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Public-Private Partnerships for Broadband & Beyond
Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) has been at the forefront of innovative broadband community partnerships in the Land of 10,000 Lakes for the past decade. Their partnerships do not stop where the fiber ends, however. In this ViodiTV Real-Time Conversation, we learn from CTC CEO, Kristi Westbrock, about what it takes to have successful partnerships with…
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Level the Playing Field
Ensuring a common set of regulatory rules, regardless of whether telecommunications provider is an ILEC or CLEC, is the aim of proposed legislation (HF1066/SF736) that recently passed from committee to the respective floors of the Minnesota House and Senate. In the above interview, Kristi Westbrock reflects on a recent article she wrote that explains that this legislation is not…
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A Service Provider of Last Resort
The key to bringing broadband to rural areas, particularly where it is difficult to justify on an economic basis, is local leadership. The necessary leadership includes multiple people from organizations that include telecommunications, financial and the governing entities. In the above interview, filmed at NTCA’s 2015 RTIME and originally aired the 2015 MTA Convention and…
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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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7 Tips for Sales Success
“We all need to be on top of our sales game,” said Kristi Westbrock, Director, HR, Sales & Marketing for CTC. Speaking at the 2013 MTA Annual Convention, she points out that it is important for everyone in a company to have an appreciation for selling. For CTC, part of this translates into their front…
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New Opportunities in a Changed World – Part 4 of 4
Kevin Larson, of CTC in rural northern Minnesota, suggests that communities may need to form their own broadband networks, much like cooperatives were formed decades ago to bring telephone service to rural areas. In the final segment of this 4-part interview, Larson suggests that this could be an opportunity for existing telecom operators to lend…
