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Gigabit in the Cowboy State
Reinvesting in their community is what differentiates independent operators from their competition. Silver Star Communications, which serves northwestern Wyoming and eastern Idaho, exemplifies the difference a local operator can make. It was an honor to spend the day with Silver Star Communications as they launched the first Gigabit communities in Wyoming. In the above interview,…
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Donut Holes In The Land of Lincoln
After the dust settles on the transition from a POTS-centric, USF/Intercarrier Compensation to a broadband-centric/Connect America Fund approach for rural telecom, will the traditional definition of an incumbent still be valid? That is, if an entity other than the incumbent telco is already supplying broadband to a given area, should that entity be considered the…
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GigE, LTE and Ala Carte – Elements of a New Rural Vermont Telecom Network
No one technology will solve the challenges of bringing affordable broadband to rural areas. In this video interview, Dr. J. Michele Guite of Vermont Telephone discusses their efforts to combine LTE wireless technology with GigE fiber backbones to connect 114k rural Vermont households to the Internet at broadband speeds. This interview took place at the…
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Broadband to the Unserved
The relentless banging noise of a Step by Step switch in a small, rural central office pounds away in my head some 13 years later. The irony that I was in this central office to terminate an advanced state-of-the-art, video fiber network was not lost on me. This central office was a reflection of the overall…
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Don’t Fear the Audit
One of the concerns that independent telco friends have expressed about applying for the broadband stimulus monies are the unknown rules that may be imposed upon them at a future date. Fears of the bean counter are justified, as many independent telcos have been through painful and costly USAC audits over the past couple of…
