Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Katie Kienbaum
Before joining ILSR, Katie conducted outreach to members of rural electric cooperatives in western North Carolina. She holds a degree in economics and environmental studies from the University of Pittsburgh.
Stories by this author
Anti-Competition Bill Awaiting Final Vote in Louisiana House Would Limit Expansion of Electric Co-op Broadband
A bill close to being passed by the Louisiana State Legislature would allow electric cooperatives to expand Internet access but only in parts of the state without broadband currently.
Virginia Co-op Members Organize for Transparency, Renewable Energy, and Broadband
A couple years ago, fed up member-owners of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) in Virginia banded together to form Repower REC, a grassroots group that’s seeking to reform the state’s largest electric cooperative and advocating for clean energy and improved Internet access.
Electric Co-op Connectivity Covered on New NRECA Podcast
More and more electric cooperatives have been building broadband networks to bring better Internet access to their rural members. According to the cleverly titled podcast “Along Those Lines” from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), that trend isn’t stopping any time soon.
Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 357
This is the transcript for episode 357 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. In this episode, Christopher interviews Monica Webb and Adam Eisner from Ting Internet about how the company is partnering with municipalities to connect communities across the country.
Fact Sheet: Frontier Has Failed Rural America
Despite raking in hundreds of millions in government broadband subsidies, Frontier Communications has failed time and time again to bring reliable, high-speed connectivity to the rural communities it serves. Our new fact sheet, Frontier Has Failed Rural America, presents evidence of Frontier’s negligence and suggests that rather than continuing to trust Frontier, government officials should look to publicly owned and community-minded providers to connect rural residents, businesses, and institutions.
Christopher Mitchell Talks Quarantine Connectivity on Marketplace Tech
Marketplace Tech’s Molly Wood interviewed Christopher Mitchell, the director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative, this morning on national radio. The pair discussed how broadband providers are responding to increased demand during the Covid-19 outbreak and what barriers there are to expanding Internet access to families sheltering-in-place.
Unbelievably High Customer Satisfaction Helps FairlawnGig Grow Local Economy
While large Internet service providers routinely face some of the lowest customer satisfaction rates in the country, municipal broadband networks, like FairlawnGig in Fairlawn, Ohio, have set themselves a
Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 425
This is the transcript for episode 425 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher Mitchell speaks with three people from Chattanooga, Tennessee, about the community's new plan to connect all school children who receive free and reduced lunch to free Internet access from EPB Fiber for the next 10 years.
Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 340
This is the transcript for episode 340 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher speaks with Don Patten, general manager of MINET in Oregon, about some of the challenges that MINET had to overcome and the new expansion into the nearby community of Dallas.
Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 360
This is the transcript for episode 360 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. In this episode, Christopher speaks with Ben Bawtree-Jobson from SiFi Networks about how the company is building an open access network in Fullerton, California.