In the above video, newly elected WTA president and Totah Communications‘ GM/president, Mark Gailey, discusses his concern that the idea of universal service has been lost on the current generation of politicians, regulators and the general populace. He makes the point that the urban and rural areas need each other.

Derrick Owens, VP of Government Affairs, discusses how Washington’s actions, particularly with regards to the FCC’s November 2011 transformation order affects long-term investment by operators. Regarding predictability, Owens discusses how the current Federal Government shutdown impacted this conference.

Kelly Worthington, EVP of WTA provides an overview of the WTA and the conference, which covered topics as varied as insurance, regulations and economic development. Some take-aways from the half day this author spent at this valuable conference include:

• Technology errors and omission may be the most important policy you can have. An umbrella policy isn’t enough indicated Joe Wipert of Unitel. Some other comments from Wipert and his fellow panelists:
  • Need to have clear contracts that spell out what is to be delivered. 90 percent of claims are due to breach of contract.
  • If you license 3rd party software, then you need the extra liability insurance that a technology errors and omissions policy could provide .
  • Errors and omissions claims average $250k compared to $10.2k for workers comp.
  • An example was provided where an ISP breached copyright by allowing a local author to place an excerpt from his book on their website. Unfortunately, the author hadn’t cleared all the rights and the ISP was caught up in the ensuing lawsuit.
  • Apps, cloud computing and BYOD are all areas that are ripe for liability issues.
• State telecommunications’ association leaders from Montana, Nebraska and Wisconsin had a lively discussion talking about issues in their particular states and how those point to larger, nationwide concerns.
  • The consensus among the group seemed to be that the idea of working with private entities to achieve legislative objectives is anathema to many in the public sector. FirstNet, the nascent nationwide first responder network, public safety was given as an example of a project that is effectively overbuilding private networks and could end up competing with the private sector.
  • One of the association presidents characterized the FCC’s transformation order as a, “Race to the bottom.”
  • Eric Carstenson of the Nebraska Telecommunication Association talked about their campaign called, “Dirty jobs done dirt cheap.” He was auctioned off for a day to spend in the field helping fiber crews for two telephone companies.  He indicated that not only is this a great way to promote the transformative effects of telecom, but it helps him explain to politicians and regulators what it is like in the trenches. This also received a great deal of media coverage.
• Dana Baker of consulting firm GVWN did a great job of providing a solo presentation on economic development. Baker was supposed to be joined by California USDA State Director, Glenda Humiston, who couldn’t attend because of the federal government shut down. Baker had some great tidbits on economic development, a few of which include:
  • Independent telecommunications providers should get to know the local and regional economic development people.
  • Look to local electric cooperatives for partnerships. As they get into the Smart Grid, they will need a Network Operations Center; this could be a great place for collaboration (an example of this will be provided in a future ViodiTV video).
  • Collaboration with other local leaders, whether in the public or private domain, is key to economic development. Be proactive and go to them; they don’t have a clue about your network or the possible ways it can transform their way of doing business.

Summing up the challenges that rural operators face, one of the speakers mentioned how one federal regulator had made the comment that, “You have seen one rural community, you have seen them all.”

Having traveled extensively through the heartland, this author can attest that the opposite is true. Each rural region is unique and it is the people, who are firmly rooted in their communities, that make the difference with regards to its economic vitality. Broadband is the common thread that ties these rural locales with the urban megaopolis, making the whole of the network greater than the sum of its parts.