This week on the podcast, Christopher speaks with Brieana Reed-Harmel, Municipal Fiber Manager for the City of Loveland, located in Colorado\u2019s Northern Front Range about an hour north of Denver. The city is home to over 80,000 residents as well as a municipal fiber broadband network called Pulse.\xa0
Chris and Brieana discuss Loveland\u2019s population expansion over the past few years and Pulse\u2019s resulting plans to extend beyond city limits into the \u201curban fringe,\u201d which is more difficult to receive grant funding to serve. Brieana shares the ways in which the municipal network has leveraged its relationships, having partnered with its local school district to connect unserved areas during the pandemic, and currently in conversation with the county, which will help Loveland with the matching funds it needs for upcoming grant expansions. Brieana speaks to the challenges of building out the network through inflation and the pandemic. She stresses the importance of having a solid business model and great project management, as well as the scrappiness and ongoing investment needed to ensure a municipal network is sustainable and can bring residents quality connectivity at the best value.\xa0
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