Community Broadband Bits

This week on the podcast, Christopher tunes in from Broadband Communities in Houston for an interview with Mark Ouellette, CEO of Axiom Technologies. Axiom is an Internet Service Provider based in Machias, Maine, the county seat for the large, rural county of Washington along the state’s eastern border. Christopher and Mark discuss Axiom’s publicly-owned and accountable network model, and its work across 12 projects, of which the ISP is on its third build. They also discuss the entrepreneurial spirit and community-mindedness of Maine’s small ISPs, which is apparent in Mark’s ultimate mission: to give people a connection that allows them to create their own economy.    ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Joey Wender, Director of the Capital Projects Fund (CPF), U.S Department of the Treasury. Joey administers the $10 billion fund targeted to help close the digital divide on behalf of the Biden Administration.Joey and Chris discuss the flexibility of CPF funding and how it allows states to tailor their plans to their own needs. The two also talk about the importance of replenishing funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and how it’s critical to take action on this now, before the fund actually runs out.  This show is 22 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed. Transcript below. We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is license

 This week on the show, Christopher is joined by Stacy Evans, Chief Broadband and Technology Officer at BrightRidge, the municipal network for Johnson City, Tennessee. They talk an accelerating build timeline, returning millions to local government, keeping electric prices low, and working with nearby communities to build a more resilient eastern Tennessee that serves as a hotbed for new investment and innovation.  ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Joan Engebretson, Managing Editor at Telecompetitor. They chat about writing for different kinds of audiences, separating hype from fact, and what the confusion that reigned over the mapping challenge process this past winter. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week on the podcast and on the most Valentines-iest of days, Christopher is joined by Katie Espeseth, Vice President of New Products EPB Fiber, at the municipal network in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After catching up on the release of the network’s 25 gigabit service and the latest progress of the HCS EdConnect initiative (which has connected almost 10,000 homes), Katie shares with Christopher how its SmartNet Plus program expands the managed Wi-Fi framework to take advantage of the many devices we all have in our homes that connect to the Internet. The show ends with Katie and Christopher reflecting on how – thanks not only to Chattanooga, but the other cities as well as telephone and electric cooperatives in the state – Tennessee is among the best-connected across the country, with some of the fastest speeds and most affordable rates available.This show is 29 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed. We want your feedback and suggestions for the

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by General Manager Brad Nosler and Senior Customer Support specialist Elizabeth Pereira, both from the city of Hillsboro, Oregon. The city’s municipal broadband network, HiLight, is new, having begun signing up subscribers in the spring of 2021. Notably, HiLight began building in the areas highest-need neighborhoods, where connectivity rates were disproportionately low. Equally importantly, HiLight has among the best income-qualified subscription tiers for families struggle to pay for access of any network in the nation, offering symmetrical gigabit service for just $10/month. Brad and Elizabeth talk with Christopher about the lessons they’ve learned and challenges the city has faced in its first couple of years of life. This show is 33 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed.  Transcript coming soon.  We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment be

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by ILSR Communications Team Lead Sean Gonsalves to talk about the most recent Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, in Gila River. Tribal attendees from across North America came together – some experienced, and others tackling structural broadband inequities in their regions for the first time – came together to meet each other, share lessons learned, and get hands-on experiences with the nuts and bolts about improving connectivity for families that have long been left behind by the private marketplace. With help from representatives from Gila River Telecommunications, attendees learned about deployment technologies, fiber splicing, security, operations, digital inclusion, and more. Christopher and Sean also chat during the show their recent participation at the the digital equity Los Angeles summit, and first urban broadband bootcamp from ILSR. This show is 27 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed. Tran

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Rudolf van der Berg, Partner at Stratix Consulting, a Dutch consulting firm that does work in telecommunications and has been deeply involved in the historic level of new infrastructure deployment projects in northern Europe. Rudolf breaks down what’s going on today in Europe’s broadband landscape, including efforts to reach the unserved, new entrants, and the actions of private equity. Rudolf challenges the notion that overregulation stifles innovation and competition, and dispels the rhetoric (pushed by monopoly ISPs in the United States) that the European networks struggled with the onset of the pandemic because of the regulatory landscape and comparative lack of investment as compared to their ISPs’ American counterparts. Christopher and Rudolf close out the show by digging into the struggle between tech companies and ISPs between which should pay for infrastructure upgrades. This show is 41 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes 

This week on the show, the staff get together to bend their collective imaginations to what we expect to see as the biggest news stories of 2023. Returning to join Christopher are Sean Gonsalves, Christine Parker, Emma Gautier, and Ry Marcattilio to discuss the BEAD funding rollout, mapping, the current state of preemption laws, Starry, the FCC, and more.  Who will be right? Wrong? We’ll have to wait until December to find out! This show is 46 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed. Transcript coming soon.  We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below. Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. Subscribe to the Building Local Power podcast, also from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, on iTunes or Stitcher to catch more great conversations about local communities, the concentration of corporate power, and how everyday people are taking control. Thanks to

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by returning guest Blair Levin. Levin has served as former chief of staff to FCC Chair Reed Hundt as well as executive director of the National Broadband Plan (2009-2010). Nowadays, he’s a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, and joins Christopher to unpack all that we might expect to see at play over the coming year. The show covers a lot of ground, from the renomination of Gigi Sohn to the FCC and the issues likely brought by a complete commission, to how much impact (and where) BEAD will have, to the real benefits and obvious weak spots in the Affordable Connectivity Program, to the upcoming battle between DISH, the cable monopolies, and the fixed wireless offerings from the mobile providers, and much more. This show is 53 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed. You can listen to the interview on this page or visit the Community Broadband Bits page. Transcript coming soon.  We want your

This week on the podcast, Christopher Mitchell join’s Drew Clark on Broadband.Money’s Ask Me Anything series, and in true fashion, he never ducks the hard questions. With audience questions, Drew and Christopher cover wide ground, including why the national broadband marketplace needs publicly owned infrastructure options, the benefits of open access models, how cities can prepare for BEAD and other federal funding, and other steps communities can take to make sure that when they do work with third-party ISPs that they maintain some measure of control (like performance-based contracts). This show is fifty three minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed.  Transcript coming soon.  We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below. Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. Subscribe to the Building Local Power podcast, also from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, on iTun