Catch an emergency episode of the Connect This! Show, with host Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) joined by Lori Adams (Nokia), Heather Mills (Tilson), and Blair Levin (Brookings) to talk about the raft of fundamental changes to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Act (BEAD) announced by NTIA last Friday. States are required to rebuild and resubmit their proposals to the federal agency on a 90-day sprint after making core changes just as money for construction was about to go out the door.

Join us live on June 9th at 4pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting), and special guest Josh Etheridge to talk about all the recent broadband news that's fit to print. Bountiful, Utah and Oakland, California announce newsworthy milestones to improve connectivity for households, but the big news is looming structural changes to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. And wouldn't you know it, but NTIA releases them just ten minutes into the live show. 

Join us live on June 7th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and special guest Angela Siefer (National Digital Inclusion Alliance) to talk about all the recent broadband news that's fit to print. Topics include:

• Charter and Cox announce agreement to merge, unseating Comcast as the largest cable provider in the United States
• What the public-funds match for Starlink should be, when BEAD moves forward.
• Funding for hot spots - a core digital equity tool that grew to new importance under the pandemic - is under threat.
• Trump's announcement that he was ending the Digital Equity Act, and the significant impact it will have if the order holds.

Join us live on May 16th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) to talk about all the recent broadband news that's fit to print. Topics include:

• The first launch of Amazon's Project Kuiper Low-Earth Orbit Internet access satellite constellation
• The FCC losing (or maybe not?) it's ability to levy fines
• The importance of getting construction right
• Fixing urban cell phone coverage
• Kentucky Wired lawsuit between state-owned network and its operational partner

Join us live on May 2nd at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and special guest Shane Eleniak (Calix) to talk about:

• Comcast's new five-year price lock
• A CNET pricing study that looks at the rising cost of access that hasn't improved most household's reliability
• The milestones that Utah-based municipal network UTOPIA Fiber hit in 2024
• The future of Passive Optical Networks, and where we go after XGS PON

Join us live on April 18th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) with special guest Blair Levin (New Street Research) to talk about states asking the federal government for defaulted RDOF funds back, the Arielle Roth hearing, the future of the USF, and more. Topics include:

• Achieving Internet for All takes time
• What we learned from the Arielle Roth hearing
• The future of the Universal Service Fund in an LEO World
• States want their defaulted Rural Digital Opportunity Fund back
• AT&T to buy Lumen?
• Dig-Once Challenges

Join us live on March 28th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) to talk about a grab-bag of topics including:

• The revolving door of government
• BEAD's grant tax
• Ted Cruz going after hotspots
• Minnesota's broadband workforce law
• Who will care about the federal broadband maps after BEAD?

Join us live on March 14th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) to talk about major changes coming to the BEAD program and a grab-bag of other topics, including:

• Amazon drone delivery pauses in College Station, Texas
• A new report shows the Affordable Connectivity Program saved the federal government more than it cost
• The coming transformation of the BEAD program, and the likely minor and major changes to come: including removing the preference for fiber, eliminating planning requirements pertaining to climate change and service addenda like data caps, and much more.
• The announcement of Starlink Residential Lite
• Takeaways from the new OpenVault broadband usage report
• If some recent fiber provider news is revealing of the first provider closures

Join us live on March 7th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and special guest Jason Livingood (Comcast) to talk how cable network operators are innovating to reduce latency, combat buffer bloat, and improve their networks around the county. Join us live on February 21 at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Join us live on February 21 at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) along with special guest Paul Dickinson (Dura-line, Fiber Optic Sensing Association, and Aii) to talk about the future of fiber optic sensing to do everything from avoid fiber cuts from construction equipment to monitor traffic to detect pipeline leakages. They also hit a grab-bag of other topics, including:

• Arielle Roth's nomination to NTIA
• The AI bubble hitting middle-mile builders
• The FCC reversing course on its efforts to protect renters' access to a competitive broadband market
• FWA providers going in on serving those living in mobile home parks
• Who owns the Internet?

Join us live on February 7th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.

This show was more technical than is usual, even for Connect This!. See transcript below. Some additional resources mentioned in the episode include:

Smarter Infrastructure through Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing with Paul Dickinson

Fiber Broadband Association Awards Concepts that Advance Subscriber Experience at Fiber Connect 2024

G.652.D vs G.657.A1 vs G.657.A2 Fiber Optic Cabling: What’s the Difference?

A New Class of Sensing Products for DAS – AcoustiSens® Wideband Vibration Sensor Fibers and Cables

AcoustiSens® Wideband Vibration Sensor Fiber

The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure

Common Ground Alliance

Fiber Deployment Cost Annual Report, 2024

Meet the crypto officers: How the internet is controlled by 14 people with seven secret keys