Category: public utility district
Mason County PUD 3 Uses Innovation for Strategic Deployment – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 316
When we spoke with Justin Holzgrove, Mason PUD 3 Telecommunications & Community Relations Manager, back in October 2017, we discussed how the public utility district in Washington was about to embark on expanding its services. This week, Justin is back and he's joined by Isak Finer, who works as Chief Marketing Officer for COS Systems. The company is helping Mason PUD 3 develop strategic deployment plan with COS Service Zones, their demand aggregation tool.
In this interview, we learn about the decision to expand the use of the fiber infrastructure from electric utility support purposes to residential and business connectivity. As Justin describes, the county is filled with many small, rural communities. Traditional, large ISPs don't typically find much motivation to serve these low density areas. Large numbers of electric customers let PUD officials know that they needed better Internet access and they wanted Mason County PUD 3 to supply the infrastructure.
In order to determine the best way to implement their build out, the PUD engaged COS Systems, a firm with a decade of experience in deployment planning, especially in large, rural areas. Isak gives us background on the company and their software that helps communities, such as Mason County PUD 3, take a thoughtful approach toward deployment to maximize opportunities and move toward success.
Christopher, Isak, and Justin also consider the meaning of "open access" and how that meaning changes depending on location. As technology improves, innovators find new ways to use open access infrastructure that push the limits of what we've seen up to now.
Read the transcript of the show here.
Listen to episode 274 of the podcast for our earlier conversation with Justin.We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.This show is 34 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed.
You can download this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index.
Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.
Author ILSR StaffPosted on July 31, 2018 September 13, 2018 Categories audio, broadband bits, mason pud 3, open access, podcast, public utility district, pud, rural, washington
Lessons From the Nation's Oldest Open Access Fiber Network – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 279
Grant County's Public Utility District was, along with some nearby PUDs, among the very first deployers of Fiber-to-the-Home networks shortly after the turn of the millennium. And per Washington's law, they built an open access network that today has more than twenty service providers.Grant County PUD Project Specialist Russ Brethrower joins us for Community Broadband Bits podcast 279, a live interview from the Broadband Communities Economic Development Conference in Atlanta. We discuss the history of the network and other observations from Russ, who has more direct experience in these networks than the vast majority of us that regularly speculate on them. We also talk about the experiences of open access over 16 years and how they financed the network. Read the transcript for this show here.We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below. This show is 23 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed.You can download this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index.Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.Image of Deep Lake in Grant County © Steven Pavlov / http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Senapa, via Wikimedia Commons.
Author ILSR StaffPosted on November 15, 2017 Categories audio, broadband bits, competition, electricity, electrification, expansion, financing, grant county, grant utility district, history, open access, podcast, public utility district, rural, utility, washington
Mason PUD 3 Responds to Muni Fiber Demand with Fiberhoods – Community Broadband Bits Podcast 274
Mason County Public Utility District 3 covers a large area with a lot of people that have poor Internet access. If "PUD" didn't give it away, it is located in Washington State on the Olympic Peninsula and had already been investing in fiber as an electric utility for monitoring its internal systems.Mason PUD 3 Telecommunications & Community Relations Manager Justin Holzgrove and Public Information & Government Relations Manager Joel Myer join us for episode 274 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast to discuss how they are expanding their open access fiber optic network to the public after seeing tremendous support not just for Internet access but specifically for the PUD to build the infrastructure. We talk about how they are financing it and picking areas to build in as well as the role of the Northwest Open Access Network, which we have discussed on previous shows and written about as well. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, a good place to start for those interested in open access and user-financed investment.Read the transcript of this show here.We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.This show is 38 minutes long and can be played on this page or via iTunes or the tool of your choice using this feed.You can download this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index.Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.Image of the Mason PUD 3 Fiberhood courtesy of COS Systems.
Author ILSR StaffPosted on October 11, 2017 Categories audio, broadband bits, economic development, electricity, electrification, fees, fiberhood, financing, gigabit, grassroots, mason pud 3, noanet, open access, podcast, public meeting, public utility district, pud, rural, utility, washington, wholesale-only