Q & A with the Winners: Filippo Malandra

In this Q&A, Filippo Malandra talks about his team’s solution — OVERCOME21: CBRS Deployment in the Fruit Belt Neighborhood in Buffalo, NY— which won the 2nd Place Technical Applications Proof of Concept in the 2021 Connecting the Unconnected Challenge.

1.Please summarize your winning solution

We installed a private LTE network over CBRS to provide broadband internet access to the underserved Fruit Belt community in Buffalo, NY. For each participant, we provided and installed a CPE to connect to our network, a Wi-Fi access point for them to connect to the internet, and a computer kit (comprising a desktop computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, and web camera). In addition to assisting with installation and setup in the participants’ homes, we worked with digital stewards from the community to provide introductory digital literacy training to participants.

2.What is the most unique/innovative aspect about your approach?

The most unique/innovative aspect of our approach was working with community coordinators and digital stewards within the community to recruit program participants, help install and set up equipment in participants’ homes, and provide digital literacy training to participants.

3.What did you enjoy most about the CTU Competition and Summit Program?

We enjoyed the opportunity to attend the event, advertise our solution, and learn from — and share our experiences with — people involved in similar initiatives.  

4.What new work have you done since the 2021 CTU Summit? Did you invest your winnings into the project?

We invested our winnings back into the project to support additional installations and purchase network equipment. 

In parallel to this, we are carrying out research and developing software/hardware tools to gain a better understanding of the network performance. The developed tools and methods will be shared with the community so that they can operate and manage the network in a cost-effective way.

5.What is your estimate of the number of people impacted by your program?

We installed 36 CPEs providing internet service directly to households, local businesses, and an important anchor institution (church) in the community. The idea is to develop digital learning labs in the anchor institutions exploiting our LTE-based connectivity: therefore, there will shortly be an even higher number of people impacted by our program.