Unbuffered

Like many states, Minnesota has a major metro area that generally has higher quality Internet access than non-metro communities. The Greater Minnesota Partnership, a coalition of businesses, chambers, nonprofits, and cities from across the state, have made improving Internet access a major priority in their efforts to influence the state legislature. This week, we talk … Continue reading "Greater Minnesota Partnership Focuses on Non-Metro Need – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 136"

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OneCommunity is a nonprofit organization in northeastern Ohio that has connected thousands of community anchor institutions with high capacity connections. Created as OneCleveland before expanding, it has remained a rather unique approach to expanding high quality Internet access. This week, CEO Lev Gonick joins us to talk about OneCommunity and its contributions to the region. … Continue reading "OneCommunity's Middle Way – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 135"

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In recent weeks, we have been excited to see announcements from Ting, a company long known for being a great wireless provider (both Lisa and I are customers), that is now getting into FTTH deployments. The first announcement was from Charlottesville where it acquired another company. Last week they announced a partnership with Westminster, Maryland. … Continue reading "Ting Delivering FTTH Is Great News for Community Fiber – Community Broadband Bits Episode 134"

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While at the Broadband Communities Economic Development conference in Springfield last year, I had the good fortune to catch a panel with Chris Merdon, the CIO of Howard County, Maryland. Howard County has become an Internet Service Provider, not just to itself, but to private firms as well. To improve Internet access for businesses, it … Continue reading "Howard County Fiber Encourages New Jobs, Competition in Maryland – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 133"

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Ever since the last time I spoke with Blair Levin on Episode 37, I have wanted to have him back for a friendly discussion about public or private ownership of next generation networks. Though Blair and I entirely agree that local governments should be free to decide locally whether a community broadband network investment is … Continue reading "Public or Private Ownership? Community Broadband Bits Episode 132"

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For our final Community Broadband [no-glossary]Bits[/no-glossary] episode of 2014, we review some of the notable events and news we covered and we discuss some predictions for 2015. Lisa Gonzalez and Rebecca Toews join me in this discussion. Read the transcript from this call here. We want your feedback and suggestions for the show – please … Continue reading "Year in Review, Expectations for 2015 – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 131"

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Given all the horrible experiences people have had over the telephone with massive cable companies, it isn't clear that one can design a skit to parody such a conversation. Each time someone calls one of these companies is a parody in and of itself. However, given that this is a holiday week, we decided to … Continue reading "Can you Satirize Poor Customer Service from Big Cable Companies – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 130"

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We have seen a lot of claims about Kansas City – whether Google Fiber's approach is increasing digital inclusion, having no impact, or possibly even increasing the digital divide. This week on our Community Broadband [no-glossary]Bits[/no-glossary] podcast, we are excited to have Michael Liimatta, President of a Kansas City nonprofit called Connecting for Good, that … Continue reading "Connecting For Good in Kansas City – Community Broadband Bits Podcast Episode 129"

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The open access approach, which generally refers to multiple service providers offering services across the same physical network, remains a challenge for those who want to implement it. Though many communities would prefer to focus on the infrastructure rather than selling services directly in competition with existing providers, most find the approach is not feasible. … Continue reading "Open Access and Incumbent Challenges – Community Broadband Bits Episode 128"

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I was recently invited to speak in Brussels on the experience of U.S. cities and fiber optic investment. Videos from the seminar are available here. I took some extra time around the seminar to visit Amsterdam and then Bruges in Belgium. On this week's Community Broadband [no-glossary]Bits[/no-glossary] podcast, Lisa and I discuss broadband in the … Continue reading "Reflections on European Broadband – Community Broadband Bits Episode 127"

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