Tag: "transcript"

Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 480

Posted December 17, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 480 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode, host Christopher Mitchell is joined by Danny Peralta, the Executive Managing Director of The Point in the Bronx, New York which has. The Point has been at the forefront of revitalizing the South Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood working to address  environmental issues, increase access to the arts, and even expand Internet connectivity. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Danny Peralta: People that come to our digital stewardship training, pushing the young people, they probably walk out of there with a stronger sense of how to use it and how to use it responsibly and what the effects potentially could be if you're not really paying attention to it. And that's all we can hope for.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for a local self-reliance in St. Paul Minnesota. Today, I'm speaking with Danny Peralta, who is the executive managing director at the Point in the Bronx in New York City in New York. Welcome.

Danny Peralta: Well, thank you. Thank you. Good morning, Chris. How you doing today?

Christopher Mitchell: Oh, I'm doing good. And I got to say, man, one of the things I always love talking about you is I love the accent. I grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and I love all these east coast pocket accents that you get around. So it's always a joy to speak with you.

Danny Peralta: All right. Well, likewise, man. You got that upper Midwest thing going on too, man.

Christopher Mitchell: Now I do. Yeah, it took a while. I still don't say Minnesota. That's one of the telltale ones.

Danny Peralta: I love that. I'm going to use that one. I'm going to use that one next time I'm up there.

Christopher Mitchell: Oh, for sure. So tell me you're at the Point.

Danny Peralta: Yes, sir.

Christopher Mitchell: What is the Point?

Danny Peralta: Sure, yeah. So again, I'm broadcasting live from south Bronx, New York City, the Hunts Point. Well...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 479

Posted October 27, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 479 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode, host Christopher Mitchell is joined by Deanne Cuellar, the State Program Director for Older Adult Technology Services (OATS). They explore the history of the digital divide in San Antonio and Cuellar's role in making the city one of the nation’s leaders in digital inclusion efforts. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

DeAnne Cuellar: One of the reasons why San Antonio is doing so well on this issue is because we have taken the time to brief people who are running for office that represent San Antonios about TechEquity and Telecommunication Policy issues. Whenever somebody runs for office, regardless of their political party affiliation, I say "I want to talk to you about Digital Inclusion".

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It's been a little while since I said that because we'd recorded a bunch of episodes, and then the little traveling got the team together out here, and now we're back, we're recording more shows. And today we're back with DeAnne Cuellar who is the State Director for OATS which is the Older Adult Technology Services, which is a wonderful group working on Digital Inclusion efforts. Welcome to the show DeAnne.

DeAnne Cuellar: Thanks for having me.

Christopher Mitchell: This is exciting because I don't know if people realize it, but you're in San Antonio, you've been in San Antonio in a variety of positions, both working for the city government and nonprofits and thinking a lot about Digital Inclusion, how to make sure everyone can take advantage of the Internet, everyone has access to it, stuff like that. And San Antonio has quietly become a leader. I think not only is it one of the largest cities in America, but over the top 100 cities in population in the...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 478

Posted October 25, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 478 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, host Christopher Mitchell talks fiber with Gary Bolton, CEO and President of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) at the Broadband Communities Summit in Houston, TX. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Gary Bolton: You're deploying the critical infrastructure, what you have to build your future on and what this is, is about jobs, economic development, you're talking about making an investment for generations to come and it's really important that you do it right the first time.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, live edition. Sorry, it's an old joke with the show that they're all live editions recorded not really live. Gary Bolton is with us the CEO and president of the Fiber Broadband Association, welcome.

Gary Bolton: Thanks Chris, great to be here.

Christopher Mitchell: You've been doing I think really great work branding the Fiber Broadband Association, being out there talking about fiber broadband. Today we're going to talk about what I think is really a more turn to a more aggressive approach to it which I'll just admit I think is both correct and I'm still uncomfortable with it but first of all-

Gary Bolton: It means I'm doing my job, right?

Christopher Mitchell: I think so, I really think you are doing a good job at your position and I think it's needed out there. But for people who are old school and may not recognize you because maybe they haven't been tuning in, you're the Fiber-to-the-Home Council, America's is now the Fiber Broadband Association. Can you just 30 seconds on why that name changed?

Gary Bolton: Sure. Well, Chris, just a little bit of background about the whole Fiber-to-the-Home Council. So we're the Fiber Broadband Association, I'm responsible for the America so North America Chapter, as well as we have a Latin America Chapter and then we also have the Fiber Optic Sensing Association, FOSA. But...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Bonus Episode 14

Posted October 25, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 14 of our bonus series, “Why NC Broadband Matters.” We’re joined by Amy Huffman, Policy Director at National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) and Christa Vinson, Program Officer of Rural Broadband and Infrastructure at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), to talk about the state of digital inclusion across the country. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below. 

Amy Huffman: When people are confident in their own skill development, they can then take that and learn on their own. They become self sustained learners moving forward. In this day and age, that's what we need to equip people to be.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to a bonus episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcasts, I'm Christopher Mitchell. At the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in St. Paul, Minnesota and today we're back with another, in our series of bonus episodes with North Carolina, Broadband matters talking about how to make sure we get high quality Internet access out to everyone. We're very excited for this continuing partnership to focus on North Carolina. This is something that we're going to set the stage today with national context around digital inclusion, building digital skills, and what's going on. Then we're going to zoom into what North Carolina's doing about it in the next show. Today we have two people who have been on before, people that many listeners are undoubtedly familiar with. We have Amy Huffman who is a policy director at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, which is NDIA. Welcome to the show.

Amy Huffman: Thanks for having me, Chris. It's great to be here.

Christopher Mitchell: Absolutely. We also have Christa Vinson, who is a program officer at the Rural Program in the Local Initiative Support Corporation. which most people know in the nonprofit world as LISC, which is super popular and has a great reputation. Welcome back to the show Christa.

Christa Vinson: Thank you Chris. Glad to be here.

Christopher Mitchell: I want to start with you Christa. I'll just ask you briefly, I think it's maybe been a year, maybe nine months. I don't know, since we talked about Digital...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 477

Posted October 25, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 477 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, host Christopher Mitchell is joined by Angela Bennink (Telecommunications Director for Kitsap Public Utility District) and Laura Loe (Executive Director of Share The Cities Community Education & Share The Cities Action Fund) from Washington state.  Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Angela Bennink: It wasn't about not having quality service providers. It was the unintended consequences of having these restrictions on public utility districts and those unintended consequences for access to federal funds.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of The Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in St. Paul, Minnesota. Although I'm building my office back and soon I might be saying, "I'm in Minneapolis again." We'll see. The show today is something that's just... It was one of the most amazing things that happened this year in my line of work, which is the effort to repeal the Washington laws that made it difficult for public entities to build networks under multiple conditions. And we're going to talk more about that.

Christopher Mitchell: For our guest today, we have a returning champion, Angela Bennink, who is the Telecom Director at Kitsap Public Utility District. Welcome back.

Angela Bennink: Thank you, Chris.

Christopher Mitchell: Yeah, we've had you on talking about Kitsap and we've had you on talking about NOANET, the Northwest Open Access Network more generally and it's wonderful to grab some of your time. I know that you don't sleep anymore.

Angela Bennink: That's correct. It's all broadband all the time now.

Christopher Mitchell: We also have Laura Loe, who, if you look at the Twitter feed also does not appear to sleep and is very passionate about issues that I care about as well. She is the Executive Director of Share The Cities Community Education as well as Share The Cities Action Fund.

Christopher Mitchell:...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 476

Posted October 22, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 475 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. host Christopher Mitchell is joined by occasional guest host Sean Gonsalves, ILSR’s Senior  Reporter, Editor, and Researcher to take a hard look at our philosophies around competition and telecommunications regulation. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Sean Gonsalves: I got to say, one signal for me that Title II is the way to go is because there seems to be nothing that strikes fear in the heart of the broadband industry than Title II.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. It's Christopher Mitchell here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Today we're once again with Sean Gonsalves who is our on the Community Broadband Networks team. He is our senior reporter and editor, and now communications team lead. Welcome to the show, Sean.

Sean Gonsalves: All right. Glad to be back. Honestly, I'm glad to see you back in the saddle. We tried our best to hold it down for a couple of shows.

Christopher Mitchell: I enjoyed them. I think you guys did a good job.

Sean Gonsalves: It was fun. It was fun. We didn't get as much fan mail as I explicitly asked for.

Christopher Mitchell: We're not going to use the word beg.

Sean Gonsalves: Yeah.

Christopher Mitchell: You know, I got to say that 475 episodes about that we're in now. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to do a little bit differently and things like that. I really appreciate you all stepping up so I wasn't trying to force a couple of extra shows in there where I just wasn't sure who to have on and things like that because we want to keep telling interesting stories. There's tons of folks out there with interesting stories, but we want to keep up in the game and sometimes I just don't have the time to really cultivate a good show.

Sean Gonsalves: A lot of episodes under your belt. It's nice to take a break from time to time. I'm certainly willing participant.

Christopher Mitchell: One of the things I did, I went to the Black Hills of...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 475

Posted October 22, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 475 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, host Christopher Mitchell is joined by Scott Vanderlip, chair of Los Altos Hills Community Fiber, to talk about how he and other Los Altos Hills residents banded together to create a subscriber-owned network. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Scott Vanderlip: You don't have to be an AT&T or Comcast to start some of these local broadband initiatives to really bring up your speed.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for local self-reliance in St. Paul Minnesota. Today I'm talking to Scott Vanderlip, the co-founder of Los Altos Hills, Community Fiber and president of the LAHCF board. Welcome to the show.

Scott Vanderlip: Thank you so much. Glad to be here. Yeah.

Christopher Mitchell: I'm really excited to talk to you because I love these stories where someone gets in their head that they should do something and they actually do it. It's really inspiring. But for people who aren't familiar, just tell us a little bit about Los Altos Hills to start.

Scott Vanderlip: We're right here in Silicon Valley. We border up to Palo Alto, mountain view. I can see from my house, I can see Google headquarters. You would think being in Silicon Valley, we would have good broadband here, but there's a lot of people in my community that are literally, they are not just underserved. They're unserved. We have people little bit of higher up the hill that there's no AT&T. There's no Comcast they're on satellite or point to point microwave, they're paying like up to nine, I know people that pay $900 a month to get a hundred megabit service, to a point to point kind of a thing. And then this town, we're kind of a unique Silicon Valley town where we're zoned RA-1. And so that's residential agriculture. So we actually have people that on your property, you can actually have cows and...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 473

Posted October 22, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 473 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, we spotlight episode 134 of Building Local Power, an ILSR podcast hosted by our Communication’s Manager, Jess Del Fiasco. On this episode, Jess is joined by the Community Broadband Networks Initiative’s Senior Researcher Ry Marcatillio-McCracken and Senior Reporter, Editor and Researcher Sean Gonsalves to interview Christopher Ali about his new book, Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Christopher Ali: Everybody needs the ability to participate in this digital world that we all take for granted. And the more people who are on the network, the better. That's the network effect, right? The network improves when we've got everybody connected.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Welcome episode 473 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. This is Ry Marcattilio-McCracken here at the Institute for local self-reliance. Today, I joined communications manager, Jess Del Fiasco, and senior researcher and editor, Sean Gonsalves to talk with Christopher Ali, an associate professor and the of media studies at the University of Virginia. Christopher discusses his new book from MIT Press titled Farm Fresh Broadband, the politics of rural connectivity. During the conversation, we talk about the communities Christopher visited while writing his book and some of the local success stories he heard. We talk about why the concept of rural deserves a more nuanced definition than it is usually afforded, and how high quality affordable broadband access can revitalize rural economic development in direct and indirect ways. We end by talking about where and why federal efforts to improve rural broadband infrastructure have fallen short, and how local solutions have shown the way forward. Now here's the show with Christopher, Jess and Sean.

Jess Del Fiasco: Today, I am joined by my colleagues, Ry Marcattilio-McCracken and Sean Gonsalves who are senior researchers with ILSR's community broadband team. Welcome to the show guys.

Sean Gonsalves: Thanks for...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 474

Posted October 22, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 474 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, Christopher Mitchell is joined by Mike Gailey (Mayor of Syracuse), Brody Bovero (City Manager for the City of Syracuse), and Scott Darington (City Manager for the City of Pleasant Grove) to talk about why they decided to work with UTOPIA to connect their communities in Utah. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Scott Darington: There will be people that will not move into a community if they don't have access to broadband, because everything now is connected to broadband for a city to stay viable in a certain sense. This is something that we need to make sure is available.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for local Self-Reliance in St. Paul, Minnesota. And today, I'm returning to an area of the country we've talked about frequently, an area of the country that's doing a lot of things right. We're going to be talking about the areas served by UTOPIA, which is Salt Lake City and areas nearby as well as areas fairly far away from it. At this point, we're talking with Mayor Gailey, who is the mayor of Syracuse. Welcome to the show.

Mike Gailey: Thank you, I'm glad to be here. Maybe I can tell you a little bit of the history of telecommunications here in Syracuse. The first telephone in Syracuse was installed in 1901 and it was installed in the old Walker Store. And for those Syracuse residents, it's midway between 2000 West of the lake shore down below the bluff road, and there was just one single phone. One of the Walker sons, one of the Walker brothers, had two little girls and a call would come in to them and then they would traipse through the community on horseback giving messages to people to come down to the store and call this person back. So it was an answering service of sorts on a horse.

Mike Gailey: Syracuse has gone from horseback, I'm a member of the 1950s generation and Andy of Mayberry had an old phone where he had to have the assistance of an operator to make the call. That was a little before my time, but I remember party lines...

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Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 472

Posted October 21, 2021 by Maren Machles

This is the transcript for episode 472 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. On this week's episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, ILSR's Senior Reporter, Editor, and Researcher Sean Gonsalves, along with Senior Researcher and Multimedia Producer Maren Machles, chat with Paul Recanzone, the general manager of Beacon Broadband, about Beacon's plan to build out broadband where no one has before. Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript below.

Paul Recanzone: We cannot rely on the industries of the 20th century, which were our fishing and our timber. We have to find a way to thrive in the 21st century. And here at Beacon Broadband, we believe that the broadband is going to be the catalyst to be able to create a thriving economy on the south coast of Oregon.

Sean Gonsalves: Welcome to episode 472 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I am Sean Gonsalves, Senior Reporter and Editor, sitting in for the vacationing Christopher Mitchell. He will be back this week and will return to the airways for the next episode. So there's still time for our listeners to send in a bunch of emails to tell him what a fabulous job we've done since he's been gone. Today, we are going to look at the work of a Cooperative in the beautiful state of Oregon. And so that is why are joined by Paul Recanzone, the general manager for Beacon Broadband, which is the broadband subsidiary of Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative. Welcome to the program, Paul.

Paul Recanzone: Thank you, Sean.

Sean Gonsalves: And we also are joined by my colleague here, Maren Machles, who wrote our story on muninetworks.org about CCEC that we published in May. We're pleased to have Maren with us as well. Welcome Maren.

Maren Machles: I'm pleased to be here, glad to be chatting with you folks.

Sean Gonsalves: So we're going to have Marin jump in throughout to help us out and to flesh out this discussion, but just to get us started, Paul, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and how you got to Beacon Broadband?

Paul Recanzone: Well, thank you. I've been working in broadband development for probably 15 or 16 years. The long story in an abbreviated...

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