Broadband Action: The CBAN Podcast
How is it that the U.S. still faces challenges around the adoption and accessibility of fast, reliable, affordable, and universally available broadband? How does broadband access – or the lack of it – impact the lives of those who live in underserved or untapped communities? Hosts Curtis Dean, Jon Willow, and Todd Kielkopf – founders of the Community Broadband Action Network – take on the issues faced by community broadband providers and advocates, from policy and its real effects on local communities, to the commercial landscape and how technology can help or hinder the drive to digitally connect every U.S. resident to the internet in a meaningful way. With special guests from across the spectrum of broadband (no pun intended!), expect a lively, round table-style conversation in every episode. Who knows? You may even learn something.
Digital C is Cleveland’s own nonprofit internet provider, built to reach the roughly one in three Cleveland households that traditional ISPs left behind. In this episode, host Curtis Dean talks with CEO Josh Edmonds about how Digital C uses a hybrid wireless-fiber network — rooftop radios beaming connectivity across the city — to deploy service in months instead of the decade a traditional fiber build can take. They cover the $18-a-month Canopy internet service, the Click digital skills program, and how Digital C’s locally-owned model is now expanding beyond Cleveland into Detroit. It’s a look at what community-driven broadband can do when a city hands the keys to a local provider instead of a national one.