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Smartly Connecting Rural Cooperatives
On the surface, the Smart Rural Community® Showcase Award from NTCA is about how an operator mixes bandwidth and technology to create new opportunities for their community. The award is more than these elements, however, as it is also a reflection of the operator’s initiative and their “smarts” to continue to find ways to make their communities relevant…
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Moving the Cheese to a Smart Rural Community
Who moved the cheese? It was Cabot Cheese as they recently moved their administration and marketing office to the service territory of Waitsfield Champlain Vermont Telephone. WCVT’s fiber infrastructure was a key element for Cabot Cheese’ move to Waitsfield, VT. Similar to many rural operators, Cabot Cheese is a cooperative consisting 1,200 family farms in…
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Competing on a Two-Way Basis
Jeff Leslie of ITS Fiber and ITS Telecom, a last-mile provider of broadband and data center services in south central Florida, explains the importance of the just enacted modification to NECA Tariff #5 that will allow rural carriers to competitively price symmetric services on their fiber to the home networks. ITS Telecom is an incumbent LEC that serves…
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A Teacher Teaching Tech to Telecom
Telecom cooperative director, mother of young children, entrepreneur, technologist and educator are adjectives that could describe Carissa Swenson of TechTECS. It is this last adjective, educator, that is the common thread that binds her numerous activities. Prior to starting her own business, Swenson was a teacher with the state of North Dakota, which led to helping schools…
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Broadband on the Shores of Superior
One of the best things about conferences is catching up with people and hearing the progress they are making in helping their communities stay up-to-date with the latest in technology. A little more than a year ago, we visited the folks at Arrowhead Electric Cooperative, Inc. in Lutsen, MN and caught a glimpse of their…
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Rural Areas Tucked Away in Plain Sight
“Cows in Berkeley,” was a long-time tag-line for a Bay Area producer of dairy products. It spoke to the idea that in the middle of the urban sprawl of the San Francisco Bay Area, rural areas are tucked away in plain sight. The hilly geography combined with the massive bay creates areas that, although close…
