Digital Redlining is Real: One CEO’s War Against Internet Inequality

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joshua Edmonds (00:00):
But if poverty is your backdrop where a third of

(00:02):
residents in this city are livingat or below the poverty line, then
the minute that 70 $80 bill becomes90 a hundred, they can't afford it.
So one, they're, they're priced out.
So it doesn't matter what infrastructure'shere, they can't afford it.
And then the other part that we've seen,this is where we have the conversation
about digital red lining, that the sameredlining that happened with the banks
and when they were denying these, theseloans for people to live in certain

(00:24):
neighborhoods digitally, that samething happened as well because these
large internet providers were like,look, there's only six people on this
block who are realistic gonna pay.
Why would we roll outthe services over here?
We're not gonna get ourROI and by the time we do.
The technology is gonna beobsolete, so let's just skip it.
And so that has been a reality whereit's either not competitive, the pricing

(00:45):
doesn't work, or the infrastructure'sdilapidated that combines together
and that creates the perfect storm.
That is the digital divide.

Tony Tidbit (00:51):
We'll discuss race and how it plays a factor and how we didn't even talk
about this topic 'cause we were afraid

BEP Narrator (00:59):
A Black Executive Perspective.

We are coming to you live from the new BEP studio for another
thought provoking episode of A BlackExecutive Perspective podcast, A safe
space where we discuss all mattersregarding race, culture, and those
uncomfortable topics people tend to avoid.
I'm your host Tony Tidbit,
Chris P. Reed:
and I'm your cohost Chris P.
Reed We always like to start out bygiving a shout out to our partners at

(01:26):
Code M Magazine, code M Magazine, wherethe mission is saving the black family.
By first saving theblack man, check 'em out.
Code m magazines two ms.com.
Check 'em out.
Yeah, definitely check our partners out.
And today we're going to exploreCleveland's digital in inequality
where systemic disinvestment has shutresidents out from essential services.

(01:51):
That is true.
It's hard to believe in 2025,our guest, Joshua Edmond, CEO of
Digital C, will reveal how hisnonprofit ISP is bridging the digital
divide, covering over a hundredthousand households and challenging
perceptions about affordable internet.

(02:12):
With Josh, we're gonna explore howCleveland's history informs Digital Sea's
mission and how they're forging a futurewhere connectivity empowers communities.
Chris P. Reed:
Before we dive too deep intothis, I want to give a little
background of, of our guest here.
So, Joshua Edmonds serves as a ChiefExecutive Officer of Digital Sea.
Where he is reshaping Cleveland'sdigital landscape with visionary

(02:35):
leadership and unyielding ambition.
Under his guidance, Digital C has secured$53 million in investments from public,
private, and philanthropic sources,enabling the nonprofit to challenge
traditional telecom giants and addressCleveland's historical digital divide,
driven by a mission of equity andinnovation, digital seed tirelessly

(02:56):
fosters community-based partnershipsto deliver high speed internet access
and customized digital skills trainingfor the residents of Cleveland, Ohio.
Edmond's strategic approach has quicklytransformed digital seed's network into
a homegrown success story proving thatlocal initiatives can thrive even when
we put up against corporate competition.
He has been recognized by Forbes,govtech, and other highly credited

(03:19):
outlets for its impact extendingfar beyond just connectivity.
Utilizing his degrees from Notre DameCollege and Howard University, he has
positioned Cleveland as a nationalleader in digital equity and inclusion.
Yeah.
Through his forward thinking leadership,Digital C stands as a model of
excellence, innovation and resilience.
Resilience.
Joshua Edmonds, welcome to A BlackExecutive Perspective podcast.

Man.
Thank you.
That is bad.
You did my bio justice.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
No doubt.
I mean, it's you, you

did it.
I just read it.
It's a partnership.
But to be be, to be fair though,we took the five words that you
sent us and we souped them up.
We gp ptd it, right?
We it.
Alright.
We g ptd it.
No, we're just gettingbro, bro, you kidding me?
You're fantastic.
What you're doing, which weare gonna drive, dive into,
we're excited that you're here.

(04:10):
So welcome
Chris P. Reed:
man.
Before we, uh, jump into the meat andpotatoes, tell us a little bit about where
you're currently residing and a littlebit about your, your history, your family.

Yep.
So, you know, I'm, I'm in Cleveland.
I'm on the west side,uh, near, near our beach.
Uh, yes, we, so we do have a beach.
Uh, for real.
I use that, I use that termloosely, but we have something.
Um, you know, I live over thereand you know, I, I, I live alone.
You know, I'm single.
Uh, the, the ladies we are,we're getting into dating season.
So all the time I have into mycompany, uh, I'm gonna have to

(04:40):
maybe, maybe in the summertime.
I don't know.
We'll have to figure something out.
But, um, no, I, you know,it's just me out here.
My family does live, uh, in,in, in Cleveland as well.
So in the general area, I do get tosee them on the weekends and just, my
nephew has a track meet tomorrow, soI'm, I'm around them, but I make time,

buddy.
That is awesome.
And you know what the, you know, uh, youepitomize being an entrepreneur, right?
A hundred percent into your business.
Your baby.
You're growing it, you're changing lives.
You're saying the ladies canwait for right now, right?
Summertime, maybe.
Um, but you are, you're on amission to build something special.
And look, at the end of the day,um, as, as Chris went through your

(05:21):
bio, man, I mean, the things thatyou're doing is, is transformative.
Um, and you know, youare on a busy schedule.
You just got off a board meetingjust to jump on with us, right?
You got a thousand things going on.
So tell us why did you wanna come onA Black Executive Perspective podcast?
Talk about this topic,

man.
Well, I would say several reasons.
The first thing, and this is reallyconceptualizes even this year,
the, the power of storytelling.
I can't understate that enough.
And I know that you all obviouslyunder overstand that point, but, you
know, our company is one where if wedon't tell the story, someone else
is gonna tell their version of it.
And they might leave out thedetails that are really important,

(06:00):
uh, not just for, and, and theymight even do it intentionally.
Uh, we can guess why.
And so, uh, one being able to tell thatstory, but two, you know, I, I want to
shed light on the incredible work thatwe're doing in Cleveland because this is
something that, while it only exists rightnow in Cleveland, the specific setup we
have, the network that we're building, I.
You know, the goal is toinspire another black executive.

(06:22):
And they might not be a black executivetoday, but they can be one tomorrow.
And just by way of them listeningto this, it can inspire change
well beyond what I can see.
So, you know, it's, it is about tellingthis story from a company perspective,
but it's really just inspiring.
The, the next generation that I seeis they're becoming quickly ready to
take the helm on a lot of this digitaltechnol technological innovations.

That is awesome, bro.
I love it.
Look at you a hundred percent.
Give back all the time.
So look, my brother, youready to talk about it?

Man, I'm more than ready.
I, I, I woke up ready.
I saw that this was on my calendarat the beginning of the day.
I knew what it was.

Well, that's good, man.
So let's talk about it, buddy.
So, you know, I have to say, and Iwould, I would be, I would imagine
that people, the audience who arewatching this or listening to this,
when we think about digital divide.
Wow.
In 2025, it's, that's hard to to fathom.
Right.
You know, the majority of peoplehave some type of smartphone.

(07:22):
Um, you know, you could takecollege courses on your laptop.
You can do, you can build abusiness out, uh, virtual.
We meet virtually, we'redoing this podcast, right?
You are in Cleveland?
Uh, Chris is in Dallas.
You know, I'm in Connecticut.
We're doing virtually allthrough the power of internet.
Okay.
And then specifically ashe upgraded to broadband.

(07:45):
So when you hear that people don'thave access to the c connectivity,
especially in big cities,it's like, are you kidding me?
Mm-hmm.
So, talk to us a little bit, let'skick it off about Cleveland's
history of that digital inequality.
What, what, what factors makethat happen today, even in 2025?

Mm mm So, man, I'll, I'll.
The US census had what'scalled the American Community
Survey, and they still do.
So this is where the data's coming from.
This isn't coming from what I believe.
This is what I know to be true.
Cleveland has historically been ranked oneof the least connected cities in America.
The number one driving factor forthat is, is going to be poverty.
Our poverty rate, uh, you know, is, isone of the highest in, in the country.

(08:33):
Um, and as we begin looking at our povertyrate, you can even compare it to rural
poverty and see that the rural places thatare unconnected, the urban cores now, not
everywhere within our cities unconnected,but we do see them being under connected.
Mm-hmm.
And when you see them being underconnected, it might be, well, you have
internet in your neighborhood thatcharges you, you know, one year or first

(08:57):
six months, it's like 30 or $40, andby the end of the year you're paying
90 and the next year you're paying 120.
And you're scratching your headsaying, wait, I thought I signed
up for, and it's like, okay, forpeople who might have more disposable
income, they're gonna stay connected.
But if poverty is your backdrop wherea third of residents in this city are
living at or below the poverty line,then the minute that 70 $80 bill becomes

(09:19):
90, a hundred, they can't afford it.
So one, they're, they're priced out.
So it doesn't matter what infrastructure'shere, they can't afford it.
And then the other part that we've seen,this is where we have the conversation
about digital red lining, that the sameredlining that happened with the banks
when they were denying these, theseloans for people to live in certain
neighborhoods digitally, that samething happened as well because these
large internet providers were like,look, there's only six people on this

(09:43):
block who are realistic gonna pay.
Why would we roll outthe services over here?
We're not gonna get our ROI and by thetime we do, the technology is gonna
be obsolete, so let's just skip it.
And so that has been a reality whereit's either not competitive, the pricing
doesn't work, or the infrastructure'sdilapidated that combines together
and that creates the perfectstorm, that is the digital divide.
Which is why all of those factorsthat I just named are the factors

(10:06):
that we are countering with theservice that we've developed.
Because we knew, we studiedthis digital divide long enough.
We said No more.
No more of us being the least connected.
Like that's, that's gotta stop.
And when we zoom out forthe case of Black America.
Black America, yes.
We have a very high percent ofpercentage of us who live in cities.
And when you look at the digitaldivide, black people in this

(10:27):
country have historically beenleast likely to have a high speed
internet connection or a computer.
They'll have a cell phone.
So we do index very high end cell phones.
We will have that becausethat is our lifeline and it's
meant to be an all in one.
So when you see a lot of blackpeople having the newest iPhones and
the newest whatever, it's becausethat is our all in one device.
We might not have a laptop, wemight not have a home internet,

(10:47):
but we got a cell phone.
And so this is where we're justtrying to decouple these things
and make it, lay it bare and say.
This is the digital divide and theefforts that we've done thus far of
acknowledging it, been fruitful enoughto acknowledge, but not enough to get
the job done, which is why we're soexcited in Cleveland that we believe
there's replicability in this model.

(11:08):
Chris P. Reed:
Uh, let me ask you this questionbecause how did you get, how do you
believe Cleveland got to this pointto be so far behind on the curve?
And is it that you have, is thatthe officials or the, the powers to
be felt like you had more importantthings to concern yourself with?
Or is it just somebodyfell asleep at the wheel?
What, what is your beliefthat got you to this point?

(11:31):
You know, I, I believe, I believe America
actually was asleep at the wheel.
Okay.
Um, you know, I don't think thatthe digital divide is, is, is
definitely not a local, local thing.
I mean, NA, nationally, there was abrother by the name of Larry Irving.
Um, in 1998, he had coinedthe term, the digital divide.
He was working within the Clintonadministration at the time, and he was

(11:52):
seeing the potential for the internet.
And he said, if we do not have the socialinfrastructure in place, when we roll
this technology out, the haves are gonnaget it and they're gonna run with it.
And the have-nots are gonna be stuck.
And there will be a digital divide.
He said this in 98, and so now thatwe're in 2025, he was absolutely right,
morbidly speaking, but he was right.

(12:12):
Mm-hmm.
And so I believe what ended up happeningwas America underestimated the power
that the internet was going to haveas relates to access an opportunity.
I think that initially it was meantto be, you know, something for
the military and then it starts toget developed for, you know, okay,
we can do other things with it.
But no one thought that allof your jobs would be online.

(12:35):
No one thought that your, any type ofyour training or your, your benefits
enrollments, your social serviceassistant, that that would all be
on, that's all gonna be online.
Or even dare I say in 2030 thatthe US census is gonna be online.
Like these are the things that, it'slike, we didn't anticipate that.
So I think America didn'tunderstand the power and the depth
that the internet represented.

(12:56):
And now as a result, we'renow trying to catch up.
And our catch up has largely beenthrough underfunded or poorly funded
nonprofit efforts that like, that's notgonna close the gap, um, anytime soon.
And so you have to be disruptive.
But I would absolutely believe, I don'tthink that that America prioritized it.
I think what we did prioritize wascompetition, so to speak, of like,

(13:17):
Hey, we want at and t over hereat Verizon, over here, T-Mobile.
We've done a good job there.
But no one went to or went to the placewhere there was a business case that
still had to be made for the third ofus who couldn't connect a third of us
who can't afford a 40 $50 subscription.
There was no business modelthat was made off of that.
It was only for the top and for all thepeople that we wanted to serve, versus the

(13:41):
people that we begrudgingly have to serve.
And I'm not using we as Digital C I'mjust saying we as a telecom industry.

Right, right.
You know, you just talkedabout a couple of things.
So I had read that 38% of blackor people of color, black and
Hispanic, black and brown people,um, don't have, uh, broadband and
not connected to the any internet.
And a lot of those are ruralsouth and stuff to that nature.

(14:09):
Okay.
However, you know, when you talkedabout the poverty, which is one area,
then you talked about the digitalredlining, that's another area.
Right.
And so when you think of thosethings, I, and I never even thought
about digital redlining, which onceyou stated it, it makes total sense
because at the end of the day.

(14:31):
The companies that you talked about,at and t and T-Mobile, all these
companies, at the end of the day,they are, uh, uh, about making money.
And so, you know, and theyknow in today's, uh, world,
and you just broke it down.
You gotta remember back in the day,and I'm, when we talking back in

(14:53):
the day, 15 years ago, maybe, youknow, you used to get, uh, your,
uh, internet with your cable, okay?
And they used to dothe triple play, right?
Mm-hmm.
And then if you didn't like the cableand you called them up and you want to
cancel, they would enhance your cable.
Or we'll give, we'll, we'll, we'lldecrease the cable, or we'll give

(15:13):
you extra sports channels 'causethey didn't want you to cancel.
Mm-hmm.
Today.
You call 'em up and say, Idon't like this cable package.
I want to get rid of it.
They'll say, okay, because theyknow that the cable means nothing.
Now it's the, it is the internet.
You are not going to cancel that.

(15:34):
Okay.
Because without that, youcan't connect to everything.
So there's a premium on that.
And then to your point, when they startyou off at this price and you start going
to this price and it starts escalating,people who got, like you said, disposable
income, they all argue about it, but atthe end of the day, there's not a lot

(15:56):
of places to go to decrease that cost.
Because to your point, thecompetition, yeah, there's
competition, but the competitionain't, is not in every neighborhood.
Mm-hmm.
There's still certain providers thatown a neighborhood or own a region.
Right.
And now they're starting to to,to deregulate that, break that
down, but give us some real life.

(16:17):
Experience, man, of what people, uh,the stories that people are dealing
with because they're under connected orbecause they're not, they don't, they
can't, their school now has become, uh,everything online or their bank account.
Talk a little bit real world issuesthat people that you deal with and

(16:39):
you hear and see on a daily basis.
My brother,

yeah, man.
Okay.
So, and, and we can use Clevelandas a microcosm here because I do
believe like the state of blackAmerica is in many cases a parallel
to Cleveland, where you do have blackpeople in positions of authority.
We have a black mayor,black council president.
We have those things, but all at thesame time, we also have pronounced

(17:03):
and prominent black poverty too.

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And so when you, that juxtaposition, I believe
is an is an American thing andnot just a Cleveland thing.
And when we begin looking at the realworld cases for the digital divide,
now we'll have people, even now our,we offer service through Digital C.
The service is called Canopy.
It's $18 a month, 65 cents aday, or in honor of Cleveland's
area code $216 a year, the 2 1 6.

(17:54):
So it works out really nicely.
Um, even with that, peopleare still struggling to pay.
And why are they struggling to pay?
Uh, this could be a number of reasons, butI, what I would see is the disinvestment
from banks in a lot of these neighborhoodswho then wanna only have online banking.
Okay, well, where bank did yougive me the opportunity to, to

(18:15):
have the acumen and understandingof how your banking portal works?
That now I, who don't trust anythingbecause nothing went right in my life.
I'm now gonna trust thisonline portal with my money.
Now I'm doing cash.
See, that is an attitude right there.
A third of Clevelanders are underbanked.
Wow.
So now a third ofClevelanders are underbanked.

(18:36):
A third are struggling with,with a home internet connection.
These po Like at some point it's like wewere gonna see, we are talking about the
same person over and over and over again.
We have the children who are withinthe Cleveland Public School District.
The school districtpays for their internet.
If you live in Cleveland andyou have a kid in the school
district, it's free for you.
Now.
Because they understand how pivotalthat is, because they also understand

(18:59):
that if grandma, uh, grandpa,auntie, uncle, whomever, if one of
them says in that household, yeah,we don't like that technology.
We don't do that tech, you know,I don't do that tech stuff.
Next thing you know, when it comestime to pick a major or to pick a
subject, I don't do that tech stuff.
My family, we don't do tech.
My family, we, we do, andthis isn't a shot at them, but

(19:20):
we do nursing in my family.
Mm-hmm.
No, you had the acumen, you had theability to be an engineer, but just
because the presence of technologywasn't in your home, you were limited.
You didn't see the possibilities.
Even when we get into learning in realtime, if the internet, the only thing you
think of on the internet is social media.

(19:41):
That, that, like, that's,that's, that's a real thing.
What we call that in our realm,we call that functional literacy.
Meaning someone doesn'tknow how to create a resume.
Someone doesn't know how tocreate a PowerPoint, but they
know how to go on Instagram andthey know how to go on Facebook.
And that's not, we're not criticizingthem, but it's more so showing them that
it's like, look, the internet to yourunderstanding is just this, it, it's

(20:06):
just a bedroom when there's a mansion,an endless mansion of opportunity.
But if you don't see that becauseyou're now on this other side of the
digital divide, again, that's real.
Healthcare is transitioning from anefficiency standpoint to be primarily
telehealth and, and digital enabled.
And again, if you don't have thattrust, you're not going going to engage.
And we already see if you can't get intothe doctor's office, 'cause they're gonna

(20:27):
give you a date for however long into thefuture to actually see them face to face.
Now people are foregoing theirhealthcare like the, the internet is
the panacea to so many things thatwe've been waiting for in a city.
But the counter to it is when it's notrolled out fairly, when it's not rolled
out equitably, we can still say that word.
It's not rolled out that way.

(20:48):
What we end up getting is thiscontinuous use case of this unboxing
of like, man, we didn't even see that.
Oh, we didn't see that.
It doesn't matter if we're talkingabout wellbeing, we're talking about
banking, we're talking about healthcare,we're talking about education,
we're talking about workforce.
Every sector in every area, youwill find a direct correlation
to the digital divide.
The last one I'll say onthe wellness side, you know,

(21:11):
digital isolation is a thing.
Um, as people are getting older andmaybe they're getting a little bit more
insular, um, if they don't have access tothat internet, they're kind of unplugged.
And you have a whole class of Americans,definitely Cleveland, there's Ohioans who
are not plugged in to what's happening.
And so when an election comesaround, when a deep fake goes up,

(21:34):
they can't tell the difference.
So you can quite literally influenceelections off of the ignorance.
And I'm not calling people on the northside of the digital divide ignorant,
but I am saying that if you do nothave that understanding about how to
navigate this digital world and protectyourself, you'll be duped, you'll be
taken advantage of, and people willinfluence you in ways that have real
world consequences all the way up to whois running a country, all the way down

(21:56):
to opportunities that we just don't see.
Chris P. Reed:
I, I had in the past, uh, a coupledays saw that you had mentioned
the commercial in particular thatkind of reemphasized the need for
children and, and, uh, education.
Um, tell us a little bit about that andthen also some of the opportunities that
have been earmarked, uh, for you to havefunding and things of that nature and why

(22:19):
you believe it's so difficult just to getwhat's coming to you based on what we have
as an appetite nationally and locally.
Oh, now just, just, just, so Chris, are you talking about
the commercial, about the 4,000.
Chris P. Reed:
No, the commercial about the kidsat Taco Bell or wherever it was.
Oh, oh,
okay, okay, okay.
Yeah, I'm excited about a lot of stuff.
Alright, so,

(22:41):
so, you know, with the kids with the TacoBell, you know, that was a moment of time
during the pandemic and it perfect moment.
Um, yeah.
You know, the pandemic did more forthe digital divide than really what all
of our collective efforts have done.
I mean, it really underscoredthe significance and it was able
to drive home a point when youhad those kids at the Taco Bell.

(23:03):
Now here's the thing, we don'thave another one of those moments
that's being publicized and pushed.
So now it's like the,
Chris P. Reed:
let's explain that moment just forpeople who may not have seen it.
Yeah.
Kind of set the scene there.
So there were children who were at a Taco Bell, if you
all can imagine it's dark outside.
They have their homework thatthey needed to do and they
didn't have internet at home.
And so they're sitting in a parking lot,if you imagine right in front of those

(23:25):
parking spaces that those cement blocks.
They were sitting on one of those,you know, on their, on their tablets
and they're just connecting tothe wifi within the restaurant.
Is the wifi, you know, high speed enoughfor them to make a call, a video call?
No.
Is it high, high speed enoughfor them to make play games?
No, but it was high speed enough forthem to be able to do some research
that they needed for their homework.
Now it shouldn't come to this, right?

(23:48):
Right.
If we're not coming to, you arein the country that essentially
invented the internet.
You are in this country and the best wecan do for you is have kids our future,
sitting on these blocks outside in themiddle of the night doing their homework.
That was then the backdrop tothe pandemic because that didn't

(24:09):
just now happen in California.
That didn't just happen in California.
That's been happening for years.
There are so many McDonald's, there areso many restaurants, neighborhoods where
people, we can see the correlation betweenpeople who don't have home internet
access and healthy eating pattern.
Because if I'm spending all my timein fast food spots just to get my
homework done, what am I gonna eat?
Fast food every day.

(24:29):
Like these are the thingswhere I was like, okay.
And then we wonder where heartdisease, high blood, pre like
it, it compounds over here.
Um, especially in the food desert.
And so that moment was particularly,
that moment was, was incredibly importantbecause it shifted the entire political
understanding of the digital divide.

(24:51):
What people were trying tomake the digital divide be.
Before was, it was only the people inrural America who didn't have access.
Correct.
It was never a city.
The cities are covered.
It's like if they're covered,then why is this happening?
And since no one could answer thatquestion, it resulted in over $45
billion of money being allocatedunder the Biden administration and the
Infrastructure and Jobs Act to ensurethat networks could be built equitably.

(25:15):
That's where it was a B program,broadband equity access and deployment.
And a lot of that money did not getallocated under that administration,
and now it's currently gettingallocated under this administration
where the e doesn't matter anymore.
That's, and so the story that was oncesaid that galvanized the investment,
the investment is still there.

(25:35):
However, when you remove the e fromthe equation, what do we have now?
And that's, that's us stilltrying to figure it out.
You know, I, I don't necessarilyknow where all that goes.
This is where I love where weare in Cleveland, because in
Cleveland we had that case of thosekids working out there at night.

(25:55):
We don't have to dealwith that reality anymore.
Like we've built this network andwe even said, alright, if you don't
have $18 a month, you know what?
For the kids in public school,we'll do it for you for free.
Like that right there.
I'll tell you, majority of our customers,we have over 4,000 Now, majority of
them are from the school district.
What does that mean?
These are families who in the past wereeither struggling, didn't have it at all.

(26:16):
We are changing trajectories in ways that.
We can't even fully understandthe scope of this because this
has never happened before.
We've never had a network that was built,homegrown in our city, headquartered
in our city, led by over half theteam lives in the city of Cleveland.
We're now connecting our neighbors.
It's not just some randomperson we see at a corner.
Like these are people that weknow and if Cleveland small enough

(26:38):
where everyone knows everyone.
So it's like, no, like I might not knowyou, but little did I know that that
was someone's auntie who was actuallyat the Cleveland Clinic for what, like
that is the type of stuff that's thepower of a community-based network that
we're unfolding right here in Cleveland.
That to, in my opinion, is the evolutionor the response to kids in fast food

(26:59):
places when now kids can be at thesafety and the comfort of their own
home and they don't have to worryabout, you know, doing whatever or
whatever comes with being out thatlate at night just to do your homework.
Mm-hmm.
Chris P. Reed:
It is, let me, let mejust say this real quick.
Go ahead.
It seems like that's a slam dunk.
It seems like this is a godsend.
It should be a no-brainer, but I'veheard you in previous instances say.

(27:19):
It's not as easy as it shouldbe based on interdependencies
from governmental agencies.
Can you talk about why it's, itshould be easy and for whatever
reason you only have 4,000, but youfeel like you could have How many?
Man?
So, so
I, I, I'll tell you, so the contract,so we did enter into a contractual

(27:39):
agreement with the city of Clevelandand they had their American rescue plan
money, that was the COVID relief funding.
And they allocated $20 million,uh, in a performance based contract
that every year we had to hit Xamount of, uh, residents connected.
And so by the end of this year,we're shooting for 8,500 residents.
Uh, but by the end of 2027, uh, we wantto have 23,500 households in our network.

(28:05):
And so as we grow and we scalethis, we remember starting
at zero in January, 2024.
And you know, now that we're at the pointwhere we are with the, over the 4,000,
I mean, that's a point of pride for, Imean, I'm so proud, but to your point.
The skepticism.
You know, when we talk to residents,it's not just like, oh, it's $18, or it's
free for you, that they just sign up.

(28:25):
One, people who don't trust technology,it's hard to sell someone to someone
that even if they don't, if theydon't trust it, they don't trust it.
So it doesn't matter how good it is, whatwhatever they can do, they don't want it.
So it takes some time.
Just gotta build that relationship sothat the first one is just skepticism.
Um, now they're gonna have thatskepticism because if they live in
these cities where they've seen historicdisinvestment, historic things, not

(28:45):
working, historic, whatever, like they'renot willing to to, to trust us for real.
So you got that.
One second one.
Um, even from a government standpoint,oh, this one's tougher because we're
consistently having to make the case,um, to government entities and agencies.

(29:07):
A lot of them might get it.
But they want to get it through theway they understand how things work.
And it's like, look, things have evolved.
Like if your understanding is well backin the day, you know, 10 years ago,
it's like technology is always is rapid.
Like you, some fundamental things mightbe there, but there is a knowledge gap
that we had to continuously fulfilleven to stakeholders who are in the know

(29:31):
that we had to continuously update them.
Our technology that we've been buildingwith in Cleveland is from Silicon Valley.
You already know how far aheadSilicon Valley is in relation to
a Midwestern city like Cleveland.
They're way far ahead.
So it's like when we went to thepinnacle of wireless engineering
and brought that back to Cleveland.
Oh yeah.
I mean, we still haveto explain it to people.

(29:51):
They still don't understand.
They still think that it'slike, well, something's fishy.
You guys are hiding something.
There's no way you guys andgovernment is supposed to do that.
And our job is, we're supposed to beable to master the art of communications
and storytelling to be able to.
Get them off the fence and to be much moreadvocates for what we're being able to do.
And I'll say the, the last part onthe funding side, you know, at $18

(30:13):
a month, it is very difficult tosustain the momentum of this, the,
this, this company and this endeavor.
And so what we've been also doing has beenmaking the case to our state government to
be like, look, we are Ohio based company.
We're the one, the onlyones headquartered in Ohio.
And there are opportunities for us toserve beyond Cleveland at some point.

(30:35):
Like any endeavor, you can'tjust stay in your own market.
You have to expand.
And so with the expansion, we havebeen reaching out to different
government bodies and we havean eye on, uh, Appalachia, Ohio.
We want to, especially within thisTrump administration, we want to look
at some of these historically underconnected areas and say, you know what,
the same thing that they said aboutCleveland, that it was impossible to

(30:57):
do and that it would take forever.
What we did it.
So now I'm looking at Appalachia andit's like, it's been taking you all
years to build out rural America andwhat we did in 18 months in Cleveland.
I'm sure we can do something veryspectacular in, in, in a comparable
timeline as well in Appalachia.
So the good thing is the governmentstakeholders, uh, were now hitting

(31:19):
them where the value actuallyis of the things that they value
versus the things that we value.
And at some point we're gonna hit aconvergence point, but I would say we're
being very proactive with identifying thepriorities of this administration that we
know, and we're willing to skate to wherewe know the p where the park's gonna be.

Hey buddy.
So just so I'm clear though,what, what made you get involved?
What, how did, because right nowyou're a hundred percent passionate.
Um, you're, you're doing, likeI said, you're a godsend, you're
transforming lives, but you know,prior to January, 2024, you were
doing a bunch of other stuff.
So what made you wanna start Digital C.

Oh, no, no, no.
So sorry.
So we were January 22, January of 2022.
No, I'm sorry, November of 2022is when I took over as CEO.
Okay.
Yep.
So that was our, I would just sayresearch and development and just
making sure that we had, um, the, the,the right infrastructure, at least
right enough to be able to, um, fulfillthe, uh, contractual obligations.

(32:14):
However, prior to that, youknow, I was working for the, uh,
mayor in the city of Detroit.
So for four years, worked for themayor, um, building out infrastructure
in Detroit, and just even buildingout partnerships and making the
case to the digital divide there.
And so from that, prior to that wasworking in philanthropy, learning how
to invest in digital equity initiatives.

(32:36):
Uh, so there there's been, um,just a lot of experience that when
I say it in retrospect, it seemslike it was just orchestrated and
I wouldn't even say, it seems I'llgive God credit, like God led me.
Um, so I, I have no problem saying that.
Um, because even at the very beginning, Igraduate my master's degree from Howard,

(32:56):
I moved back to Cleveland and I'm workingin public housing and I'm like, man, I
got all this student loans and I'm workingin public housing, trying to talk to some
resident about why they need the internet.
And I'm like, did I really getmy master's degree to talk to, to
someone about why they need internet?
But um, that experience at workingin public housing on the digital

(33:19):
divide taught me probably more thanevery experience I've had since,
um, it brought me down to a level ofunderstanding and it ignited something
in me saying, no, this isn't fair.
And as black people, we are thepeople that when we see something
isn't fair, we're gonna let you know.
And we're either gonna let you know,we will verbally let you know, or our

(33:41):
efforts, our work ethic, our resultis gonna correspond to the change
that we know is gonna be the equalizerthat's needed to make the unfair fare.
Chris P. Reed:
Have you had moments, have you hadmoments in your ascension because you,
you're talking about your path to whereyou are now, and I was thinking about
the fact you said there were skepticism.
Now I totally understand how thisskepticism when you come to somebody house

(34:03):
and had them put their name on something.
But when we talk about the dividedadministration earmarked these funds
and all these things are put in placeand you have a blueprint from Silicon
Valley, do you think it would be easierif you weren't so, uh, fair skinned?
If y'all had a representative ora puppet kind of guy or you know,
somebody to go in and tell the story,do you think it would be easier?

(34:26):
Or do you think it is not?
It's just that they just are ignorantof technology and are fearful of the
advancement as we, uh, go forward,
you know?
Fair, fair, fair points.
You know, very fair.
I'll, I'll say it this way though.
It is money.
I see it all.
It's all money.

(34:46):
It's money, money, money, money.
These telecom industries are so wealthy.
Like when, when you actually, everyoneshould just look at how much, how much
portfolio these these companies have.
Like it doesn't matter what internetservice writer, I already mentioned
some, and I'm not gonna mention anyother ones 'cause I don't wanna give
them the credit, but the fact that theynot only own your internet experience,

(35:10):
but they also own entire content studio.
Yeah,

absolutely.
Absolutely.
So

they have the ability to influence messaging.
They have the ability to influence everypolitical campaign that you can think of.
And so what I'm seeing isAmerica oftentimes isn't
operating in its best interest.
America's operating in theinterest of money, which I get it.
Like that's how things work here.
But I can see that there's been timeswe've operated in the interest of
money that one technology are one.

(35:38):
Internet service provider willhave so much power to speak down
on another technology that couldactually be life changing for a
city and say, that's not gonna work.
Lawmaker, that's not gonna work.
And you remember how itwas in your campaign.
So, and like they havethe ability to do that.
And that's why I try and tell people onour side, we as Digital C as a nonprofit,

(36:01):
we don't have the ability to run a,um, a commercial on the Super Bowl.
Like we, we don't have that.
Like, I No way.
What we have at the same time though,is the ability to community organize
and to knock on these doors and use ourrelationships because it's like, look,
when they go corporate, we go community.
And those are equalizing factors.
So it's like, as you look atAmerica's digital divide, not just

(36:23):
Cleveland's, then it's like, ifAmerica wants better internet,
America has to organize for better.
And so that's the part where.
As we're seeing it, it's more time toorganize and make the case be known that
either we're not satisfied or we deservesomething better, that works better.
Or at least I can get behind thatmore because I can see a theory

(36:47):
of change there if they're goingat me just because I'm black.
There's no theory of change.
And to me, like my mind would tell meI'm not gonna become white anytime soon.
And so it's like if I knowthat, then there's no point
in me even playing the game.
I'd rather not look at that as alimiting factor and just say the
only limiting factor is we have notorganized effectively and we are
not educated to the degree, to thedegree at which we can make change.

(37:10):
And I feel like Cleveland is themodel that is then showing again, the
replicability that another city cansay, you know what X administration,
what they did in Cleveland.
I want that in every single one ofthese big cities across the country.
And like that is where all someonehas to do is building it all.
Someone has to be is one to make atwo, to make a three, to make a four.

(37:30):
So as, as the proud one that is standingup and as we're expanding these other
cities, you know, I believe that someof those factors that were once working
against us can actually be pivotal partsof our story that we tell with pride and
say, nah, no limiting factors over here.
We just didn't organize.
And that is something that we we'relearning how to do in Cleveland.

Josh, how are you guys able to make the connection
so inexpensive for residents?
Talk a little bit about that.

So how our network works, we have fiber optic cable that
runs throughout the city of Cleveland.
If you can look outside and maybe peopleare next to a radio tower, so lucky
if you can just see a radio tower.
If you're not next to onethough, imagine a tall building.
Uh, seven stories or greater.
We will take the fiber that is runningunderground and it'll run up to that roof.

(38:24):
And then at the top of that roofwill put like an antenna and then
that antenna sees the neighborhood.
So as it's seeing the neighborhood,we are beaming signals.
And then we'll put a box inside of a home.
It's called our clusterand premise equipment.
And we will then run a wire intothe home and it'll have a standard
router just like you would have withany, any other internet provider.
What makes ours more inexpensiveis we're not, uh, deploying fiber.

(38:47):
We're, we're taking advantageof power that's already there.
So it's like, okay, no deployment there.
We're not running or, or diggingup something underneath your yard.
We're not running something Alylike, uh, putting lines from
a power line to your house.
We're not doing any of that.
And so the fact that we just havea ladder, we mount something inside
your home, wire in, that's it.
And I think that's the part where aswe're approving out the viability of this

(39:10):
model, it allows for us to think aboutAmerican investment from an efficiency
standpoint, that it's more efficient forus to do it this way than for us to try
and run fiber to every single spot with.
Limited funding, and that's becomingmore limited by the day that it's
like, no, let's think smarter.

(39:31):
And so where I will give credit to thecurrent presidential administration is
the fact that you have Elon's proximityto Trump, which many people will push
back on in the one instance where we'renot totally mad at it is in the telecom
instance because he has starlink.
And while we're not starlink,while we do not, they use a

(39:51):
completely different technology.
We use what's called Nextgeneration fixed wireless access.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, Trump or Elon uses low earthsatellites, and so he is using
satellite internet from space beamingdown when it comes to this discussion.
Now though, historicallyin America, we were cable.
So everyone had cable.

(40:12):
So it was like cable, DSL,copper, whatever you had cabling.
We are not cable.
So you have the cable ones, thenyou have the fixed wireless ones,
then you have the satellite one.
The fact that I can sit here todayand give you three different examples
of things that are then being pushedwithin those three different examples.
You have companies whoexist in all of those.

(40:33):
And so what we're doing now iswe're expanding the way that
America thinks about telecom.
And I think that is a redeeming factorabout this administration because it gives
our case much more legs to stand on andsay, Hey, if you're willing to look in a
satellite, you better look into us too.
And so that's where I'm like, we're,we don't have a seat at the table,
but absolutely we can look in theroom and be like, they're gonna

(40:54):
have a seat for us eventually.
They don't got one for us today, but Isee where they're making space for us.
Chris P. Reed:
In a ymax model, uh, the only dependencyis that you have to have a population
or, or a dense kind of center.
And so it can only go so farwhen you're bouncing signal off.
Signal, off signal.
One of the things that I read aboutyou were doing, and this gives an
opportunity to educate, uh, Tony towhat I've been educated on is your 100.

(41:17):
100, right?
Yeah.
Chris P. Reed:
And so any idea of somebodylike him who owns a studio.
And has to upload.
I give our audience a taste ofthe difference between the upload
and the download and why you'reable to do a hundred, a hundred
and what the standards are.
Oh man.
Beautiful question.
God man.
I love y'all.
Uh, alright, so like, y'all likefor real, like, okay, so the

(41:38):
upload speeds, I'm gonna give youan example during the pandemic.
Mm-hmm.
So during the pandemic, you hadpeople who were like, man, we
got these work from home calls.
My kids are at home and likemy wife is in this other room.
And whenever we go on these video calls,it's just buffering the whole time.
I can't even connect and it'sso slow, but I'm getting a, I'm
getting gigabit speed internet.
What's going on?

(41:59):
It's like, ha.
What you're getting isgigabit speed download.
Once again, a lot of these internetproviders, especially the big
ones, they are content companies.
So they want you to downloadcontent that they're putting out.
So they want you to consume, theydon't really want you to produce
'cause why would you produce?

(42:20):
'cause now you're competing against me.
They don't want you to compete with them.
They, they want to, you, youshould be watching our content.
So your download speeds has historicallybeen much greater than your upload
speeds have been much lower.
Um, the upload is, again, when you areuploading content to the web, you're
uploading a YouTube video, you're doinga video call because now our internet,

(42:43):
like it's work right now, we are allusing our upload speeds, correct?
We're not really download speed here.
And so the fact of the matter isif you want to be a consumer, then
you're gonna focus on the download.
But if you wanna be a producer,you're gonna focus on the upload.
And so 100, 100, the standard that weset, and that is $18 a month, 100, 100.

(43:04):
We do offer 200 over 100.
We do offer other plans, but that100 101 was significant because
in Cleveland, no one else wantedto provide 100 symmetrical.
And that when we say symmetrical,obviously a hundred hundred.
No one else wanted to provide that.
They wanted to do.
Well, we can do 100 over 20.
We could do, you know, a hundred over10, but the reason why they wouldn't

(43:26):
want to do 100 over 100, because whywould we want to empower a producer?
I'm okay with empowering a consumer,but I don't wanna empower a producer.
We want to, because we see Cleveland aslike, no, this is the opportunity for
any content creator, for any podcastproducer, for anybody to say, you know
what, there are no more limiting factors.

(43:47):
We, we, we remove them.
So now it's all on you.
It's all on your drive.
That's, that's the, the, the powerof an upload speed, because now it
forces you to say, I know what I'meating, but what am I producing?
Right.
Right.
If there's no question to that, thenwell, there's an opportunity to start.

Let me, you know, I, I, I wanna, one of the things
that I've been thinking about,you know, that's troubling me.
You know, there's obviously, there'spoverty, there's digital redlining.
There's infrastructure that's not built.
There's money from the federal governmentthat wasn't, you know, uh, allocated.

(44:28):
Right.
Um, so you, you walked us through a lot ofthe issues that are outside of the people
of Cleveland or any place, their control.
But the one thing that's in theircontrol and specifically to, to
black people is the ignorance ofthe importance of being connected.

(44:51):
And also the part about I don't trust.
Right.
So I'm not gonna do it, whichis self-inflicted, to be fair.
Okay.
To be fair.
Right.
And at the end of the day.
You are cutting your own nose off.
You are, you are, you are limiting, notjust you, but your kids and the whole.
So how do you ch, and I knowyou said knock on door, but

(45:14):
how do we change that mindset?
Because if that mindset has changed,then to your point, you have a whole
community that's out screaming,saying, we need this, we do this.
And by doing that, you're gonnahave people say, oh, you know what?
We're gonna have to make something happen.
Or more importantly, it makes yourjob a lot easier because now you

(45:38):
have your constituents behind you.

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Which can help hopefully get funding.
So how do we change that mindset?
My brother?

Hmm.
You know, incredible question that Ithink that we're still hypothesizing
and we've made headway in progress intoanswering elements of that question
because really it's diversifying the valueof technology beyond what we thought.
So we would say, for example, homeinternet is so important, you need it.

(46:26):
Okay, sure.
But that wouldn't land.
But what we did see is that we wouldhave residents who actually like, cared
about drones and wanting to fly drones.
Their kids, their kids wouldbe obsessed with drones.
And so it's like, okay, if thedrone is like the entry point
to this discussion, then fine.
Right.
Um, you know, I, I, I get it.

(46:47):
This is more of a more, more polished,but I will say what's also true
too, we have some of our, especiallysome of the older men, like.
Adult content is what they want.
Right?
Right.
We tell them how to like, okay,this is what it is, and man, you,
you, you made, that's the motivator.

That's

the motivator, right?
Someone was like, man, this, but that.
Now it's meeting people where they are.
Right.
What I found in this administrationthat we get to do much more is
like we can step off like this highhorse of like where we need, where
we would like to see our community,where meet people where they are.

(47:28):
If you wanna watch thatstuff, then here, then fine.
You need internet connection.
Rather than me saying like, you know,for jobs and for what, it's not landing.
Like at some point, look, as much as wewould love for it to be, let's meet people
where they are, but also understand thatpeople grow and they change over time.
Where I started is not where I'm goingto finish, and so you might start
with just your understanding of theinternet is just Instagram or Facebook,

(47:52):
but we're not gonna leave you there.
But I think the thing is we have to indexun value in meeting people where they are.
And so that's just because they have ahyper kid who just cares about drones.
Cool.
The best one.
And, and I, I was one of thesepeople growing up in the house where
video games really blew up and youknow, I was told Get off that game.

(48:13):
Get off that game.
Get off the game.
And now we see the growth ineSports worth trillions of dollars.
Now, now all of a sudden,now get on that game.
Come on.
Right.
You

make some money at it.

Mm-hmm.
And I think it's moreof an exposure thing.
What I've seen in our communityis that the minute we understand
the value of something, the value,that's when we will latch onto that.
And, and if someone would counter me, Iwould say we saw the value of a basketball
and, and once we saw that value, wesaw the value in music and rhyming.

(48:47):
We see that.
So now we don't have to talk, but it'slike with internet, what we've done wrong
is we've overindexed on the internetitself and we haven't indexed much more
on the enabling on what this can do, howthis can bring you generational wealth,
how you can turn your trajectoriesaround, like those are the things
that we have to keep reinforcing.

(49:07):
The problem is we have competing factors.
If I were to do a crime right now tosomeone, I were to punch someone outside,
someone could call 9 1 1 and presumablyI'd be arrested or dealt with whatever.
But when someone does a cybercrime to someone, a Digital Crime.
Who do you call?
How does that happen?

(49:27):
There, there are people who arenot being protected when tax
season rolls around in elections.
Those are big time for fraud.
Mm-hmm.
This people just get, man,they, they eat 'em alive.
They almost can tell this.
That's a new internet user.
It,

hold on, I gotta say this, it reminds me, um, 'cause you know,
I'm, I'm from Detroit and, and you saidyou worked there, uh, for the mayor.
Uh, was it Dugan you workedwith or it was Dugan.
Right.
So, but back to your, your your point.
I remember this was years ago,my man when, um, you know, people
would, uh, have dogs, right.

(50:07):
To protect their property, right?
Mm-hmm.
And, um.
And so they had this com andthey were trying to get people to
get, uh, security systems right?
But people, I don't need that.
So they had this commercial, to yourpoint where the commercial comes
on, the dog dog is barking, right?
Roro in the house, and then thesedudes break in, they roll up the

(50:29):
carpet, they take the couch, andthen on the way out the door,
they said, Hey man, I get the dog.
So they took the dog too.
So to your point about, oh, wecan smell a new internet user.
Mm-hmm.
We gonna go after them.

(50:49):
That's why I started laughingbecause it reminded me of that.

Well, they, and they, they, they know.
And it's so, it's so sad because it's onedemographic that gets scammed the most.
Correct, correct.
Anyone who's over 65, I'm like,man, I'm gonna pray for you.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm also gonna prayfor their grandkids.
I'm gonna pray for their, their, theirchildren, because they're the ones
who have to be their tech support.

But here's the thing though.
Had they, I bet you those numbersgo down drastically If they became,
if they became engaged with it.
Yeah.
More often, right?
Yeah.
And then they started learningit and this and that, those
numbers come down like this.
Would you agree with that or what?

Uh, well, absolute Well, I, I agree and I think that it's happening
because during the pandemic when allthose churches went online, correct.
You then had to have people who, well,all right, you're gonna miss out on
pastor, you're not gonna see 'em.
Then, then, then they had to figureit out and they started plugging in.
Yeah.
Even if you all remember restaurants.

(51:47):
Restaurants stop with giving out the menu.
They just put a QR code on the table.
That's right.
So it's like these things are forcingpeople, and I'm like, all right.
Forcing might not be the bestway to do it, but it's happening.
I mean, we need, but it's
Chris P. Reed:
coring at least, at leastcorralling people towards.
That's right.
Well, next way.
Well,

I think it's, see what you just gotta finish saying
too, which is a great point.
I didn't even think about that.
It's meeting people where they're at.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
So being able to watch thepastor, I didn't wanna do this,
but you know, I don't wanna Ms.
Church, so I'll do it all right.
Yeah.
And I think to your point, that's,I didn't even think of that before.
That's an excellent point, right?
When you meet people where they're at,at least they get their foot in the door.

(52:25):
And then once they getting theirfoot in the door, hopefully
they expand from there.

That's right.
And that, that's the point where I wouldsay we didn't get that luxury in cities.
That didn't happen.
It was just, Hey, we rolledthis out too, too poor.
Skip 'em.
Like, but when did I, when didI actually have an opportunity?
To play around with this incrediblydisruptive thing and treat it like Legos.
Just, lemme, lemme just curious.

(52:50):
I'm just curious.
Lemme just play, lemmejust see what this is.
Instead, what it is, is I log on andhere I'm thinking I'm being genuine
and I'm Miss Barbara 63 and scammerslike, 'cause they, they, they know
what that is and they know herpassword is password, like mm-hmm.
It's, those are the things whereit's like, man, these people

(53:11):
didn't even have a chance.
And so as a result of that, we've createdthis weird thing where this digital
divide, and there's a messy part in themiddle of it where people who know how
to be connected, they know what theyneed to do, but they just don't have any
type of trust that's built up in this.

(53:31):
And it's hard for us to then tell themyes, because unless we're, we're willing
to provide them 24 7 tech support forwhich we don't have the funding to do
that, then all of a sudden they're eitheroff on their own or they're just dependent
on their grandkid, their grandkids.
And I think that's the.
The next iteration of this digitaldivide of when you connect them,
you gotta keep them connected.
And that means protecting them onlineand giving them an, in a, a digital

(53:53):
experience that, you know, it'snot buffering every two seconds.
It's not kicking you off the network.
Like give them an experience thatthey can build off of that can look
at fondly and say, you know what,no, no, y'all need to be doing this
because this is what I was able to do.
Like, make them messengers.
And thus far, like within our space,we've been able to do that significantly.
I mean, we, we will teach digitalliteracy, digital skilling classes

(54:17):
and have Motown in the background.
We make it enjoyable because it's like,no, we, we know what that music does.
And like, we'll, we'll do thatin a way where not only meet,
we meet people where they are.
We'll have some, some,some hot food for them.
We, when they come in.
So it's like, okay, likelet's remove these barriers.
'cause we know when you're tryingto learn things, you're hungry.
It doesn't work.
So the beauty about the digitaldivide is that it actually makes us

(54:39):
remember the things that make us human.
And it's like basic food and musicactually goes a long way if you wanna
teach technology and let us not beover-indexing on the importance of
technology and losing sight of thethings that just humans, like when
you make it more enjoyable thatway, it's enjoyable for everybody.
Chris P. Reed:
You, you talked about already gettinga chance to get into the youth movement

(55:01):
based on, uh, access through the schoolingsystem and that was something you seem
to be very proud of, very excited about.
And as much as this is a youthfulthing for you to usher the next
generation into more knowledge aboutconnectivity and diminishing the
digital divide, uh, it's also seemingto me from you to be a national
thing, not just the Cleveland thing.

(55:21):
Are you prepared to take up themantle when another city in Ohio
or another city in New York oranother city in Florida says, Hey,
I'd like to do something similar.
And I would love for you, since you'vehad the blueprint and kicked over the
rocks and stubbed your toe a coupletimes, is that something that you guys are
insulating and preparing yourselves for?
Or is it just Right now we tryingto get our thing to be our thing

(55:43):
and that's way down the line.
Because as we know with technology,it's fast as hell to say,
you know, well, well man, we're, we're ready.
We're ready.
Okay.
You know, if you can, and this is a phrasethat we say in Cleveland, if you can do
it in Cleveland, you can do it anywhere.
Okay.
We cool.

(56:03):
And the thing about Cleveland,and we don't say that
because Cleveland is so bad.
We say that because the historicskepticism, we say that even from
a technology standpoint, we got allthese trees throughout the city.
I mean, it's a, we call it a forestcity because there's so many trees here.
And if we're trying todo wireless for trees.
So as we've been able to modelthis, we had to laugh at it.

(56:26):
And I, I, I remember a prayer Isaid, man, God, you really prepared.
Me and you prepared this company to beable to expand because you made sure it
was gonna be the hardest at the onset.
It has not been easy here.
Like I, I smile because I have a smileydisposition, but for real, like, no,
it was, it's been very, very difficult.

(56:46):
But through all those difficulties, wefigured out the things that we never
would've figured out and we would've beencrushed if we would've expanded too early.
I believe what we've been able to learnnow and how we've been able to scale
this and earn those subscribers, ohyeah, now, now I'm absolutely confident.
We got a, we have a phenomenal team.
We legitimately have the processesin procedures in place where I

(57:06):
can treat another city like aneighborhood now, whereas before it
would've been a whole other thing.
Now it's like, no, that's just,that's just Northwest Cleveland.
That just what happens to be, youknow, a little bit further away, man.
Northwest Cleveland.

So my friend buddy, this has been great.
Final thoughts, man.
Where do you wanna leave the audience?
My brother?

Uh, I, I would tell people that during this time, uh, especially
during this administration, uh, thepresidential one, uh, there's a lot of
stuff that just does not make sense.
It does not make sense.
The digital divide, I would say, isour greatest opportunity to be able
to not only secure investment, butbe able to make the case for it.

(57:47):
When we be, when we look at it, we'regonna be the, some of the most impacted
people, but therein lies the opportunity.
AI has grown dramatically, and the nearfuture quantum computing is going to
be a term that we all will be usingpretty soon, and it all starts and
ends with an internet connection.
And so check on your people, checkon, check on anyone over 65, check

(58:10):
on them, but not even just them.
People have kids check on them becausethe first bill that goes is your
internet bill when things get rough.
And if you are going to.
At any point, pause someone's growthand development with technology.
Just understand that from a globalstandpoint, America, every year we fall

(58:32):
in our rankings of connected people.
So if black people and brown people wereable to take this, this conversation
seriously, I'll tell you, please, please,please make sure you are investing in
the technology and not in just, not justfor you, but for your tribe and your
family that we're able to move forward.
Because if you're able to do that,you will write the trajectory

(58:54):
of a generation, because it onlytakes one of us to get it right.
Chris P. Reed:
Good business, good business.
Let me ask you thisbefore we, uh, move on.
How could A Black ExecutivePerspective podcast help you?
Man, you already did.
Um, I, I, I, one, I, I would just saylike, you know, let's, I, I would love to.

(59:17):
I would love to do more with you all withrespect to even just more storytelling.
Um, we'd love, heck, even if wefound one of our residents, like,
or one of our customers, like, let,we'd love to do something like that.
Um, I know those are specifics, butthe bigger bucket is like as we're
meeting and engaging with some ofour big tech partners, uh, Microsoft

(59:40):
has been a big supporter of ours.
We actually just did a, um, a documentary,uh, release with them, um, for things
like that and anything like that.
I would love for BEP and Digital C wherewe have a relationship where we can share
and amplify because I don't want anyoneto feel like, man, when the minute a

(01:00:01):
Google or Facebook or Microsoft approachesthem that they gotta figure out, it's
like, no, we, we've already shown you.
This is how you do it.
This is how you navigate thatpartnership successfully.
And this is how you get thereplicable, uh, cyclical investment.
And so I think that there's justa lot of gems that, that we're
acquiring in the work that we do.
And I believe that this isjust a really great platform
with respect to the viewers.

(01:00:22):
You have what you all standfor and empowering black
executives to, to really kill it.
I think that this is a, that wouldbe a really great opportunity.
So, I don't know, I mean, just helping ustell our story better as these wins come.
Chris P. Reed:
Where do we find the documentary?
Is it already produced
that It is, it is already produced.
Uh, I believe it's actuallyon our website, www.Digital
C.org.

(01:00:43):
It's also on our YouTube.
Um, and it's also links on our socialmedia, so on our Instagram Digital C org.
Okay,

Tony Tidbit (01:00:52):
buddy.
So consider it done, my brother.
So we'll, we'll chat offline.
We're gonna make something happen, right?
Number one.
I'm so impressed with you, myman, and I'm, and I can speak
for Chris too, what you're doing.
Is, it is just, it's no words for it, man.
You are, you are, you've taken abig, um, bolder and you're moving

(01:01:15):
it down a hill and it's only gonna,you're gonna get more momentum.
But for what you're doing and howyou're changing lives and helping,
you know, people, even with theirskepticism, even with their fear, right?
You're keeping them in the21st century to be fair, okay?
That's what you're doing, right?

(01:01:36):
So I'm a big fan and whatever wecan do to support you, help you.
It's done, my brother.
So count as it.

Joshua Edmonds (01:01:45):
Absolutely, man.
Look, I, this is beautiful.
I appreciate y'all.
I appreciate and thank you.
Shout out to cold m formaking this connection.

Tony Tidbit (01:01:53):
Absolutely, bro.
That's what we do, right?
That's what we do.
So my brother.
Josh Edmonds, CEO of Digital C.
We want to thank him for being on ABlack Executive Perspective podcast.
So now I think it's time forTony's Tidbit and the tidbit today.
What good is technology, if it leavesthe most vulnerable behind the future for

(01:02:17):
digital equity is the fight for justice.
Ensuring everyone has a voicein the digital age, and that
we move forward together.
And you heard a lot of that fromour, our partner, our friend
Joshua Edmonds, CEO of Digital C.

(01:02:38):
Chris P. Reed:
This has been a powerful,powerful episode and we, we
absolutely enjoyed our guest here.
We wanna remind you at this timewe have other powerful content,
you know, that you can tune into.
So need to know with Nsenga, don'tmiss, need to Know with Nsenga, with Dr.
Nsenga Burton on A Black ExecutivePerspective podcast where Dr.
Burton dives into timely and crucialtopics that also shape our community

(01:02:58):
and our world tune in weekly.
You absolutely do notwanna miss the sister.
She is powerful.
Absolutely.
And you don't wanna miss the nextepisode of Pull Up, Speak Up, where
our round table gets together andtalks about the most provocative
issues, real talk, real perspectives.
You don't wanna miss it.
This is not just anepisode, it's a revolution.

(01:03:19):
So check out, Pull Up, Speak Up.
The next Pull Up, Speak Up here on ABlack Executive Perspective Podcast.
Yeah.
Chris P. Reed:
And then as we close out, we always wannaremind you of the reason why we do this.
Our goal is to eliminateall forms of discrimination.
And to achieve this, we askeveryone to embrace LESS.
And so we start off withthe first L for learn.
Educate yourself on racialand cultural nuances.

(01:03:41):
We learned today.
Ab, I learned about uploading downthose speeds and learned about, you
know, how we are headed towards a censusthat's gonna be completely online.
Therefore we're not gonna be counted,which is gonna encourage the voting
and all these, it is gonna cascade, asthe brother said to different things.
So that was a beautifullesson for me today.
Absolutely.
And then after you learn, you have theletter E, which stands for empathy.

(01:04:05):
So you wanna understanddiverse perspectives and
put yourself in their shoes.
And again, to, Josh was saying thatpoverty, there's a lot of people who
cannot afford the internet, right?
Not that they don't want it,but they can't afford afford it.
So when I think it, I'm puttingmyself in their shoes and I
understand where they're coming from.

(01:04:26):
Chris P. Reed:
The first S is for share, shareyour insights and enlighten others.
And this is what his mission is all about.
Connectivity, which is sharing.
So make sure that you share this.
Don't hide it, divide it.
Absolutely.
And the final S stands for Stop.
We wanna stop all forms ofdiscrimination as it walks in our path.
So if Uncle Joe or Auntie Jenny sayssomething inappropriate at the Sunday

(01:04:50):
dinner table, you say, uncle Joe,aunt Jenny, we don't believe that.
We don't say that.
And you stop it right there.
So if everyone can incorporate less, LESSwill build a more fair, more understanding
world, and we'll see the change that wewanna see, because less will become more.

(01:05:13):
Chris P. Reed:
Thank you guys for tuning in.
We definitely wanna make sure thatyou tune in for previous episodes,
future episodes, go to the website,sign up for the newsletter.
Leave us a review.
Talk to us about what you learned here andwhat you'd like to learn in the future.
Make sure you rate and subscribewherever you have, uh, access to us.
Make sure you like and thumbs up, Tony.
Where can they find us,
my friend?
You can find A Black Executive Perspectivepodcast on YouTube, apple, Spotify,

(01:05:38):
or wherever you get your podcast.
And you can follow us on our socialsof LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook,
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at ablack exec for our fabulous guest, the
CEO of Digital C Joshua Edwin Edmonds.
For the co-host with the most,my boy down in Dallas, Chris P.

(01:05:58):
Reed I'm Tony Tidbit.
We talked about it.
We learned about it.
We're still gonna strive about itand we're gonna thrive about it.
We love you.
And guess what?
We're out

BEP Narrator (01:06:14):
A Black Executive Perspective.

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