NRTC Completes Agreement to Distribute the New WildBlue
NRTC and its WildBlue members have been anxious to begin marketing next-era, speedy satellite broadband service since long before ViaSat launched its new ViaSat-1 satellite in October 2011.
The time has finally come.
NRTC and WildBlue have completed a new distribution agreement that officially allows NRTC members to begin selling ViaSat’s new SurfBeam 2 equipment and the enhanced satellite broadband service that goes with it.
SurfBeam 2 allows WildBlue subscribers in certain parts of the country (blue areas in the map below) to receive up to 5 Mbps downstream speeds. In the majority of the United States (green areas), subscribers with SurfBeam 2 equipment soon will get up to 12 Mbps.
NRTC is in the process of preparing and distributing the new agreement to its current WildBlue participants. As soon as those members have returned their signed contracts, NRTC has a supply of SurfBeam 2 units to send out immediately. Equally important, the deal also allows for additional NRTC members to enter the satellite broadband business by becoming new WildBlue distributors.
How fast is 5 Mbps? Tom McCann, a ViaSat employee, recently described his three-month test of a SurfBeam 2 unit in his home office. At one point, he downloaded a 20 megabyte PowerPoint presentation from a virtual private network, added two slides, and successfully resent it. Total time of the operation: 2 minutes. He next tested the same process over a 768 kbps DSL line. It took 3 minutes just to complete the first download.
“I had a lot of very time-sensitive work to get done during that [test period] too,” said McCann. “I wasn’t going to do anything that could cost ViaSat or slow me down. I was confident [that WildBlue and SurfBeam 2] wouldn’t.”
Well before the end of the first quarter of 2012, WildBlue expects to open all of its gateways communicating with the new ViaSat-1 satellite. Thanks to the new distribution agreement, NRTC WildBlue members will offer true, 12 Mbps broadband.
Reminder: Return Voting Delegate Forms for Board Elections
A note to NRTC Class A and B members: Please return the Voting Delegate Registration Form that NRTC mailed in early December. NRTC uses that form to prepare for the upcoming elections for its board of directors and to update its internal records.
Each member should have received a letter naming their current voting delegate and alternate delegate according to NRTC records. Some members do not have designated delegates on file. Members should use the registration form to update their designations with the representatives they plan to send to the NRTC 2012 Annual Meeting in San Diego. If, however, the delegate information on the letter is up to date, members do not have to respond.
If members are unable to update their delegate information before the annual meeting, a cooperative’s general manager/CEO or board president/chairman may register to vote on site.
NRTC holds its annual meeting in two parts. Part one for Class B telephone cooperatives will be on Feb. 13 in San Diego. The nominations process for one at-large seat for Class B members has ended with no nominations submitted. The incumbent for that seat is Jeff Wilson, general manager, Dickey Rural Telephone Cooperative, Ellendale, ND.
Part two of the annual meeting for Class A electric cooperatives will be on March 4, also in San Diego. The nominations process for four electric industry board positions has just concluded. The NRTC board’s nominating committee is now considering those nominations.
NRTC will send Notice of Annual Meeting 30 days prior to both parts one and two. Along with the notice there will be a package of additional information including a list of board nominees and their biographical backgrounds. This year for the first time, NRTC will be e-mailing this package. NRTC hopes that this change reduces expenses and results in greater convenience for members.
New NRTC RBM Is Familiar Face to Western Electric
Co-ops
It just feels right for Fred Grantham as he travels throughout the western states to visit the rural electric cooperatives there. Before recently joining NRTC as regional business manager (RBM), he spent 10 years as general manager for Morgan County Rural Electric Association in Fort Morgan, CO, where he had plenty of chances to get to know his colleagues.
“You get to visiting with them and you say, ‘Oh, yeah, we met here and we talked about this,’” he says. It’s a nice ice breaker, but also puts a little more pressure on him as an NRTC representative. “They expect a little more out of you because you’ve been in their [GM] chair,” he says.
 It’s a pressure Grantham is well equipped to confront having spent his working lifetime at rural electrics, beginning in 1977 as an equipment operator and lineman for Southeast Colorado Power Association, La Junta, CO. Over 20 years, he grew into other various positions at SCPA, including warehousing/purchasing and member services. His first chance to take the GM role came in 1998 when he stepped in at Niobrara Electric Association, Lusk, WY. The Morgan County REA opportunity followed two years later.
“I like to make things better. That is [the skill] that has allowed me to advance,” he says. The highlights of his career have been the times he has added efficiency to existing systems. For example, as a lineman, he “survived a burn” and responded by developing a routine of safety practices that continue in use at co-ops where he has worked as well as others. As a warehouse manager, he was able to reduce a $13 million inventory to $4 million without anyone ever having to wait on a work order. As a GM, he has shared best-practices ideas concerning work orders, purchasing and safety training with utilities both in the United States and in Asia.
A knack for efficiency is useful when trying to cover the western territory. Grantham's assignment requires him to work with cooperatives in 13 large states. He has been working on strategic travel schedules to reach the most cooperatives and industry meetings and meet as many NRTC members as possible. The coming NRTC annual meeting, concurrent with NRECA’s annual meeting in San Diego, is one of the places members will find him. In the meantime, Fred Grantham’s contact information is on the field staff page of NRTC.coop.
Challenges to USF/ICC Order Include Rural Issues
The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) filed a lawsuit to challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) order reforming the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation (USF/ICC) regulations adopted in October. More than a dozen entities ranging from AT&T to small wireless companies to state governments also are challenging various aspects of the 740-page order that calls for gradually replacing the $4.5 billion USF high-cost fund with a new “Connect America Fund” (CAF) dedicated to establishing and maintaining broadband services in unserved areas.
The various parties filed their challenges in different parts of the country. A judicial panel later consolidated those filings into a single proceeding in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver. The court has not announced a date for oral arguments.
Portions of the USF/ICC order “threaten to undermine the carefully constructed regulatory balance that has proven successful thus far in bringing telecommunications and advanced services to rural America,” said NTCA Senior Vice President of Policy Michael Romano in a statement after the association filed its suit. “They put at risk the ability of small, rural, community-based providers to access capital and invest in broadband-capable networks in their hometowns and the surrounding countryside.”
NTCA went into more specifics in a series of ex parte meetings with the FCC prior to filing its challenge. Issues include an increase in regulatory burdens on small rural companies due to the order; increased costs for rural local exchange carriers related to routing traffic between certain wireless carriers and rural LECs; details in the order dealing with the “phantom traffic” issue, and disputes over the handling of USF high-cost loop support during the transition to the CAF.
Other rural organizations, including OPASTCO, the Western Telecom Alliance, and the National Exchange Carrier Association worked with NTCA during the comment period leading up to the USF/ICC order and have indicated that they also support and will assist NTCA’s legal challenges.
Several elements of the USF/ICC order, including the rules for reverse auctions to determine access to CAF support in certain rural areas are among many issues that remain to be resolved through a further notice of proposed rulemaking. The FCC has announced comment dates on those various issues on four dates – Jan. 12, Feb. 17, Feb. 24, and March 30.
Public/Private Group Promoting Broadband Access and Rural Digital Literacy
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has been the most visible public figure in the formation of Connect to Compete, a non-profit group that aims to increase overall U.S. Internet usage, especially among low-income Americans. During a Nov. 30 presentation at FCC headquarters, Commission staff made the case that broadband Web usage equals economic opportunity. It claimed that an estimated one-third of U.S. homes that do not subscribe to broadband are missing out on that opportunity.
Initially, Connect to Compete is working with cable ISPs including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevision, Charter, Bright House Networks, and several others, to offer $9.95/month broadband to families with students that qualify for free school lunches. Those families also will be eligible for heavily discounted computers and digital literacy classes. The FCC and Connect to Compete said that they will especially target digital literacy in rural areas where they estimate only 25 percent of public libraries currently offer Internet training to the public.
Write us at nrtconnects@nrtc.coop.
© 2012 NRTC
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Our Mission
To lead and support our members by delivering telecommunications solutions to strengthen member businesses, promote economic development and improve the quality of life in rural America.
In This Issue
• NRTC Completes Agreement to Distribute the New WildBlue
• Reminder: Return Voting Delegate Forms for Board Elections
• New NRTC RBM Is Familiar Face to Western Electric Co-ops
• Challenges to USF/ICC Order Include Rural Issues
• Public/Private Group Promoting Broadband Access and Rural Digital Literacy
• Cable Industry Seen Headed Toward Usage-based Internet Billing
• OPASTCO and NTCA to Combine Winter Meetings in 2013
• New Standard Expected to Expand M2M Functionality
• Where You Can See NRTC
Broadband Pricing
Cable Industry Seen Headed Toward Usage-based Internet Billing
Don’t be surprised if Internet providers from the cable TV industry, including Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable, begin to charge customers by the amount of data they use rather than using the traditional monthly flat rate. Analyst Craig Moffett of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. predicts that at least one of those major cable companies will adopt usage-based billing in 2012.
“As more video shifts to the Web, the cable operators will inevitably align their pricing models. With the right usage-based pricing plan, they can embrace the transition instead of resisting it," Moffet said in a recent report by Bloomberg News.
Comcast, the largest cable company, began usage-based pricing two years ago. Most of the mobile broadband industry also has moved to usage-based pricing. WildBlue will offer usage-based plans as it institutes its new 12 Mbps and 5 Mbps downstream services (NRTConnects, October 2011).
Rural Telcos
OPASTCO and NTCA to Combine Winter Meetings in 2013
OPASTCO says that starting next year it will hold its annual winter convention concurrently with NTCA’s Annual Meeting. The two groups will co-host the Rural Telecom Industry Meeting & Expo, Feb. 3-6, 2013, at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resorts in Lake Buena Vista, FL.
Plans for a joint event come as NTCA and OPASTCO in recent months have worked closely on a number of regulatory and political issues, especially the FCC’s reform of the Universal Service Fund regulations. “We were lucky enough to be at the right place in our working relationship, with the right association leaderships to seize the opportunity, and the right hotel property to be able to accommodate this unique event,” said OPASTCO 2012 Chairman Mike Osborne in the association’s Dec. 9 announcement.
Meanwhile, OPASTCO will hold its 2012 winter convention, also in Lake Buena Vista, on Jan. 14-18. NTCA’s 2012 Annual Meeting and Expo is Feb. 12-15 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego.
M2M
New Standard Expected to Expand M2M Functionality
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has adopted the TIA-4940 Smart Device Communications Reference Architecture, an industry standard aimed at the growing universe of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. Many industries, including utilities, manufacturing, medicine, transportation, and agriculture, are deploying M2M networks to improve efficiency. The TIA-4940 standard specifies interoperability among M2M devices to improve the functionality and expand the possible applications for M2M communications. The standard also should improve scalability to facilitate smaller M2M projects.
The two documents making up TIA-4940 represent TIA’s first entry into M2M standardization. They deal mainly with business-to-business Internet applications. However, they also lay the groundwork for future consumer-based applications as well, said Herb Congdon, TIA’s associate vice president for Standards and Technology. Automobile manufacturers and M2M device developers already have demonstrated M2M systems designed to network the many maintenance and monitoring devices in motor vehicles.
Where You Can See NRTC
• Jan. 14-18: OPASTCO 39th Annual Winter Convention, Lake Buena Vista, FL
Mark Chambers and Steve Hanson will attend
• Jan. 22-25: NRECA CEO Close-Up, Indian Wells, CA
Tim Bryan, Jack Harvey, Ed Drew, Dick Martin and Fred Grantham will attend
• Feb. 12-15: NTCA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA
NRTC staff will attend and exhibit
• Feb. 13: NRTC Annual Telco Meeting, San Diego, CA
NRTC staff will attend
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