This is episode 174 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Chad Glanzer and Carmen O'Neill from the consulting company Vantage Point share their thoughts on the role of consultants in the creation of community broadband networks. Listen to this episode here.

Chad: It's getting good solid answers from all those questions. Talk to other cities and the problems they’ve ran into and just to insure that those are taken care of in your plan as well.

Lisa: Hello. This is the Community Broadband Bits Podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. Welcome to Episode 174, a conversation with Chad Glanzer and Carmen O'Neill from Vantage Point, a telecommunications engineering and consulting company with headquarters in Mitchell, South Dakota. Chad is the president and Carmen is the assistant director of engineering of this worker-owned firm. Chris interviews our guests today about the process involved when a municipality or other entity decides to invest in a network. There are a number of considerations when transitioning from vision to implementation. Chad and Carmen walk us through some of the questions community leaders need to tackle once they're ready to move forward. 

Learn more about Vantage Point at vantagepnt.com. Now here is Chris visiting with Chad Glanzer and Carmen O'Neill.

Chris: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell. Today I'm speaking with Chad Glanzer, president of Vantage Points Solutions. Welcome to the show. 

Chad: Thanks Chris. 

Chris: We're also going to be speaking with Carmen O'Neill, the assistant director of engineering. Welcome to our show.

Carmen: Thank you. 

Chris: I'm excited to be speaking with someone from Mitchell, South Dakota. Congratulations on being such a wonderfully named city. I've been through there. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Vantage Point Solutions and how you came to be in such a great city?

This is Episode 173 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Christopher Mitchell interviews Bruce Patterson, technology director for the city of Ammon, Idaho. They discuss the open access network and the city's award-winning public safety app. Listen to this episode here.

Chris: Building something that gives control back to the end user has really been what the internet is all about, and I think what we're building here today is kind of another layer down, and it gives the end user even more control over what's available, or what's coming to their home or their business.

Lisa: Hello, this is the Community Broadband Bits Podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. This is episode 173 and Chris is in Ammon, Idaho visiting with Bruce Patterson, technology director for the city and Ty Ashcroft, systems network administrator. There's some new and exciting things happening in Ammon where the city is taking a new approach to building out its open access network to bring fiber to the home. In this interview Chris also talks to Bruce and Ty about the city's award winning public safety app and how the network will open up choice for subscribers in both providers and services. Chris was in Ammon working on our next video. Now here's Chris talking with Bruce Patterson, technology director for Ammon, Idaho, and Ty Ashcroft, Ammon systems network administrator.

Chris: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell and today I'm on location in Ammon, Idaho with Bruce Patterson, the technology director for the city of Ammon. Welcome to the show.

Bruce: Thank you, Chris.

Chris: Ty Ashcroft, systems network administrator, welcome to the show.

Ty: Thank you.

Chris: It's great to have you back, have you on Ty, Bruce you're back for maybe your second or third appearance, I'm not sure.

Bruce: I've lost count.

This is Episode 172 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Chris interviews Tim Pozar, Director of Operations for San Francisco-based Fandor, on how open access networks improve competition. Listen to this episode here.

Tim: What we'd like to see is that competition that we have at the data center extended out to the street address so that you just don't have one, two, or maybe even three internet service providers you can pick from. You have 40 internet service providers you can pick from.

Lisa: Hello. This is the Community Broadband Bits Podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. Tim Pozar joins us for Episode 172. In addition to his role as Director of Operations for San Francisco-based Fandor, he's also a gentleman with decades of experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong advocate for network neutrality.

Chris and Tim get into the nuts and bolts of open access this week. In addition to details on how open access can be delivered, the conversation turns to various ways open access can improve the competitive environment for consumers. Learn more about Tim's company at Fandor.com and be sure to check out our many stories on open access at MuniNetworks.org.

Now, here are Chris and Tim Pozar discussing open access.

Chris: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell. Today I'm speaking with Tim Pozar, the Director of Operations for Fandor and I think more importantly for today's conversation a concerned citizen, community broadband advocate and generally interesting guy to talk to about open access.

Welcome to the show.

Tim: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Chris: Tim, you and I, I met with you one time when I was out in that area and I've known of you from reputation, but can you tell our listeners how is it that you've come to know so much about the internet and why should people listen to you as an expert?

This is Episode 3 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Todd Marriott and Pete Ashdown join the show to discuss the benefits of the network UTOPIA and how an open access model actually works. Listen to this episode here. 

Christopher: This is Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance back for our third podcast, discussing community broadband networks. Today, we're talking about the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency or UTOPIA. We start with UTOPIA executive director Todd Marriott and we'll finish with a short interview of Pete Ashdown the founder of X Mission which offers services over UTOPIA. Much has already been written about UTOPIA'S financial problems, so we chose to focus instead on some of the benefits of the network. Now, let's start with executive direct Todd Marriott. Todd Marriott, thank you very much for joining me on Community Broadband Bits. 

Todd: Thanks, Chris, really appreciate all that you do here in the nation in regards to this national effort that is so critical. 

Christopher: Thanks. Well, you run UTOPIA which has been around for a very long time. I'm just hoping you can briefly explain to our audience what UTOPIA is. 

Todd: UTOPIA is 16 municipalities in Utah that got together about 10 years ago, begged for the incumbents, the cable companies, to provide better broadband, they were told no, they offered to pay them to do it, they were told no, so they got together and said then we'll take matters into our own hands, and they put into play some active Ethernets, open-access system that goes all the way from up in Rattlesnake Pass in Idaho down to Las Vegas, and over 2000 miles of fiber in between, so it is really a critical infrastructure project of the state of Utah. 

Christopher: Now, when you say open access, can you just tell me a little bit about what that means? If I'm a resident in the area, what does that mean for me?

This is Episode 171 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Tina Mooring of Computer Central in Wilson, North Carolina joins the show to discuss community networks and local business opportunities. Listen to this episode here.

Tina: The other incumbents are not willing to do it, not willing to spend the money only if they're pushed to do it, and you've got someone that's willing to do it. There are so many services my company and other IT providers can offer having that service go out to other areas. 

Lisa: You are listening to Episode 171 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Hello, this is Lisa Gonzalez. We often speak with CIOs, information systems directors, and elected officials in communities served by municipal networks, but once in a while, we get to speak to business leaders who are taking advantage of community broadband. 

This week, Chris speaks with Tina Mooring, store manager of Computer Central, a local business in Wilson, North Carolina. Tina tells Chris how her attitude from skepticism to support for Wilson's Greenlight Network. She offers a first-hand account of how a local publicly owned network reached out to work with a community business to help it meet the needs of its customers. 

The Community Broadband Bits Podcast offers unique commercial-free coverage you won't find anywhere else. We bring you these stories commercial-free, but they are not free to produce. Please take a moment to donate at muninetworks.org or ilsr.org to help us bring you more stories that you won't find anywhere. Now, here's Chris speaking with Tina Mooring from Computer Central in Wilson, North Carolina,.

Chris: Welcome to another addition of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. I'm Chris Mitchell. Today, I'm speaking with Tina Mooring, the store manager of Computer Central in Wilson, North Carolina. Welcome to the show.

Tina: Thank you.

Chris: Thank you very much for coming on. I've been aware of your firm for a while because we track the municipal networks around the country, and I've always been very interested in how local businesses could take advantage of them and use them. Maybe you could tell us a little bit, tell our audience about what Computer Central does.

The first episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Chris interviews Linda Kramer of the Sibley/Renville Fiber Project about the importance of rural broadband and fiber to the farm. Listen to this episode here.

Christopher: This is Christopher Mitchell with the Institute For Local Self-Reliance. We run the website community broadband network, which is located at muninetworks.org. This is the first of what we hope will be many audio shows featuring short interviews with people doing interest things to create networks that put community needs first.  For this inaugural episode, I spoke with Linda Kramer from the marketing committee of the Sibley/Renville Fiber Project, which is a project building a fiber to the home network or fiber to the farm network in very rural Minnesota southwest of the Twin City's metro area. It covers all of Sibley County, several towns in the vicinity around there, and a part of Renville County as well. Many other areas are looking to get onboard once the project gets started. We mostly talked about their marketing efforts and how they spread the word and got people interested. Hope you enjoy the interview. Thank you for tuning in. Can you describe the region to me? 

Linda: Sibley and Renville Counties are rural counties in south central Minnesota. We are predominantly agricultural communities. The biggest towns in our project towns area are in the vicinity of two-thousand residents, so then we're running with townships in a number of cities, small towns in the project area. Of course, mainly our agricultural and especially a rural area that we're working with. It's the entirety of Sibley County and then it's the western sliver of Renville County surrounding the City of Fairfax and then we have a few additional communities, towns, right outside the Sibley/Renville County area as well. 

Christopher: What is the Sibley/Renville project trying to accomplish? 

This is Episode 2 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Chris interviews Monica Webb to discuss Wired West, an initiative in rural Massachusetts working to build an open access fiber network. Listen to this episode here.

Christopher: This is Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self Reliance back again for a second podcast, talking about community broadband networks. Today, we're talking with Monica Webb about Wired West, an initiative in rural western Massachusetts, that is well on its way to building an open access fiber optic network.  First, if you haven't stopped by muninetworks.org lately, we just released a new report detailing how Martin County, Florida, built it's own network to connect schools and other community anchor institutions. They've saved millions by walking away from Comcast. You can find it at muninetworks.org. Our intro and outro music is by Fit and the Conniptions. You can find them at conniptions.org. Now, let's turn to our interview about Wired West with Monica Webb. Monica, thanks for joining me on this show. Can you tell us a little bit about western Massachusetts?

Monica: Absolutely. Western Massachusetts, it's ironic, because often when I tell people that I'm from Massachusetts, they automatically ask me about Boston, which is a great city. Western Massachusetts is pretty different. It's certainly rural. It's very scenic. It's a lot of beautiful, rolling hills and valleys. We are about a two hour drive from Boston and two hours from New York. What that means is that we are a popular destination for a lot of folks who have second homes or who end of actually migrating here for quality of life reasons. We have a lot of culture. People are relatively educated. We have some good universities here. The only pieces of the puzzle that is, of course, missing, is ubiquitous, affordable and adequate broadband access.

Christopher: You have a number of towns out there that are all lacking this broadband access. How did you start coming together to find a joint solution?

This is Episode 4 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Kevin Kryzda, the Chief Information Officer for Martin County, describes how the community created an institutional network. Listen to this episode here.

Christopher: This is Christopher Mitchell with the Institute For Local Self-Reliance talking about community broadband networks. Today we're talking about a Florida county that built its own network to save millions of dollars in connecting schools and other public facilities. We recently released an in-depth report explaining how and why Martin County declared independence from Comcast. You can find it at muninetworks.org/reports. In a moment, we'll talk with Kevin Kryzda, the Chief Information Officer for Martin County, but first some background. Local governments across the country are getting ripped off by the big cable and telephone companies. Many can get a much bigger bang for the taxpayer's buck by building their own networks, and where the community is willing, such networks could be expanded to serve residents and businesses. In the following interview, we'll talk about how Martin County saved millions of dollars by building its own network, which was actually far superior to the one they were leasing from Comcast. Here's the interview with CIO Kryzda.I'm here on the line with Kevin Kryzda, the CIO of Martin County in Florida. Thank you for joining us today.

Kavin: Thank you for having this interview with me.

Christopher: I'm excited. We've talked several times in the past so we could get a flavor of your network. I was hoping to start by you describing the dark fiber network and the conditions under which Comcast was attempting to increase the price of it.

This is Episode 5 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Chris interviews Catherine Rice of SEATOA about local authority and community networks in North Carolina. Listen to this episode here.

Christopher: This is Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance talking about community broadband networks on the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Today we're talking with Catherine Rice, the president of SEATOA; the Southeastern Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. Catherine has been one of the strongest voices in North Carolina to preserve local authority over broadband and documenting the ways in which AT&T, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink and others have hurt local communities by raising prices and generally refusing to upgrade their networks. Without Catherine fighting for North Carolina, CenturyLink and Time Warner Cable could've had their monopolistic legislation for far fewer campaign contributions that it ultimately took. Here's the interview with Catherine Rice: I'm here with Catherine Rice, president of SEATOA. Thank you for coming on the show.

Catherine: Oh, it's a pleasure, Chris.

Christopher: SEATOA is a branch of NATOA and I'm hoping you can start with a little description of what SEATOA is.

Catherine: Well, SEATOA is as you said, a chapter of NATOA. We consist of local governments of broadband planners and community programmers in the four states of North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

Christopher:You've been very active in defending the right of local communities in North Carolina to build their own broadband networks if they decide that's a wise investment. Can you tell me a little bit about the background of why that's important and how Time Warner Cable has been fighting against you on this?

This is Episode 6 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Cheryl Leanza, a broadband consultant with the Progressive States Network, joins the show to discuss telecommunication policy. Listen to this episode here.

Christopher: Welcome to the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self Reliance, and the editor of muninetworks.org. Today we're talking with Cheryl Leanza, a broadband consultant with the Progressive States Network. We discuss what states have been doing to change telecommunications policy, picking up where last weeks show left off. In addition to community broadband bands, we talk about efforts to deregulate all telecommunications services, and how people can get involved to make sure legislatures are responding to real problems, not just doing what big cable and telephone companies tell them to. Here's our interview with Cheryl Leanza. I'm here with Cheryl Leanza, the broadband consultant with Progressive States Network, and we're excited to talk to you today, thanks for coming on the show.

Cheryl: Thanks for having me.

Christopher: Can you tell us a little bit about what the Progressive States Network does in the area of telecommunications?

Cheryl: Sure. The Progressive States Network, one of it's primary focuses is, generally speaking, economic security. We have a economic blueprint which offers state legislators around the country some models and suggestions for how to ensure that all Americans receive the economic security. In telecommunications, the big focus has been on community media, making sure that broadband reaches all Americans, and that it's reliable, and it can help grow the economy and create jobs. 

Christopher: Now when you say the media and broadband, so you're looking at media not just television and radio, but obviously where it's going in the future, is that right?

Cheryl: Absolutely. The big focus has been on high speed internet or broadband, making sure that everyone, as our economy, as our jobs, as our social service networks and benefits networks move to the new place online and on the internet, that all Americans can benefit from that.