Chris Mitchell, with Institute for Local Self Reliance, has started a podcast series talking with folks who are involved with community networks. This week he spoke with Linda Kramer with the Marketing Committee of the Sibley-Renville Fiber Project in rural Minnesota’s Sibley County. The interview is a good introduction to the Sibley-Renville project as well as a nice look at what has been working well in terms of marketing the community network.

Sibley-Renville Counties are looking for a solution to get good broadband to the whole community – including area farms. The marketing team has worked at promoting the community network – and also worked at trying to get folks to sign up for services in advance through mailings, advanced sign up for connection, door-to-door communication, phone calling. (I should note that they really signed up for an intention to get service, not a binding contract.)

It’s interesting to hear how successful they have been and the reasons that folks have been interested in the FTTP network in area cities, towns and townships.