ITNCountry and ISPs – A Conversation about Better Mobility & Building Community for Rural America

“Around 40% of rural counties in the U.S. have no public transit services whatsoever,” according to Michael Sena in his January 2022 newsletter, the Dispatcher.¹ Affordable mobility is a huge challenge, particularly for seniors and it is even a bigger challenge for seniors living in rural areas.

In the above conversation, Katherine Freund explains how ITNCountry helps local organizations improve mobility for people in rural areas. Patricia Jo Boyers, president/CEO of Boycom, adds her perspective as someone who is connecting rural parts of Missouri to the rest of the world through Boycom’s broadband network.

This pairing of two amazing women is appropriate as modern, efficient, and sustainable mobility systems require both robust back-end systems like ITNCountry provides, and solid last-mile broadband networks, like what Boycom provides. Or, to paraphrase Freund, ITNCountry goes together with rural internet service providers like salt and pepper and bread and butter!

Conversation Highlights

• 00:52 – Shout out to Princeton’s Dr. Kornhauser for the introduction to Katherine. His 5th Annual SmartDrivingCar Summit is May 5-7, 2022. The focus will be on TrentonMOVES, which has common goals as ITNCountry but in an urban setting.
• 01:45 – Ken accidentally uses an old name for ACA Connects, the organizations that represents Boycom and hundreds of other rural and small ISPs in Washington D.C.
• 03:01 – Patty tells her story and what it means, as first-generation and independent ISP, to connect rural Missourians to the Internet. As Chair of ACA Connects, she does a great job communicating the challenges ISPs face in rural America.
• 06:50 – Ken introduces Katherine Freund, President and Executive Director for the non-profit ITNAmerica. Freund is a recognized expert in the challenges of senior mobility, having been a Presidential Appointee for the White House Conference on Aging and and AARP Inspire Award Honoree.
• 07:58 – Katherine explains the near-tragedy that inspired her to launch ITNAmerica some 25 years ago. She then presents an overview of ITNCountry that looks at things such as
  • 13:09 – ITNCountry as scalable, community-based transportation for small and rural communities
  • 15:50 – Innovative payment plans
  • 19:55 – Community in the cloud for support with a toolkit for rural communities to provide a volunteer mobility service in a rural area.
  • 25:13 – ITNRides 2.0, which is the backend for rural service provider,s is discussed
• 32:52 – Patty gives her impressions of Katherine’s presentation, including that the problems ITNCountry is trying to solve seems to be universal. She applauds Katherine’s efforts and knowledge, “It is a great deal.”
• 35:28 – How do you protect against scammers?
• 41:18 – What sort of synergy might there be between ISPs and ITNAmerica?
• 44:39 – There seems to be an opportunity to build and strengthen community.
• 46:51 – Katherine uses the product and often takes people to their 5 AM medical appointments. She explains how volunteering is personally rewarding. Patty adds about the importance of face-to-face interaction.
• 56:31 – Katherine and Patty respond to one of the audience comments about liability.

¹ See page 2 of the January 2022 Dispatcher (PDF)

² The images from 5:08 to 6:10 are courtesy of the NPS https://www.nps.gov/ozar/index.htm.