One of the bigger challenges for rural communities is creating career opportunities for young people; particularly those who leave for college, as many times never come back to their hometown. Clint Carter, Director | New Technology and Service Introduction for North Central Telephone Cooperative (NCTC) lived this reality as his options when he started his career were away from home. As he explains in the above interview, [he] “always wanted to come back home to make a difference to his community.”
In 2009, he was able to return to his Tennessee home, bringing his tech experience and education to help NCTC and the region it serves become a “smarter” community. NCTC and its leadership were recognized by NTCA as a “Smart Rural Community” for its broadband network and how they are leading efforts that enable the distributed intelligence that will be necessary for a region to be relevant in the 21st century.
It goes beyond the network, as NCTC and Carter are helping other local institutions get the most out of their network. As he describes it, many of the improvements they make are because company management lives in and is a part of the community. The direct customer feedback they receive while out and about, whether at the grocery store, at church, or at a town meeting, is invaluable for shaping a service that meets their customers’ needs.
In the above video interview, he alludes to the work they are doing with the local health clinic to help with their telemedicine efforts. Their world-class data center complements their network and allows the creation of secure and robust applications that benefit local businesses and institutions.
The local schools are one of the institutions that are benefiting from NCTC’s presence. Carter describes a program they launched last month with local schools to help students get excited about technology and understand the opportunities it provides. With NCTC’s broadband network, these workers of the future will be able to live and work in their hometown, while their employer could be virtually anywhere. Or, as Carter suggests, the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates might already live in their community and he or she won’t have to leave to realize his or her dreams.
This video was brought to you by Entone.
Stay tuned for additional segments over the coming months.
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