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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Community Broadband Bits Podcast
Community Broadband Bits is a weekly audio show hosted by Community Broadband Networks Initiative Director Christopher Mitchell featuring interviews with people building community networks or otherwise involved with Internet policy. You can listen to episodes below or download via Apple, Google, or Spotify. Alternatively if you know what to do with it, copy the feed here.
We also produce a semi-regular video show called Connect This! that has its own site. Find other podcasts from ILSR here.
We also have an index of all episodes and links to transcripts. Keep up with new developments by subscribing to our one-email-per-week list sharing new stories and resources. We’d love to hear your feedback! Email us.
Market Dynamics, Regulations, and Historic Fiber Investments in Europe - Episode 536 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
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.
Predictions for 2023 - Episode 535 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
This week on the show, the staff get together to bend their collective imagination 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.
What Can We Expect to See in 2023? - Episode 534 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
Blair Levin joins to unpack all that we might expect to see at play over the coming year, 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.
Christopher Mitchell's Ask Me Anything - Episode 533 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
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.
Year in Review 2022 - Episode 532 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
It's December, which means it's time to pull the Community Broadband Networks staff together and get a handle on what happened in the broadband landscape in 2022. We have a constructive conversation about preemption laws, the broadband nutrition label, BEAD funding and the new Broadband Data Collection (BDC) process, the supply chain, and more. There were a couple of surprises in 2022, and the staff reckons with how their predictions from last year held up in the face of things.
Data-Driven Policy Solutions - Episode 531 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Senior Reporter, Editor and Communications Team Lead Sean Gonsalves and GIS and Data Visualization Specialist Christine Parker to talk about how bad data can blind us and good data can drive positive policy solutions in the context of the new national broadband maps, and the federal Affordable Connectivity Program.
A Layered Approach to Universal Access in Virginia - Episode 530 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
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. Holmes joins to share how it happened.
Crazy Talk on Fiber Deployments - Episode 529 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast
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 that public broadband subsidies supporting fiber optic deployments will leave rural America behind.
Maps, Maps Everywhere - Episode 528 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 in federal broadband funding.
Hope and Change - Episode 527 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.