictions. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this special Connect This! edition of the podcast, co-hosts Christopher Mitchell and Travis Carter, along with guests Doug Dawson, Kim McKinley, and special guest Mike Dano (Light Reading), revisit the future of mobile wireless and LTE networks, exploring their evolution and addressing key topics such as rural mobile wireless, market dynamics, and the 5G hype. ★ Support this podcast ★

In this special podcast edition, local leaders from East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, share their triumph over expensive and inadequate broadband service despite resistance from a regional monopoly provider. The discussion explores grassroots efforts to overcome obstacles and misleading data, providing insight into successfully enhancing internet access for their community. The episode concludes by revisiting a 2014 Community Broadband Bits podcast, where Christopher and Lisa perform skits highlighting the challenges of customer service with big cable companies. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher talks with Deb Socia and Geoff Millener from the Enterprise Center in Chattanooga. They discuss the HCS ED Connect program, which provides free home Internet to low-income students, its positive impact on education, and tech initiatives like the Orchard Knob project and Tech Goes Home benefiting underserved communities. Emphasizing the role of partnerships, they stress the need for universal broadband access as a driving force for positive community change ★ Support this podcast ★

This week, Christopher talks with Valerie Fast Horse, IT director and creator of Red Spectrum, a broadband company serving the Coeur d'Alene Reservation in North Idaho. They delve into Red Spectrum's history, infrastructure upgrades, and challenges in expanding services, highlighting the importance of community involvement, local talent, and overcoming funding obstacles in the pursuit of success. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Angela Siefer and Greg Guice to explore the crucial topic of Universal Service Fund (USF) reform in bridging the digital divide. The podcast delves into the challenges of the overcommitted USF, emphasizing the need for modernization and expansion, and the permanence of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in achieving national equity and inclusion goals. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Sean Gonsalves to talk about a bold new wireless deployment in Syracuse and unpack whether recent federal action will make a difference with looming deadlines on the horizon for both the Affordable Connectivity Program and BEAD. ★ Support this podcast ★

After three years and half a million dollars in capital costs, the nonprofit-run ONE|NB Connects network in Providence, Rhode Island has improved its wireless service to 100Mbps symmetrical speeds, and enabled thousands of unique users per month access reliable connections for as long as they need. CEO Jennifer Hawkins and Christopher talk about the challenges and rewards of transforming a gap network into durable change, from streamlining operational costs, to finding sustainable partnerships, to baking wired infrastructure into new affordable housing construction projects.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Mapping is hard. You know it, and so do we. Despite that reality, it looks like the FCC has spent the entirety of this decade avoiding the hard decisions necessary to make sure precious federal dollars are wisely used and the data that drives our policy is easily accessible and faithful to reality. This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Tom Reid to talk about what his firm has been doing to help local governments get around this persistent problem.  ★ Support this podcast ★

A little more than three years ago, the city of West Des Moines, Iowa announced that it would build a citywide open access conduit system to lower the cost of new broadband deployment to facilitate better connections at lower costs for residents. With four providers licensing space and a portfolio of smart-city and governmental uses planned, the city's forward-thinking investment looks to be paying dividends already.  ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Brent Christensen, President and CEO of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA). The MTA is a trade association that currently represents 41 holding company members operating over 70 companies across the state, including cooperatively-owned, family-owned, and publicly-traded Internet Service Providers. Most are rural broadband providers.Chris and Brent dive into a discussion about the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Model (Enhanced A-CAM), which is focused more on smaller providers than the Connect America Fund (CAF), and how so many smaller providers are surpassing the 25/3 Mbps speed requirement associated with that program by building fiber-to-the-home networks that will serve their subscribers long into the future. The two discuss the challenges and complications of the various federal broadband moneys coming into Minnesota, how they interact with one another, and how these collective funding opportunities might be efficiently leveraged to connect the mo

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Karl Bode, a returning guest who has long covered tech and the telecommunications industry. They talk about the history of net neutrality, the landmark decision by the Commission in 2015, the states that stepped in to fill the void, and the likely consequences of a return in 2023.  ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast we bring back a fan favorite that feels particularly relevant. Christopher is joined by Harold Feld, Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge. The show takes on a reflective nature, as they talk about theories of change in the context of doing broadband policy today.  ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, we bring over a conversation from our Connect This! Show, where Christopher is joined by a ground of policy experts to talk about why we don't see more cities doing deals with entities like Google Fiber, what we can expect now that Anna Gomez has been confirmed to the FCC, and what it means for BEAD grantees if the Affordable Connectivity Program goes away.  ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the show, Christopher is joined once again by Sean Gonsalves. After a short stop to talk about the establishment of a new municipal network in Timnath, Colorado, Christopher and Sean get down to talking about the BEAD 5-Year Plans that states are filing with NTIA to get their hands on the first tranche of what will be an historic pot of federal funds for new broadband investment. Some states, like Maine and Vermont, Sean shares, are doing lots right. Others, like Pennsylvania, seem written with the intent to waste public money and leaves tens of thousands of households stranded with poor or no service - in other words, exactly what the monopoly cable and telephone companies want.  ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Mona Thompson, General Manager at the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone Authority (CRSTTA). CRSTTA serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in North Central South Dakota, which includes 20 communities dispersed across nearly 3 million acres.Chris and Mona discuss the history of CRSTTA and the Telephone Authority’s efforts over time to upgrade its infrastructure and continue to offer residents high-quality connections – transitioning from dial-up, to DSL, to fiber. A majority of homes within CRSTTA’s service area now have access to fiber, with the exception of a new housing development the Telephone Authority is currently building fiber out to. Mona also discusses CRSTTA’s digital literacy and affordability efforts which help community members fully take advantage of its service. After 27 years with CRSTTA, Mona soon plans to retire, and during this episode sheds light on the important leadership roles she and other passionate women like her have played a

This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Brieana Reed-Harmel, Municipal Fiber Manager for the City of Loveland, located in Colorado’s Northern Front Range about an hour north of Denver. The city is home to over 80,000 residents as well as a municipal fiber broadband network called Pulse. Chris and Brieana discuss Loveland’s population expansion over the past few years and Pulse’s resulting plans to extend beyond city limits into the “urban fringe,” which is more difficult to receive grant funding to serve. Brieana shares the ways in which the municipal network has leveraged its relationships, having partnered with its local school district to connect unserved areas during the pandemic, and currently in conversation with the county, which will help Loveland with the matching funds it needs for upcoming grant expansions. Brieana speaks to the challenges of building out the network through inflation and the pandemic. She stresses the importance of having a solid business model and great project manageme

This week on the show we're featuring an episode of our Building for Digital Equity podcast, with Brandon Forester - the National Organizer for Internet Rights at Media Justice - joining Christopher to talk about helping communities build more agency over how technology shows up in their neighborhoods and among the digital communities they create for themselves.   ★ Support this podcast ★