Thank to Jeff Hoel for providing the transcript for Episode 113 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast with Peter d'Errico of Leverett, Massachusetts. Listen to this episode here.

00:15:

Peter d'Errico: It certainly is true that if taxes go up in a town that has a democratic form of government like a town meeting, it means that people have decided to do it for themselves. No bureaucrat decided to do this and tax them.

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Lisa Gonzalez: Hello there. And welcome again to the Community Broadband Bits Podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez.

Peter d'Errico, a member of the Select Board in Leverett, Massachusetts, joins Chris this week. Peter's also chairman of the town's Broadband Committee. We first noticed Leverett, a town of only about 2,000 people, in the spring of 2012. The community was plagued by unreliable wireline telephone service and horrible cell phone coverage. Residents relied on dial-up, satellite, and DSL for Internet access. In fact, about 6% of the population had no Internet access at all. Community leaders, including Peter, knew they had to act or risk being left even further behind. Over the past two years, the town has worked toward deploying its own fiber-to-the-home network, to serve every home and business in the community.

People in Leverett decided to fund the project with a slight increase in property taxes. As Peter explains in the interview, the move will actually save money for subscribers, because current rates for inferior service are so high. This small town in Massachusetts is a powerful example of how one local community exercised its own self-reliance to establish a necessary service.

Here are Peter and Chris.

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Chris Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell. And today, I'm speaking with Peter d'Errico, from Leverett, Massachusetts. He's a member of the Select Board, and chairman of the Broadband Committee for an exciting project. Welcome to the show.

01:57:

Peter d'Errico: Thank you. Good to be here.

01:59:

Chris: I'm excited to have you on this show. We've been following your project for a long time. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Leverett, in western Mass, where you're located,...

Thank to Jeff Hoel for providing the transcript for Episode 110 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast with Will Aycock of Wilson and Danna Bailey of Chattanooga. Listen to this episode here.

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Danna Bailey: When we have neighbors outside of our service territory who are specifically asking us to come and serve them, we want to be able to respond to that in a positive way.

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Lisa Gonzalez: Hello, and welcome to the Community Broadband Bits Podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. This is Lisa Gonzalez.

Earlier this month, the communities of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina -- both with municipal networks -- filed petitions with the FCC. Both communities requested the agency to use its authority to preempt state laws. Those laws, put in place through lobbying efforts from big-name incumbents, prevent either network from serving their neighbors. For some time now, neighboring communities have approached Wilson and Chattanooga, requesting that they expand their networks to serve their neighbors. Existing state laws preclude Greenlight, in Wilson, and Chattanooga's Electric Power Board from serving beyond strict geographic borders. In recent months, Chairman Wheeler has publicly announced that the FCC will do all it can to encourage expansion of broadband networks. He specifically pointed to the FCC's authority in Section 706, to preempt such state laws, that do nothing to encourage deployment, and only serve to protect large corporate provider interests. On July 28th, the FCC established a schedule in which it intends to take comments on both petitions. Open comments are due August 29th. Reply comments are due September 29th. We encourage every American who wants ubiquitous connectivity to file comments in support of the Wilson and Chattanooga petitions. Federal preemption of these anti-muni laws will be a significant victory toward restoring local telecommunications authority.

In this podcast, Chris and I spend some time discussing the petitions, the circumstances in Wilson and Chattanooga, and what you can do to share your opinion with the FCC.

As a bonus, Chris touched base with Danna Bailey, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Chattanooga's EPB, and Will Aycock, General Manager of Greenlight in...