Connect This!

Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Connect This! offers an irreverent and inside look at broadband tech and policy. Each week features people with direct experience building networks or working on policy to improve broadband access. We talk about current events and focus on a big topic for half of each episode.

  1. 10 avr.

    Farewell to Connect This!

    After five and a half years, dozens of guests, two emergency episodes, and 124 shows, we’re saying goodbye to Connect This!. We want to thank you all, from the bottom of our collective heart, for joining us on this journey. Across the live stream and audio versions of this show, we’ve been delighted and surprised each year to get nearly 10,000 listens as we’ve talked about building and managing networks, competition in the marketplace, creating clear and effective marketing campaigns, state and federal infrastructure grant programs, dark money campaigns, local broadband champions, affordability, digital skills, and more. Thank you to all of the guests who have lent their time and expertise to the show. We couldn’t have done it without you. We’re taking the energy you all have given us and the lessons we’ve learned over to Unbuffered, our new show at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which talks about all the ways that communications and data technology shapes our lives and our communties – from Internet access, to devices, to privacy and surveillance, and more. Unbuffered combines the format and ethos of both Connect This! and the Community Broadband Bits podcast, where we recorded almot 700 episodes over a ten-year run. Community broadband will remain at the core of what we do here, but the world is a bigger, more complicated place than it was a decade ago, and new challenges call for new approaches to meet them. Special thanks for Travis Carter, co-founder of the show, and Doug Dawson and Kim McKinley, for sharing their experience and knowledge as we continue to move the needle towards fast, affordable Internet access for every household that wants it.

    3 min

  2. 2025-12-01

    Small Towns Building Broadband, Broadband Usage, and the Continued Retreat from Fiber | Episode 124 of the Connect This! Show

    Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter 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: A new report from ILSR on 19 small towns in Massachusetts building public partnerships and new fiber networks. Massive AWS and Cloudflare outages impacting large parts of the Internet The new broadband usage report from OpenVault 18 states so far have finally gotten NTIA approval after redoing most of the work from last summer, with the result being fewer homes will be passed by the BEAD program and, of those, a smaller proportion will get fiber than under Biden. The latest attempt to hamstring any state regulation of AI by tying BEAD approval to the measure Join us live on November 20th at 3pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynetworks.org 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.

    1 h 17 min

  3. 2025-10-30

    The Retreat from Fiber, Local Government Inaction, and 8 Million Americans Offline | Episode 123 of the Connect This! Show

    Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter 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: Now that final Benefit of the Bargain numbers are in on the BEAD program, the trend is clear: tens of thousands of locations will no longer see any federal solution, and nearly a million more will get worse and more expensive satellite service rather the fiber. With BEAD now a shadow of what it could be, it’s never been more apparent that local governments need to step into the gap. Where are they all? A new report claiming just 8 million Americans remain offline as of 2025 shows the trouble of asking too simple of questions and accepting too simple of answers in describing the problem of the digital divide. Join us live on October 24th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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.

    1 h 10 min

  4. 2025-10-03

    Big Apple Connect, Pole Attachments, and DEA Lawsuits | Episode 122 of the Connect This! Show

    Edit: We encountered a technical issue with the streaming platform for the show; it resolves around 1:20. Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (Tak Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and special guest Angela Siefer to talk about all the recent broadband news that’s fit to print. On the docket today: Cedar Falls Utilities in Iowa shuts down its cable TV offerings Big Apple Connect in New York City continues to give public dollars to broadband monopolies instead of implementing a structural solution A new report says SpaceX has foreign investors in China West Virginia wants to build a pole attachment database, but investor-owned utilities are pushing back The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has filed its lawsuit against the Trump Administration for cancelling the Digital Equity Act Join us live on October 10th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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.

    1 h 10 min

  5. 2025-09-26

    Secret Fiber Caps and Fiber Platforms | Episode 121 of the Connect This! Show

    Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter joined by regular guest Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and special guests Josh Johnson and Donny Smith, from Fibersmith –  an OSS/BSS design and management firm for operators around the country. Topics of discussion  include: Secret fiber caps from NTIA to push BEAD funds toward LEO. A foiled cell attack in New York City. A deep dive on Fibersmith, and the things small and medium-sized operators need to think about long before they put their first shovel in the ground. Join us live on September 26th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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. 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.

    1 h 12 min

  6. 2025-09-05

    Fiber Acquisitions and the New BEAD Numbers Are In | Episode 120 of the Connect This!

    Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter 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: Starship launch success T-mobile buys USI Fiber in Minneapolis New BEAD numbers show a shifting of public dollars away from fiber and towards satellite AT&T buys Echostar spectrum; the 4th carrier is dead It’s ISPs versus the music industry, with your privacy and connection on the chopping block Join us live on September 5th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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.

    1 h 10 min

  7. 2025-08-05

    Digital C Goes to Detroit and the Tech Spread Coming to BEAD | Episode 119 of the Connect This! Show

    Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) is joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Broadband) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) and special guests Gigi Sohn (American Association for Public Broadband) and Josh Etheridge (EPC) to talk about Mountain Connect, T-Mobile continuing to buy up ISPs, Digital C going to Detroit, antitrust, and more. Join us live on August 13th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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.

    1 h 19 min

  8. 2025-07-30

    Who Benefits from this Bargain? | Episode 118 of the Connect This! Show

    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 Heather Mills (Tilson) to talk about the FCC giving out participation trophies to the monopoly providers, how state offices are responding to the BEAD guidance changes, disaster response and resilient Internet networks, and more. The full list of topics includes: Charter Spectrum calling deliberate fiber cuts “domestic terrorism” FCC Chair Brendan Carr further abdicating the commission’s responsibility to the American people How states are responding to the Benefit of the Bargain BEAD changes FEMA’s role in rebuilding our Internet networks California’s affordable broadband bill getting pulled Whether T-Mobile has enough fiber to support its plan for the future Join us live on July 24th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at broadband@communitynets.org 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.

    1 h 11 min
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À propos

Connect This! offers an irreverent and inside look at broadband tech and policy. Each week features people with direct experience building networks or working on policy to improve broadband access. We talk about current events and focus on a big topic for half of each episode.

Informations

  • Créateur
    Institute for Local Self-Reliance
  • Années d’activité
    2021 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    126
  • Classement
    Contenu explicite
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license
  • Site Web de l’émission
    Connect This!