Podcast: US Ignite on PAWRing up rural broadband

Mari Silbey, senior director of Partnerships and Outreach for US Ignite, joins the Light Reading podcast on the final episode recorded in 2020 to discuss how telcos and the industry at large are addressing the challenge of extending the availability of broadband in the US. Silbey also provides an update on "Project Overcome," a program by US Ignite and the National Science Foundation to improve the reach of broadband in underserved areas.

"Project Overcome is funded by the National Science Foundation and is a project to select, launch and oversee five proof-of-concept efforts to deploy novel broadband technology solutions to underserved communities," explains Silbey.

In addition, Silbey shares an update on the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program, which is US Ignite's effort to work with partners in testing new technologies that could improve rural broadband access.

"For rural America, there's probably not one technology that will solve everyone's problems, and we need to experiment with how to bring them together in different ways to get the best connectivity for these folks that can't otherwise be connected," she says.

You can find all of Light Reading's editorial and custom audio programs on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud or Spotify.

— Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Senior Editor, Light Reading