Webinar Series: How to Build a Public Broadband Network

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Webinar Series: How to Build a Public Broadband Network

 

RSVP Here

Join us for the second of a three-part webinar series on How To Build a Public Broadband Network on May 14th at Noon ET. 

The American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), in partnership with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, is celebrating the publication of its new community broadband handbook "Own Your Internet: How to Build a Public Broadband Network” with a webinar series that spotlights the experiences of a number of communities building community networks.

Moderated by Bill Coleman, author of the AAPB handbook and longtime leader in community broadband, each webinar will provide expert advice for AAPB members, and feature the experiences of community leaders as they navigated establishing, building or running a public broadband network.

The first webinar focused on Making the Community Broadband Network Decision. 

The next webinar, on May 14th, Noon ET will be focused on Determining Roles and Partnerships. 

Bill will be joined by:

  • Kristi Westbrock, General manager of CTC, a Brainerd Minnesota-based telephone cooperative. Kristi will describe the many types of partnerships in which CTC has empowered community broadband - with cities, regional school networks, electric cooperatives and tribal governments.
  • Kim McKinley, Chief Marketing Officer of UTOPIA Fiber, an Utah-based open access network provider. UTOPIA has grown its network to include additional communities and is now assisting new community networks with technical support
  • Ann Marie Gordon, Senior Field Marketing Manager, Municipalities for Calix. Calix provides equipment, management platform and managed services to Internet Service Providers, including many rural-based organizations.
  • Brieana Reed-Harmel serves as Broadband Manager for the City of Loveland Colorado’s Pulse Broadband.

The final webinar on June 11th will focus on the challenges of and strategies for building the physical infrastructure and launching services.

Please be sure to RSVP (for each of the sessions!).