BEAD delays, LEO satellites, permitting, affordability, and why mobile networks may be getting worse

A conversation about how we organize networks—and who they serve

Jason Mittler returns to share progress on fiber expansion in Fort Pierce, digital equity efforts in Lincoln Park, and how municipal ownership allows the city to lower rates while strengthening its utilities

Newark, New Jersey has been operated a dark fiber network for more than a decade. In recent years, the city has expanded its efforts to leverage those assets in an incremental effort to improve connectivity and competition for local business and residents, while also building out a robust Wi-Fi network. The goal: build a portfolio of approaches to connect the last twenty percent of the city that doesn't have access today.  

In this latest podcast episode, Christopher and Sean discuss the remarkable growth of municipal broadband networks in the U.S., noting the establishment of 47 new networks since 2021, bringing the total to over 400. The conversation explores diverse network models, challenges faced by municipalities, including opposition from major ISPs, and underscores the importance of community support. They also highlight the crucial role of data from schools and organizations in understanding broadband access and promoting digital equity.

The fading sound of holiday bells and soft stillness that comes with plunging temps can only mean one thing; it's January again, which means it's time to break out the crystal ball and have a conversation about the year to come. Joining Christopher in the recording booth are a slew of CBN staffers new and veteran to join in the collective task of putting words to feelings both foreboding and optimistic about the year to come. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Chris Mitchell, Doug Dawson, and Sean Gonsalves break down the latest telecom mergers, Starlink’s push to reshape BEAD rules, and new research showing how lack of competition drives higher prices for consumers

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 most Minnesotans to high-quality broadband.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Chris Mitchell, Doug Adams, and Karl Bode break down Starlink’s behind-the-scenes push to rewrite BEAD rules, what it means for accountability and public dollars, and why communities could once again be left holding the bag

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 and will continue to play in the Tribal Telecommunications space. 

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 management, as well as the scrappiness and ongoing investment needed to ensure a municipal network is sustainable and can bring residents quality connectivity at the best value. 

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.  

We're more than 15 years and a hundred billion dollars into the alphabet soup of federal broadband infrastructure subsidy programs, and millions upon millions of households are stuck on deteriorating connections and capacity-constrained technologies. This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Jonathan Chambers, partner at Conexon, to talk about how the BEAD program is our last chance.  

May 2022 witnessed something remarkable: the birth of a new nonprofit advocacy organization whose sole purpose was to speak up for the hundreds of communities that have built municipal broadband networks, and the thousands more that want to but don't know where to start. Now, the American Association for Public Broadband has named as its Executive Director as Gigi Sohn, former Biden nominee to the Federal Communications Commission. And she's ready to get to work. 

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Christine Parker (Senior GIS Analyst at ILSR), and Meghan Grabill (Geospatial Analyst at the Maine Connectivity Authority) to run through the recently announced NTIA location challenge process for the upcoming BEAD program and talk about how state processes can adjust eligible technologies and location types, shift of the burden of proof to the IPSs, allow of more flexible speed test data, and include the ability to add community anchor institutions to grant-eligible maps. 

 This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Sean Gonsalves to chat about the astroturf anti-municipal misinformation campaign being run by the Utah Taxpayer's Association, how a city negotiated a capital fee it's using to build its own network and get out from under Comcast's thumb, and the growing momentum behind Maine's Broadband Utility Districts (BUD) and their quest to improve competition and Internet access for residents. 

 This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Justin Holzgrove and Mike Rientjes from Mason County Public Utility District 3 in Washington State. The PUD provides electric service to more than 35,000 households across an area the size of Rhode Island, and began connecting its grid infrastructure to fiber in the late 1990s. Since 2003, it has operated an open access ftth network for households; an endeavor that has sped up since 2015, when residents began clamoring for more. To meet demand and plan for the future, PUD 3 uses a fiberhood approach and construction adders. 

Electric cooperatives overwhelmingly serve regions that face population density challenges and income disparities as compared to their urban counterparts, as well as all of the other challenges that go with it: declining populations, hospital closures, increasingly frequent extreme weather events, and more. This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Brian O'Hara, Senior Director of Regulatory Issues for Telecom and Broadband at NRECA, to talk about how more than a quarter of the country's electric cooperatives have answered the call of their members and expanded into Internet service. 

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Will O'Donnell, Broadband and Communications Director at Jefferson County Public Utility District in Washington State, to talk about the Herculean task facing the PUD: how to deploy an open access fiber network to the utility's 21,000 meters in some of the least-dense parts of the state.  

Brendan Kelly of REVinternet joins Chris Mitchell and Sean Gonsalves to explain why these neighborhoods are stuck with outdated networks—and how a community-centered approach can finally deliver affordable, reliable Internet where big ISPs have failed

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by three members from the Kitsap Public Utility District's open access FTTH team in Washington state to talk about the formation of Local Utility Districts, managing an open access network seeing increased demand, and the value of increased choice and competition for residents and businesses. 

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Angela Siefer (Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance) and Matt Larsen (CEO, Vistabeam) to talk about connecting the unconnected and doing digital equity work as a small Internet Service Provider (ISP). In a marketplace that heavily favors the largest cable and telephone providers, they share the ways that they participate in grant programs and how they actively build peer networks to exchange knowledge and make sure the Internet works for as many of us as it can. 

 It's strange to see the FCC continually patting itself on the back for releasing a new national broadband map. Spend just a little bit of time with it, and the cracks and holes quickly show themselves. This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Christine Parker, Senior GIS Analyst at ILSR, and Alexis Schrubbe, Director of the Internet Equity Initiative at University of Chicago. They do a deep dive into the many, many problems that persist - and what we can do to fix them. 

This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Keith Quarles, President and CFO of A2D, a fiber-based, open access competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). A2D stands for ‘Analog to Digital,’ and as Keith explains, represents the infrastructure transition from analog to digital communications. 

Chris and Keith discuss A2D’s business model, which focuses on filling in the gaps – serving communities where connectivity is unaffordable or the incumbent has chosen not to upgrade its infrastructure. Keith explains how many gaps still exist, even after the influx of federal funding for broadband. A2D takes a creative approach to building out fiber backbones in these pockets, which involves connecting existing ecosystems like municipalities, school systems, and electric membership corporations (Georgia’s equivalent of electric cooperatives). Keith’s background in real-estate development and training in civil engineering, along with the backgrounds of his three business partners who are also engineers by trade, informs A2D’s strategy and willingness to "just figure things out." 

This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Joshua Edmonds, CEO of DigitalC, a nonprofit technology social enterprise in Cleveland. DigitalC offers affordable wireless service for $18/month, as well as a co-working and collaboration space for the community. 

Joshua served as Detroit’s Digital Inclusion Director for four years before heading DigitalC, and he and Christopher discuss Joshua's coalition-building work in Detroit. They compare his experience working under the city of Detroit to his nonprofit digital equity work in Cleveland. Detroit and Cleveland also have two of the highest Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enrollment rates among prominent metro areas – Joshua offers his approach to ACP, outlining the organized and relentless campaign it took to achieve substantial enrollment in the subsidy program during his time in Detroit. He highlights how important it is to focus on long-term, structural solutions for closing the digital divide at the same time as we find ways to make Internet more affordable in the short term.  

Joshua also speaks about DigitalC’s focus on being locally-rooted, mission-driven and sustainable, and offers his thoughts on the viability of wireless.  

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.   

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 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Outreach Team Lead DeAnne Cuellar and John Speirs, Harris County, Texas' (pop. 4.7 million) Broadband Manager. Its county seat, Houston, is home to one of the largest ports in the world, and citizens and elected officials are working on projects to boost the region's economic development, climate resiliency, and connectivity to set a solid foundation for the next generation of citizens. 

Christopher, DeAnne, and John talk about what's needed to close the connectivity gap for the 180k households that don't have access to basic broadband speeds, and what will happen if the state doesn't make its legislative landscape friendly enough to get the most bang for the BEAD dollars that will begin to arrive this summer.

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Jamie Davis, CTO of KUB Fiber, the broadband division of the Knoxville Utilities Board in Tennessee. The division is poised to be halfway done with a build across its footprint by June 2024, hitting 90,000 premises, with plans to steam ahead and complete its electric service territory as quick as possible thereafter. Jamie shares with Chris how the city changed its mind after almost a decade of declining to enter the broadband market. They talk about the rising tide of competition in Knoxville moving forward, and the expected benefits for subscribers as well as the other city utilities. Christopher and Jamie end the show by talking a little about a new pilot program aimed at getting KUB service into the homes of student, the Affordable Connectivity Program, and regional cooperation to extend service to as many households as possible.

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Kevin Shendo, Education Director at the Pueblo of Jemez Department of Education, and Angela Diakah, Network Operations Supervisor at Jemez Pueblo Tribal Network (JPTN). JPTN is a wireless network serving more than 500 households in the Jemez Pueblo north of Albuquerque. Kevin and Angela share the origins of the network, spurred in part by prior serve from Windstream that was costing households on average $100/month for 4/1Mbps service. 

Angela shares the story of her first install and then Kevin walks Christopher through how the Tribe currently subsidizes the entire cost of the network with the help of federal dollars, and the plan for shifting to a traditional subscription service model subsidized at the household level by the Affordable Connectivity Program. Finally, Angela shares some of the network's digital equity and inclusion work to make sure that every household that wants can make the fullest use of its connection.

Chris Mitchell is joined by CBN colleagues to share bold predictions on BEAD delays, municipal broadband momentum, and the growing influence of fixed wireless, satellites, and AI

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Claudia Tarbell, Senior Engagement Manager for Tribal, Indigenous and First Nation Communities and Michael Weening, President and CEO, both from Calix. Claudia shares what it was like to transition from working at Mohawk Networks to becoming a part of Calix' community engagement team, and how she talks with Tribes about what it means to have ownership of and control over the network infrastructure in their communities. Michael joins the conversation to talk about Calix' philosophy of defining success in relation to the small providers and communities its platforms supports, including everything from democratizing high-quality advertising to pushing the frontiers of managed Wi-Fi.

 This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Alyssa Clemsen Roberts, President and CEO of New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC). Two and a half years ago, there were no plans to add broadband to its portfolio. Two membership votes and a new CEO later, and NHEC is building 25 miles of new fiber a week across its footprint, and planning to finish a $50-million grant-funded project in the next three years. Alyssa talks with Christopher about what the transformation's been like, their successes and challenges, and how electric cooperatives all over the country are participating in this watershed moment. They discuss supply chain issues around poles and transformers, BEAD funding, changing the quality of life and economic opportunity for those living in rural New Hampshire. 

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Kristan Johnson, Telephone Operations Manager of the Tohono O'odham Utility Authority (TOUA), which provides telephone, electric, water, gas, and Internet service to a large portion of those living throughout the Tohono O'odham Nation in south-central Arizona. Currently, the utility authority serves 4,000 telephone and broadband subscribers. Kristan joins the show to talk about what's like serving as a telephone and Internet service provider for more than two decades at this point, in an extremely rural area. TOUA's plan is to extend new fiber infrastructure to the entirety of the reservation by the end of 2024. To get it done, Kristan says, the utility will use USDA ReConnect Round 3 and other grant funds, as well as internal investment.