Robin Ancona, Eric Frederick, and Sean Kelly
Robin Ancona is Director of Telecommunications Division, Michigan Public Service Commission. Eric Frederick works for MPSC-affiliated Connect Michigan. Sean Kelly works in the Licensing and Competitive Issues section of the Telecommunications Division.
PUF: Eric, what's your role here, and what do you do in a typical day?
Eric Frederick: I work for a non-profit organization called Connected Nation. Connected Nation and our state program, Connected Michigan, have had a relationship with the Michigan Public Service Commission since the end of 2009.
The program originally started as the state broadband initiative, that spun out of the Department of Commerce, the National Telecom Information Administration. The idea was to back broadband, research broadband, and do community planning around broadband in the state.
We did that for five years. It was a very ambitious program to do all of those things. We mapped broadband in the state, and worked with all the broadband providers, and that resulted in the National Broadband Map.
We validated broadband and all that coverage information. We researched broadband and how residents and businesses are, or are not, adopting broadband and how they're using it, or not using it. So we can get through some of the barriers to adoption.