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On this episode of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, Christopher is joined by ILSR’s senior editor and reporter, Sean Gonsalves, Doug Seacat, Owner of Deeply Digital and Clearnetworx, and Casey Irving, Director of Business Development, about bringing world-class connectivity to households in and around the city of Ridgeway, Colorado.
Around five years ago, Clearnetworx won a Colorado broadband fund grant to build a Fiber-to-the-Home network for the community, only to have it challenged by incumbent provider, CenturyLink. Subsequent appeals ultimately led to a situation where Clearnetworx lost the grant to CenturyLink. Instead of the money going towards a Fiber-to-the-Home network for residents, it was used for a modest upgrade to CenturyLink’s DSL network.
Clearnetworx has continued to pursue its roadmap to the area and made significant progress, but the loss of the grant left residents in the area with subpar Internet access for years after. It’s a situation that speaks to the need for local officials to become conversant in broadband issues, so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.
This show is 46 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed.
Transcript coming soon.
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Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.