Episodes

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 devic...

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 ...

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 lon...

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 proj...

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 commis...

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,

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Tamarah Holmes, Director at the Office of Broadband at Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Virginia is ahead of the game compared to a lot of the states in terms of its planning and proactive work with providers to achieve universal access in historically unserved and underserved areas. Tamarah talks with Christopher about how the state has done this, from working directly with providers on regional approaches, to layering ...

This week on the podcast, ILSR Senior Reporter and Editor Sean Gonsalves joins the show for another installment of Crazy Talk. Today’s topic is fiber, with the two breaking down a recent op-ed in The Hill by Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten. Christopher and Sean inject a much-needed reality check, as well as some nuance, to Wallsten’s performative anxiety … Continue reading "Crazy Talk on Fiber Deployments – Episode 529 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Dustin Loup, Project Manager of the National Broadband Mapping Coalition, housed at the Marconi Society. Dustin joins us to talk about the new national Federal Communications Commission broadband maps, currently under construction and intended to replace the current and hopelessly broken one to prepare for tens of billion … Continue reading "Maps, Maps Everywhere – Episode 528 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Harold Feld, Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge. Feld is a staple of the field, and has been a consistent voice not only for consumers but broadband advocates of all types for more than two decades. The show takes on a reflective nature, as they talk about theories … Continue reading "Hope and Change – Episode 527 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

In this episode of the podcast, Christopher is joined by William Sullivan, a resident of the city of Baltimore who works as part of the Digital Equity Leadership Lab. He shares his work in the city in recent years in getting students engaged in building digital skills and computer literacy. By pairing gaming with learning programs, Sullivan … Continue reading "Teaching Through Gaming in Baltimore – Episode 526 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Aaron Meyerson, former Deputy CTO for the city of New York. Christopher and Aaron dig into New York City’s Internet Master Plan, which launched in the spring of 2021 and gained steam before being put on hold by the Adam’s administration in January of 2022. Aaron shares … Continue reading "Learning from New York City’s Master Internet Plan – Episode 525 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Ben Matranga, co-founder and managing partner of Connectivity Capital, and Jane Coffin, chief community officer at Connect Humanity. The conversation this week takes on a bit of international flavor as the three of them discuss a recent report “Financing Mechanisms for Locally Owned Internet Infrastructure,” authored collaboratively by … Continue reading "Financing Mechanisms and Governance Models – Episode 524 of the Community Broadband Bits Po...

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Jessica Engle, Director of Community Outreach at Althea to talk about the Affordable Connectivity Program, the $14-billion fund that provides a $30 monthly service benefit ($75 on Tribal lands) to help defray the cost of Internet access to qualifying families around the country. It’s a large and complicated program, and Jessica … Continue reading "Bottlenecks in the Affordable Connectivity Program – Episode 522 of the Community Broadband Bits Po...

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Matthew Douglas, Broadband Manager at the Hoopa Valley Public Utility District. At the start of the pandemic, HVPUD launched a wireless network initiative using $2 million in CARES Act funds to benefit Tribal members who had poor or no connectivity options. Matthew shared the lessons they learned during the … Continue reading "A Tribal Wireless Network in Northern California – Episode 521 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Pamela Rosales (Training and Community Engagement Manager, National Digital Inclusion Alliance) and Davida Delmar (Digital Inclusion Manager, Amerind). Pamela and Davida talk about their digital inclusion work and how it differs across Tribal communities as compared to rural and urban areas. They also catch Christopher up on what’s … Continue reading "A Foundation for the Future of Digital Equity Work – Episode 520 of the Community Broadband Bit...

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by ILSR colleagues Sean Gonsalves (Senior Editor and Communications Team Lead) and DeAnne Cuellar (Outreach Team Lead) for a roundup of recent news. They talk about the release of our new tracking and advocacy tool, the Affordable Connectivity Program dashboard, the pace and speed of the municipal broadband … Continue reading "Cities Doing Work – Episode 519 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by two people from Pharr, Texas (pop. 80,000), which has embarked on a citywide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network build that is seeing strong local support and fast progress in recent months. Jose Pena is the IT Director for the city, and and Guillermo Aguilar works as a Partner at … Continue reading "Building at the Speed of Light in Pharr, Texas – Episode 518 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Joseph Franell, President of Blue Mountain Networks (which serves more than 30 rural communities west of Portland) in Oregon. Joe joined the team at Ashland Fiber Network (AFN) before moving on to do work in rural parts of the state. During the conversation, Christopher and Joe talk about … Continue reading "The Straight Talk About Rural Fiber Deployments – Episode 517 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

A quick update from Christopher on upcoming episodes of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. 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 … Continue reading "Short Update – Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Greg Conte, Director of the Texas Broadband Development Office, and ILSR Outreach Team Lead DeAnne Cuellar. The state of Texas finds itself in a common position these days: last year it created a small office that, today, is suddenly faced with dispersing more than a billion dollars … Continue reading "The Birth of the Texas State Broadband Development Office – Episode 515 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Sean Gonsalves, Senior Reporter and Editor at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. During the converstion, they talk about the value and concrete results of going small and stacking up targeted wins as a path for cities facing less of an appetite for big, bold projects, before digging … Continue reading "Campaigns to Keep Monopolies We Don’t Love – Episode 514 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Seth Wainer, the former CIO of the city of Newark, New Jersey. During the conversation, Seth shares his time with the city from 2013-2018. He talks about the progress the city made in improving local connectivity across different arenas, from cataloging existing assets, to pursuing both … Continue reading "Frameworks for the Future in Newark – Episode 511 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast"

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by senior staff on the broadband initiative to dig into recent topics, including Senior Reporter, Editor and Communications Team Lead Sean Gonsalves, Community Broadband Outreach Team Lead DeAnne Cuellar, and Senior Researcher and Research Team Lead Ry Marcattilio-McCracken. The group talks about the value of overlapping networks and … Continue reading "Underbuilding, States BEAD Posturing, and Hot Topics in Community Networks – Episode 509 of the ...