event-schedule - Mountain Connect

9:30 am - 10:00 am

BEAD Jeopardy! The Compliance Games

Governors Square 15

Everyone has attended presentations on BEAD compliance, permitting, environmental review, grant management, and construction. This isn't one of them.

Join us for an interactive game of BEAD Jeopardy! where attendees compete to solve real-world scenarios, decode federal acronyms, identify compliance pitfalls, and separate broadband fact from fiction. Questions range from easy warm-ups to challenging situations drawn from actual BEAD implementation, covering everything from environmental reviews and reimbursement requests to milestone acceptance, performance testing, audits, and project closeout.

Whether you're with a State Broadband Office, ISP, engineering firm, consultant, or grant management team, you'll leave with practical knowledge, a few laughs, and perhaps a newfound appreciation for just how much there is to know about BEAD.

No buzzers required—just bring your competitive spirit.

Brian Mitchell ITG Communications, Principal Consultant

Heather Mills ITG Communications, Principal Consultant

Adam Quinlan ITG Communications, Vice President of Consulting

10:15 am - 10:45 am

It's Not Sexy, But Its Critical

Governors Square 15

Every broadband operator runs on a layer nobody puts on a conference slide: network records, subscriber data, plant inventory, and the compliance evidence that proves you own what you say you own. As broadband becomes increasingly recognized as critical infrastructure, the integrity of that information is becoming just as important as protecting the network itself. Most providers have never stopped to ask whether that documentation is an asset or an anchor, and the answer shows up at the worst possible moment: during a breach, a retirement, a migration, or a sale. It also matters when providers need to demonstrate compliance or recover from a major operational event.

This session works through three questions every operator should be able to answer about their own data:

Is it secure?
Is it survivable?
Is it sellable?

Craig Gralapp CHR Solutions, Software Territory Director

Chris Aal CHR Solutions, Software Territory Director

1:30 pm - 2:00 pm

When Ground Zero is your Kitchen Table

Governors Square 15

Cybersecurity in broadband is often framed as an external threat, but what happens when the breach originates from within? When the systems that run the network become the attack surface, the impact is immediate and existential: billing systems go dark, network maps disappear, construction halts, and operators lose visibility into their own infrastructure. The provider is not just degraded, it is effectively blind.

This session reframes cybersecurity for service providers through four critical lenses.

First, Protect This House: shifting from “if” to “when.” We examine practical strategies providers can implement to harden internal systems and reduce operational fragility, while also exploring the evolving role providers play in helping subscribers secure their own environments. This includes a candid look at liability boundaries and the growing patchwork of regulatory expectations surrounding end-user protection.

Second, Protect the Network: not all threats arrive as dramatic attacks. Many emerge as quiet, compounding drains on capacity. From botnets that weaponize thousands of endpoints into bandwidth-consuming swarms, to unauthorized communal streaming and edge compute misuse, we explore how everyday misuse and compromised applications can degrade network performance at scale and what providers can realistically do to detect and mitigate these threats.

Third, Protect the Protector: data centers have become the backbone of modern network operations and the industry’s latest buzzword, but their security posture is often assumed rather than verified. This session examines the real risks associated with both owned and third-party data centers, what happens when those environments are compromised, and how such events cascade across provider operations.

Finally, we bring it all together: how providers can build resilience across the systems they own, those they influence, and those they depend on but do not control.

This is not a theoretical discussion. It is a practical, operator-focused exploration of what happens when cybersecurity stops being abstract and becomes operational reality, when ground zero is not somewhere else, but your own kitchen table.

Ryan Kudera Essentia, Inc., Director of Broadband Solutions

Russell Elliott Siskiyou Telephone Company, CEO

Jason Malmquist CHR Solutions, Engineering Account Director

2:15 pm - 2:45 pm

Community Anchors at a Crossroads: What's Next for E-Rate and Universal Service?

Governors Square 15

The FCC is considering significant changes to the Universal Service Fund, including proposals that could end the E-Rate program. For schools and libraries, the stakes are high: E-Rate has connected millions of students, enabled digital learning, and helped community anchor institutions serve as essential hubs for education, workforce development, telehealth, and public access.

This panel consists of technology leaders, broadband providers, and E-Rate advocates to examine what the FCC proceeding could mean for communities and the market. Panelists will discuss how E‑Rate currently creates stable demand and supports network investment, share frontline experiences negotiating service and upgrades, and identify the policy considerations providers and policymakers must weigh before making major changes. Changes to E‑Rate would alter revenue certainty, procurement practices, and investment calculus for providers, affecting pricing, deployment timelines, and willingness to serve low‑margin or hard‑to‑reach communities. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of how E-Rate contributes to the broadband ecosystem keeping America’s anchor institutions reliably connected.

Kristen Corra SHLB Coalition, Policy Counsel

Kelleigh Cole Utah Education and Telehealth Network, Director of Policy and Communications

Tim Miles Steamboat Springs Re-2, NCB, THOR, CEBC, Director

Denise Atkinson-Shorey Colorado Education Broadband Coalition