Share
Light Reading Podcasts
The Divide: Virginia's Dr. Tamarah Holmes on running the country's 'OG' broadband office
On this episode, we hear from Dr. Tamarah Holmes, director of the Office of Broadband for the state of Virginia.
Since the office was established in 2019, Dr. Holmes says Virginia has successfully closed half of its digital divide. Recently, the state's Governor Ralph Northam announced plans to invest $700 million in federal relief money toward achieving universal broadband access over the next three years.
Dr. Holmes and I discuss how Virginia has been able to address connectivity needs through the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, or the VATI program, for last-mile deployments, why it helps that the state's broadband office sits within the Department of Housing and Community Development, and how her office is preparing to distribute state and federal aid to close the remaining divide.
Link to access the state's VATI grant program (just remember... Dog, House, Cat, Dog!): https://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/vati
More episodes
View all episodes
SCTE's TechExpo will pack plenty of tech, with a bigger focus on the 'experience'
21:10||Season 1SCTE's Janelle Morse joins the podcast to preview themes at this year's TechExpo in Atlanta, including what's next for broadband and how AI is being implemented as operators put more weight into the overall customer experience.
The Divide: How Oklahoma is meeting digital needs with Community Access Portals
33:32||Season 6This week: Mike Sanders, executive director, Oklahoma broadband office, discusses progress made toward the state's connectivity goals and a new ARPA-funded effort to roll out 175 Community Access Portals in libraries statewide.
Unpacking 6G with Omdia's Gabriel Brown
38:11||Season 1Omdia's Gabriel Brown joined the Signal Strength podcast to discuss and dissect Qualcomm's '6G Leadership Day,' which dug into emerging use cases, potential moneymakers and anticipated product timelines.
The Divide: Why digital inclusion needs a new funding model
32:57||Season 6This week: Connect Humanity's Samantha Schartman and Mission Telecom's Mark Colwell discuss their 'Alt Funding Field Guide,' which explores a new approach to co-investing in digital adoption initiatives focusing on six sectors.
Policy, tech and convergence to collide at The Independent Show
50:50||Season 1NCTC's Lou Borrelli and ACA Connects' Grant Spellmeyer hop on the podcast to preview The Independent Show, set for July 26-29 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, which will dig into top policy issues and tech trends for small and midsized operators.
The Divide: SHLB's Joey Wender on the fight to save E-Rate
25:26||Season 6This week: Joey Wender, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB), joins to discuss the FCC's 'war on the E-Rate program' and what advocates can do to help save it.
The Divide: NDIA's Angela Siefer on the fight to restore the Digital Equity Act
27:34||Season 6This week: NDIA's Angela Siefer returns to the podcast to discuss what's happened in the digital inclusion space since the Digital Equity Act was 'ended' by President Trump last year as well as ongoing efforts to restore funding.
The Divide: Gigi Sohn on how to defeat opponents of public broadband
28:42||Season 6This week: Gigi Sohn discusses how 'dark money' defeated a public broadband plan in Longmeadow, Mass., why anti-muni-broadband efforts work in some towns but not others and why grassroots buy-in is key to public broadband success.
The Divide: How permitting problems delay broadband builds
31:27||Season 6This week: Execs with Brightspeed, Ziply Fiber and CentraCom discuss the biggest problems with broadband permitting; how inconsistent timelines, requirements and costs cause deployment delays; and what reforms are most needed.