Osage and the Iowa Legislature Community Broadband Bits Podcast 232

Published: Dec. 13, 2016, 4:20 p.m.

b"Located in northwest Iowa, Osage has been an innovative utility leader with forward-looking investments in both telecommunications and clean energy with wind and solar. Osage Municipal Utilites General Manager Josh Byrnes joins us for Community Broadband Bits podcast 232. He is also in the midst of retiring after 3 terms in the Iowa Legislature.\\xa0Osage built a hybrid fiber coaxial cable network many years ago that they are considering upgrading to being fully fiber-optic following a lot of community support for next-generation connectivity and most importantly, greater reliability.\\xa0Josh and I also talk generally about the importance of connectivity in rural areas and how the state of Iowa has dealt with the need to improve access. We both agree that Iowa's approach thus far leaves much to be desired and we discuss the challenges that legislatures face in making these decisions.\\xa0Read the transcript of the show here.We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please\\xa0e-mail us\\xa0or leave a comment below.This show is 32 minutes long and can be played below on this page or\\xa0via iTunes\\xa0or via the tool of your choice using\\xa0this feed.You can\\xa0download this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to\\xa0other episodes here\\xa0or\\xa0view all episodes in our index.Thanks to Admiral Bob for the music. The song is\\xa0Turbo Tornado\\xa0(c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: Blue Wave Theory."