Unbuffered

The modern fight over network neutrality isn't a few years old. It is well over 1,000 years old across a variety of infrastructures and is totally wrapped up in a legal concept known as common carriage that has governed many kinds of “carriers” over the years. Few, if any, are as conversant in this subject … Continue reading "Uncommon Knowledge of Common Carriage – Community Broadband Bits Podcast...

Holland is expanding its pilot area for municipal Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) services in Michigan's Dutch outpost. To explain the past, present, and expected future of muni fiber in Holland, Broadband Services Manager Pete Hoffswell for the Board of Public Works, joins us in episode 269 of the Broadband Bits podcast. The city has some 25 years of … Continue reading "Holland's Muni Fiber Pilot Expand...

Jon Chambers, a partner at Conexon, returns to visit us this week to talk about rural connectivity and the approaching Connect America Fund (CAF) auction. Conexon works with electric cooperatives to establish high-quality Internet networks for members, typically in rural areas where national providers don’t offer the kinds of services communities need. Having spent time at the … Continue reading "...

With the right policies and local investment, Spiral Internet could bring high quality Internet access to much of northern California. Spiral is a small private company and its CIO, Michael Anderson, talks with us today for episode 267 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. We discuss Spiral's enthusiasm for open access fiber networks and how the … Continue reading "Spiral Investing in Rural Cal...

When policy and decision makers discuss how to improve connectivity in the U.S., they often compare Internet access in other parts of the world to connectivity in America. We can learn from efforts in other places. Benoit Felten, CEO of Diffraction Analysis, has analyzed business models, approaches, and infrastructure development all across the globe. His company has … Continue reading "Benoit Fel...

It shouldn't be surprising that the city that is home to CalTech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory needs high-quality connectivity. Those institutions are part of the reason Pasadena began investing in its own fiber network. To learn the other reasons and how they went about it, Pasadena's Telecom & Regulatory Administrator Lori Sandoval joins us on Community Broadband … Continue reading "P...

After we saw April Glaser's article on a local San Francisco ISP connecting low-income housing to high-quality Internet access, we knew we wanted to learn more. Preston Rhea is the Senior Field Engineer for Monkey Brains and someone we knew from his work with the Open Technology Institute at New America. He joins us with … Continue reading "Connecting San Francisco Low-Income Housing with Monkey B...

Eugene is a good example of recent public-public partnerships developing to expand fiber optic Internet access. The city of 166,000 in Oregon helped finance a downtown dark fiber network by the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB), which is publicly owned but has an independent governing board from the city. Eugene's Economic Development Planner Anne Fifield … Continue reading "Dark Fiber Bright...

After a recent announcement from Microsoft committing to building rural networks using TV white spaces [NYT, Ars Technica stories], we asked Public Knowledge Senior Vice President and long-time TVWS enthusiast Harold Feld to explain the significance. We discuss what TVWS are and why this announcement is such a big deal given that we have previously covered multiple … Continue reading "Microsoft Su...

Sonic is one of the best ISPs in the nation – well beloved by its California subscribers and policy geeks like us in part because of its CEO and Co-Founder, Dane Jasper. Dane combines a tremendous amount of technical and business knowledge in a thoughtful and friendly personality. And while we don't always agree, we are always … Continue reading "Sonic Suggests Dark Fiber for Munis – Community Bro...

Just what does it take to have a market? It may be more complicated than you think — and in large part because of the things most of us don't notice that governments do. We discuss this and the role of broadband planners with Alex Marshall on Community Broadband Bits podcast 260. Alex is the author … Continue reading "Broadband Planning and How Government Creates Markets – Community Broadband Bits...

For episode 259 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, we are going back to the well in Ammon, Idaho – one of the most creative and forward-thinking fiber network deployments in the country. Strategic Networks Group has completed a study examining the impact of Ammon's open muni fiber network on local businesses and residents. To discuss … Continue reading "Ammon Examines Muni Fiber Impact – Com...

As the telecommunications and broadband market has become more and more consolidated, it has drawn more attention, leading to more attention from people that actually care about functioning markets. Enter the Roosevelt Institute and their report, Crossed Lines: Why the AT&T-Time Warner Merger Demands a New Approach to Antitrust. Roosevelt Institute Senior Economist and Fellow Marshall … Contin...

One of the very many treats at Mountain Connect this year was a keynote from Chattanooga EPB's Director of Fiber Technology, Colman Keane. (Watch it here.) After discussing their remarkable successes, we snagged an interview with him (he was last on the show for episode 175).We discuss whether or not Chattanooga is an appropriate role … Continue reading "Chattanooga Fiber Surpasses Expectations, O...

In an exciting milestone, this is podcast 100000000. Or 256 in decimal – you know, for the squares. While at the always-amazing Mountain Connect event in Colorado, I snagged an interview with Doug Seacat of Deeply Digital and Clearnetworx. They sought a grant from the Colorado Broadband Fund to deploy fiber and wireless to underserved Ridgway … Continue reading "Colorado Chooses to Subsidize DSL R...

While attending the Broadband Communities Summit in Dallas, Christopher had the opportunity to interview some of the people he’s been wanting get on the show, including Kyle Hollifield, Senior Vice President from Magellan Advisors. Magellan and Kyle have been working with a growing list of communities across the country exploring opportunities to improve local connectivity. In addition … Continue...

Some time ago, when speaking with Joshua Breitbart, the Senior Advisor for Broadband to the New York City CTO Miguel Gamiño, he mentioned to me that any subset of the issues they face with regard to improving Internet access in New York City is itself a massive issue. Joshua joins us to elaborate on that … Continue reading "NYC Works With Grassroots for Low-Income Access – Community Broadband Bits...

Bonus episode! We did several interviews while at the Broadband Communities Summit and Dallas, so we are publishing two episodes this week. Diane Kruse joined us for today's discussion, episode 253, with an update about progress around community broadband in Colorado and great advice for communities considering an investment. Diane is the CEO and President of … Continue reading "Great Community Ad...

If you picked up the Institute for Local Self-Reliance dictionary, under “public-private partnership,” it would say “See Westminster and Ting fiber-optic network.” We discussed it with Westminster City Council President Robert Wack in episode 100 of Community Broadband Bits and he rejoins us for episode 252 to update us on the progress they have made. We … Continue reading "Update on Westminster's...

We’ve been covering the East-Central Vermont Community Fiber-Optic Network (ECFiber) since 2009; it has come a long way from inception. ECFiber is a group of rural Vermont towns that are working together to deploy a regional network to offer high-quality Internet access to communities typically stuck with slow, unreliable connections such as DSL and dial-up. In … Continue reading "ECFiber Connecti...

The larger focus of our work in the Community Broadband Networks Initiative is to ensure communities have the networks they need. Our guest for Community Broadband Bits episode 250 is an expert in how markets break and the policies that make them work. Gary Reback is a well known Silicon Valley lawyer and Of Counsel at … Continue reading "Policies to Make Markets Work – Community Broadband Bits Po...

As we continue to cover the growing movement of rural electric cooperatives to bring high quality Internet networks to their members, we wanted to bring Alyssa Clemsen-Roberts back on the show. Alyssa was last on the show for episode 109 and has since moved from the Utilities Telecom Council to Pedernales Electric Co-op in Texas. Though Pedernales … Continue reading "Rural Electric Co-ops as Reluc...

Located in southeast Pennsylvania, Lancaster will soon have some of the fastest Internet access in the entire state due to its partnership with a local telecommunications firm, MAW Communications. We reported on many details about this approach here, but Community Broadband Bits podcast episode 248 offers an in-depth look. Lancaster Business Administrator Patrick Hopkins and MAW … Continue reading...

While at the annual Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities Broadband Conference, I forced Ken Demlow to be our guest on Community Broadband Bits Podcast 247. Ken is the Sales Director for Newcom Technologies, where he has worked with many different fiber-optic deployments on the ground and is a fun guy to talk to more generally. Our discussion focuses … Continue reading "Using Fiber for Smart Gri...

After discussing this issue time and time again, with community after community, we finally recorded our thoughts on how communities should get started when considering a community network. Eric Lampland, the guy behind Lookout Point Communications, is our guest on Community Broadband Bits podcast episode 246. We talk about common mistakes and the importance of developing … Continue reading "Feasi...