This is the transcript for episode 324 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher discusses the new Fiber-to-the-Home project from Great Lakes Energy, Michigan's largest electric cooperative, with Shari Culver, the co-op's Vice President of Communications, Marketing, and Energy Optimization. Listen to their conversation.

Shari Culver: We identified Fiber-to-the-Home as something that was really important to the future of Great Lakes Energy. And there's lots of synergies with the grid. It's important to future technologies, but it's also really important to our members. We want to help them have a better experience, you know, at home and in their personal life.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 324 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzales. Increasing numbers of rural electric cooperatives are using their infrastructure as a foundation to develop Fiber-to-the-Home Internet access service. In the northern areas of Michigan's lower peninsula, Great Lakes Energy has started a project that will begin connecting members as early as October. In this week's podcast, Christopher talks with Shari Culver from the cooperative about their service, Truestream. Their project is starting in Petoskey and will offer symmetrical services up to a gigabit to residents. As the project progresses, the cooperative will examine demand and take a nimble approach to their deployment plans. Shari explains the environment in the region, the history of Great Lakes Energy, and the factors the cooperative have needed to consider as they've pondered the potential of a large Fiber-to-the-Home project. Now, here's Christopher with Shari Culver from Michigan's Great Lakes Energy.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis, Minnesota, talking with Shari Culver, the Vice President of Communications, Marketing, and Energy Optimization at Great Lakes Energy. Welcome to the show.

Shari Culver: Thanks, Chris.

This is the transcript for episode 323 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell speaks with Diana Nucera of the Detroit Community Technology Program about how they're empowering communities to create better connectivity and use technology to meet local needs. Listen to the episode here.

Diana Nucera: This work takes time and love. So if you're going to go for it, make sure you have those two things.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 323 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. This week, Christopher speaks with Diana Nucera of the Detroit Community Technology Project. The project is based in the Detroit community — and its people — to bring better connectivity to residents, community organizations, and more recently, local businesses. In addition to establishing a community network, the DCTP provides technical support, trains local stewards to expand the program, and helps empower and unite the local community. Diana explains the history of the DCTP, how it works, and describes some of the challenges they've overcome. She also shares some of the unexpected benefits and describes how just getting people online is only one part of digital inclusion. Now, here's Christopher with Diana Nucera from the Detroit Community Technology Project.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell with the institute for Local Self-Reliance up in Minneapolis, talking to Diana Nucera today, the Director of Detroit Community Technology Project. Welcome to the show, Diana.

Diana Nucera: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Christopher Mitchell: It's really great to have you — having someone from, you know, another strong midwestern city, a city that's recovering. It's doing much better than it had been and is filled with amazing culture and people. But, let's talk a little bit about your organization, and then we're gonna talk about how it's related to some other organizations and movements to make it a little bit of a map, I think. But what's the Detroit Community Technology Project?

This is the transcript for episdoe 322 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Chris speaks with Richard Shockey, of Shockey Consulting and the SIP Forum, about how new technology is addressing the problems of spam phone calls, robocalls, and caller ID spoofing. Listen to the podcast here.

Richard Shockey: So you're making a cryptographic assertion that my telephone number is from who I am and that the network itself can double-check that and then provide you with some indicator of some form that in fact, there is a high probability that this call is from the person they're doing an ascertation for.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 322 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. By now, most of us are woefully familiar with spam phone calls, robocalls, and calls that spoof caller IDs. At the very least, they're annoying, disruptive, and make us feel like we've been tricked into answering a call we wouldn't otherwise give the time of day. In this week's podcast, Christopher speaks with a man who's working with others to try to curb these deceptive practices. Richard Shockey of Shockey Consulting has been in the telecommunications and technology business for decades, advising telecom and technology companies and investors, as well as national agencies. He fills many roles, but in recent years he's been on the SIP Forum, an IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that promote and advance SIP-based technology. Richard discusses how market conditions, lack of investment, and the transition to new technology has created the right situation in which robocalls and caller ID spoofing is much easier. He also describes a plan of attack to use technology to reverse the trend. He gets into the problems in implementing the approach, such as how to present the technology to end users and how to deal with errors, especially in reporting. Richard also goes on to describe how tackling the rules of adopting the new technology are a significant hurdle that needs to be resolved as we venture through the transition to voice over IP services. Now, here's Christopher with Richard Shockey of Shockey Consulting.

This is the transcript for episode 321 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, "Analyzing the Auction with Jonathan Chambers." In this episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, Christopher Mitchell discuesses the recently released results of the Connect America Fund Phase II auction with Jonathan Chambers of Conexon.  Listen to the episode here.

Jonathan Chambers: Those are the gigabit tier bidders—and not just gigabit tier bidders. Those are the companies that have agreed in this process largely to build Fiber-to-the-Home networks. The winners are the residents of those communities.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 321 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. Just last week, the Federal Communications Commission announced the results of the Connect America Fund Phase II auction. Entities bid to offer connectivity to rural areas, and winners will receive federal subsidies to develop infrastructure. In addition to some of the largest ISPs, bidders included rural cooperatives, smaller wireline and fixed wireless Internet service providers, and satellite Internet service providers. In this episode of the podcast, Christopher discusses the auction results with Jonathan Chambers of Conexon. Jonathan's firm worked with the Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium to develop bids for Fiber-to-the-Home networks in different rural areas where electric cooperatives serve members. Jonathan and Christopher discussed the history of the Connect America Fund and how the process has changed. They also discuss some pros and cons of providing public support for deploying networks in rural areas. Jon and Christopher analyze the results from this auction and what the final results tell us. Now here's Christopher with Jonathan Chambers of Conexon discussing the CAF II auction results.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, today getting an update on some breaking news from last week, as you're hearing this. But we're going to be talking with Jon Chambers, a partner with Conexon Welcome back to the show, Jon.

This is the transcript for episode 320 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell speaks with Jase Wilson and Lindsey Brannon from Neighborly about how the firm reimagines the "humble municipal bond," making it easier for communities to fund public infrastructure projects, such as broadband networks. Listen to this episode here.

Lindsey Brannon: There are smart communities out there who have done their own research and who are looking for that innovation and connectivity with capital, so Neighborly makes it easier to do that.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 320 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. Consistently, local communities that want to invest in publicly owned broadband infrastructure cite financing as one of their biggest challenges. Our guests this week are working to overcome that challenge by making investment in municipal bonding more accessible to communities and the individuals who live in them. Jase Wilson and Lindsey Brannon are from Neighborly. That's a firm that's working with local communities looking for ways to fund projects, such as open access broadband networks and other public infrastructure projects. They're simultaneously opening up investment opportunities for individuals and entities interested in advancing those projects. In this interview, Jase, Lindsey, and Christopher discuss how the publicly owned open access model suits their mission and why they're pursuing that mission. They also talk about how this type of financing can overcome some of the challenges more traditional approaches take because the investor and the subscriber overlap. You'll learn about a recent example of a project in Vermont and a new program they've developed to jumpstart local efforts. Whether you're looking for tools to help you fund your community's project or are interested in an investment that emphasizes local self-reliance in a variety of ways, checkout neighborly.com for more about the firm, their approach, and the different types of projects they've helped develop. Now here's Christopher with Jase Wilson and Lindsey Brannon from Neighborly.

This is the transcript for episode 319 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell speaks with our former public policy intern Hannah Rank about Monkeybrains, a San Francisco ISP that has figured out a way to bring high-quality Internet access to residents of the city's low-income housing. Listen to this episode here.

Hannah Rank: If you have buildings that have the capacity for really easy, fast Internet connectivity, that's really half the battle.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 319 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. A year ago we first brought you information on the podcast about a special program in San Francisco to bring high quality connectivity to residents of the city's public housing units. In episode 264 of the podcast, we spoke with Preston Rhea and Mason Carroll from Monkeybrains, the wireless ISP working on the project. We thought the plan and its results were awesome, so we decided to produce a report that included the details about the project. The approach is one other communities can reproduce, so we put one of our stellar public policy interns on the task of developing a report: Hannah Rank. Hannah has left to return to grad school, but before she took off, she sat down with Christopher for episode 319 of the podcast to get into the details of what she learned about the Monkeybrains San Francisco project. Hannah and Christopher talk about funding, services available to subscribers, and the digital inclusion program that has more than an obvious advantage in this approach. Here's Christopher and Hannah Rank discussing San Francisco's program to bring better Internet access to residents living in public housing and how their partner for the project, Monkeybrains, is making that happen.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. You know, I'm getting kind of tired of saying it that way, but I feel like it annoys a number of people so I have to keep it up.

Hannnah Rank: Well, I edit, or [do] the transcript for this, so I hear it all the time. I'm used to it.

This is the transcript for episode 318 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Bill Coleman from Community Techonology Advisors discusses his recent report published by the Blandin Foundation, Impact of CAF II-funded Networks: Lessons From Two Rural Minnesota Exchanges Left Underserved, with Christopher Mitchell. Listen to the episode here.

Bill Coleman: So I think communities can repeat this study pretty easily by just doing driving around and doing this mapping and seeing what is being installed in our area.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 318 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the institute for Local Self Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. The federal Connect America Fund has provided millions of dollars to some of the nation's largest telecommunications companies, including several that have developed projects in rural Minnesota. But are those dollars being spent wisely? In a recent report, Bill Coleman of Community Technology Advisors headed up a Blandin Foundation project to go to the field, document infrastructure funded with Connect America Fund dollars, and determine how and if those projects are improving broadband access in rural Minnesota. In this episode of the podcast, Bill visits with Christopher about the report and their findings. The report is available at the Blandin Foundation website, BlandinFoundation.org, and we also have it highlighted in our resources section on MuniNetworks.org. The title of the report is Impact of CAF II-funded Networks: Lessons From Two Rural Minnesota Exchanges Left Underserved. Now, here's Christopher and Bill Coleman from Community Technology Advisors.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell with the institute for local self reliance sitting across from Bill Coleman, who's a first time guest, but the second time we're sitting across from each other. Welcome back to the show, Bill.

Bill Coleman: Hey, thanks Chris.

This is the transcript for episode 317 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell and Hannah Trostle discuss our recently released report Profiles of Monopoly: Big Cable and Telecom.

Listen to this episode here.

This is the transcript for Episode 316 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Justin Holzgrove of Mason County PUD 3 in Washington and Isak Finer from COS Systems discuss the expansion plans in Mason County and how COS Systems is helping the utility determine a strategic deployment approach. Listen to this episode here.

Justin Holzgrove: Absolutely, we provide the biggest pipe we can, and what you do with it is up to you.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 316 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. In Mason County, Washington the local Public Utility District, Mason PUD 3 is building out it's open access network so residents and businesses can have access to the benefits of the fiber infrastructure. In order to take a strategic approach to better determine success, Mason PUD is working with COS Systems. By collaborating, they're better able to predict take-rates, estimate costs, and make adjustments to their plan when needed. In this interview, Christopher talks with Isak Finer from COS Systems and Justin Holzgrove for Mason PUD 3. In addition to a discussion as to how Mason PUD 3 is using Service Zones from COS Systems, we get to learn a little about the origin of Service Zones and how it helps with planning and establishing funding for deployment. Christopher, Isak and Justin also touch on the definition of open access and how it varies from place to place. Learn more about COS Systems and Service Zones cossystems.com. You can also listen to our Community Broadband Bits podcast episode 274 for our earlier conversation with Justin. Now here's Christopher with Isak Finer from COS Systems and Justin Holzgrove from Mason PUD 3.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self Reliance up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And today I'm speaking with Isak Finer, chief marketing officer for COS Systems. Welcome to the show, Isak.

Isak Finer: Thank you. It's great to be here.

This is the transcript for episode 315 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. Matt Larson of Vistabeam Internet joins the show via Mountain Connect in Colorado. Listen to this episode here.

Matt Larson: If there's a place that that we can figure out a way to get to them, and get them a better level of service, even if all it does is inspire the other providers there to step their game up and provide a better level of service, I consider that to be kind of a good job to try and do.

Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 315 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. Back in June, while Christopher was at the Mountain Connect conference in Vail, Colorado, he had the chance to sit down with several speakers at the conference, including Matt Larson, founder of Vistabeam Internet. The company began offering wireless Internet back in 2004 and has since expanded. They now provide services in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. In this interview, Matt explains his motivations for continuing to grow the company and their service area, which now covers approximately 40,000 miles. He describes how Vistabeam has helped create competition in rural areas where residents were one stuck with what they had, and how that competition has inspired incumbents to improve services. Matt also describes what it's like in the field, deploying their equipment. He also talks about daily challenges and working with different agencies for funding opportunities. His insight explains how the company grew to become the 2018 Provider of the Year, the award they took home from the Mountain Connect conference. Learn more about the company at Vistabeam.com. Now here's Christopher with Matt Larson from Vistabeam Internet.

Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance. Today I'm in Vail, Colorado for the Mountain Connect event, one of the my favorite events. I'm sitting across from one of the sponsors of it, and someone who just won an award. We'll talk about that a little bit. Matt Larson, the wireless cowboy and founder of Vistabeam. Welcome to the show.