Glasgow was a true pioneer in community owned broadband networks, starting with its own cable plant in the 1980s. Billy Ray, CEO of Glasgow Electric Plant Board, has been an inspiration for municipal broadband networks — one can’t dig into the early history of LUS Fiber in Louisiana without running into something from Billy Ray, for instance. Glasgow’s network has been a tremendous success, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of benefits to the community.
In our interview, we discuss the bitter legal fights of the early years as Glasgow built its own cable network and eventually began offering Internet access. Additionally, we discuss the important role of these information networks in creating more efficient (and less costly) electrical systems — an incredibly important implication that does not get enough coverage.
Given the extraordinary history of Billy Ray and Glasgow EPB, we hope this will be the first of several conversations exploring that community. You can read more from Billy Ray on his blog.
We want your feedback and suggestions for the show – please e-mail us or leave a comment below. Also, feel free to suggest other guests, topics, or questions you want us to address.
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Listen to previous episodes here. You can can download this Mp3 file directly from here.
Thanks to mojo monkeys for the music, licensed using Creative Commons.