DMEA Co-op Serving Up Broadband and Innovation in Colorado Community Broadband Bits Podcast 314
b'An increasing number of local communities in Colorado are finding ways to improve rural connectivity. The Delta Montrose Electric Association (DMEA), a cooperative bringing electricity to approximately 28,000 members in southwest Colorado, is in the midst of Elevate,\\xa0their Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network that will connect all co-op members. We\\u2019ve brought co-op Board Members John Gavan and Brad Harding on the show this week to talk about the project and DMEA.This conversation describes how and why the project got started and the plans for the future. Cooperatives are member organizations and\\xa0this story is an example of a member-driven project that started when\\xa0the community chose to improve their future. Significant employment losses in the\\xa0region had the potential for widespread ripple effects and community members saw high-quality connectivity as a must for economic development.John and Brad also discuss how the project is part of a larger effort to cope with the loss of electricity demand due to local job losses in the coal industry and a desire to stay on the cusp of innovation. With new infrastructure, the cooperative is investigating ways to offer such enhancements as electric vehicle charging and energy storage. They\\u2019ve also been taking a second look at local renewable energy generation facilities and wholesale contracts. DMEA and its members are taking new steps in self-reliance.DMEA has produced a short video on the Elevate project:Read more about how cooperatives are bringing broadband to rural America in our 2017 policy brief,\\xa0Cooperatives Fiberize Rural America: A Trusted Model For The Internet Era.This show is 31 minutes long and can be played on this page or\\xa0via iTunes\\xa0or the tool of your choice\\xa0using this feed.Read the transcript for this show here.You can\\xa0download\\xa0this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to\\xa0other episodes here\\xa0or view all episodes\\xa0in our index.Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is\\xa0Warm Duck Shuffle\\xa0and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.Image of the\\xa0Gunnison River running through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Montrose County by Terry Foote, licensed through Creative Commons\\xa0(CC BY-SA 4.0).'