This is the transcript for episode 424 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell speaks with Jeff Christensen of Entry Point Networks about opne access networks. Listen to the episode, or read the transcript below.

Jeff Christensen: You start to open up the hood of the engine and a lot of things become possible if the system's an open system.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Welcome to episode 424 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. This is Ry Marcattilio-McCracken here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Today Christopher talks with Jeff Christensen, president of Entry Point Networks, a consulting and software company working with communities around the country, including Ammon, Idaho and their open access network. Jeff shares with Christopher some of the software upgrades Entry Point has developed over the last year and the impact they'll have both for administrators and users moving forward. Christopher and Jeff then dig into the future of state telecommunications policy and the vision that communities need to have, to confront the realities of existing cable and telecom monopolies around the country.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: They talk about the potential of government policies that promote competition, rather than restrain it. And the possibilities for network innovation if we were to reframe how we think about Internet access, so infrastructure and service become separate components. Finally, they spend some time discussing practical steps communities can take, including defining the problem and then making low interest loans to build open access fiber networks in their region. Now here's Christopher talking with Jeff Christensen.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance recording today in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I'm talking with Jeff Christensen, the president and CEO of Entry Point. Welcome back to the show, Jeff.

Jeff Christensen: Chris, great to be back. Thank you. It's always a pleasure.

Christopher Mitchell: Yes, I'm excited for people to hear what some of the exciting updates that you've shared...

This is the transcript for episode 422 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher talks with Craig Settles and Angela Siefer about digital equity and the racist impacts of federal broadband subsidies that fund only rural deployment. Listen to the episode, or read the transcript below.

Angela Siefer: In this moment in time, when we're in a pandemic or in this racial awareness kind of time, maybe what we were discussing, all of us with good intentions were discussing before, maybe it's not enough.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Welcome to episode 422 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. This is Ry Marcattilio-McCracken, with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Today on the podcast, Christopher talks with Angela Siefer and Craig Settles. Angela, is the founder and executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and a tireless digital inclusion and equity advocate who has worked to connect communities for over two decades. Craig, is a nationally recognized consultant who works with public and private sector clients to build and improve networks. He hosts Gigabit Nation and is the director of Communities United for Broadband.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Together, they untangled the long history of broadband subsidies and racial bias and how that has come to influence who has affordable connection options today. They also talk about the current state of telehealth and the ramifications of the Digital Equity Act since the adoption a year ago. Now, here's Christopher talking with Angela Siefer and Craig Settles.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome, to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. And I'm here today with two favorites of the show, Angela Siefer, the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. Welcome back, Angela.

Angela Siefer: Thanks, Chris.

Christopher Mitchell: And we also have Craig Settles, an industry analysts and consultants since 2006, which he likes to say, because I started in 2007 and he was there before me. He's also host of the Gigabit Nation radio talk show and director of Communities...

This is the transcript for episode 420 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher talks to Deborah Simpier of Althea about their efforts to provide resources and tools to build community wireless networks. Listen to the episode, or read the transcript below.

Deborah Simpier: Going to someone's house, setting up a family with 60, 70 megabits per second and at a rate that they can afford, it's really just life-changing.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Welcome to episode 420 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. This is Ry Marcattilio-McCracken with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Today on the podcast, we welcome Deborah Simpier, CEO of Althea. Althea is a company offering services and software to make operating community networks easier. We talk about their approach, including the unique way they route traffic across the network based on changing costs and latencies. Althea networks are starting across the country as well as across the planet, in Africa and South America. Now here's Christopher talking with Deborah Simpier.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. This is Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today I'm speaking with Deborah Simpier, the CEO of Althea. Welcome to the show, Deborah.

Deborah Simpier: Thanks so much for having me.

Christopher Mitchell: I'm excited to talk about this approach, which is very interesting. I know I see it popping up in my Twitter feed among people that follow this show and follow our writings. It's something that I know Jane Coffin and others are very excited about an Internet society in terms of how Althea is creating new opportunities in wireless networking, in particular. If we start off really quickly, what is the sort of 30-second pitch for what is Althea?

Deborah Simpier: So Althea, in a nutshell, is software and tools that empower communities to be able to both build quickly and maintain sustainable networks. I think that's kind of the big piece here is that ... missing, is that we oftentimes approach these things with the build and don't look at how we can work...

This is the transcript for North Carolina bonus episode 9 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher talks to Doug Dawson of CCG Consulting about various broadband issues currently in the news and how they have an effect in North Carolina. Listen to the episode, or read the transcript below.

Doug Dawson: People in the rural areas are not working from home because they can't. They can't lock onto a school server. They can't lock onto a business server. We're taking these things for granted in the urban areas. Just since 2017, that gap has doubled in that short of a period of time. It's getting so drastically different that the Internet in those two places is not the same thing anymore.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: We're bringing you another episode in our special community broadband bits podcast series, Why North Carolina Broadband Matters. I'm Ry Marcattilio-McCracken with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis, Minnesota. North Carolina Broadband Matters is a North Carolina nonprofit. Their mission to attract, support, and champion universal availability of affordable, reliable, high capacity Internet access. The group has created the North Carolina chapter of CLIC, the Coalition for Local Internet Choice. ILSR is working with North Carolina Broadband Matters to produce this series, focusing on issues, affecting people in North Carolina that also impact folks in other regions.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: We're joined today by Doug Dawson, president of CCG Consulting, a veteran advisor to small public and private telecommunications carriers, and an experienced, thoughtful voice in the broadband space. During their discussion, Christopher and Doug give the various levels of government across the United states a report card for their connectivity efforts during the pandemic, and how the Coronavirus has brought into focus the two digital divides facing our communities today. They talk about what the broadband gap looks like between rural and urban areas, and the problem of adoption versus access for North Carolina communities with connectivity obstacles.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken: Christopher and Doug also talk about whether Space X or other satellite...