NRTC Sharing the Power of Mobile Communications Through NTCA Partnership

A growing number of rural ISPs are choosing to add mobile to their broadband services through the NTCA-NRTC Mobile Virtual Network Collaboration. NRTC Mobile Solutions exclusively offers members of NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association easy entry into the mobile voice and data business through its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service. Modern living increasingly requires some form of mobile communications and rural internet providers have found the NTCA-NRTC collaboration an answer to competition from cable TV providers’ broadband/mobile bundles.

Step back and consider what it means to carry a smartphone today. In 1985, according to a 2022 post in the Adobe Blog, the U.S. government built the CRAY-2 Supercomputer for nuclear research. CRAY-2 was 155,000 times faster than the guidance computer that landed Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969. But the Apple iPhone 12 in 2022 was 5,000 times faster than CRAY-2 and 900 million times faster than Apollo 11. (Apple has since introduced the even faster iPhone 16.)

“Well, imagine the behemoth that was the CRAY-2 — but 5,000 times larger,” says the Adobe Blog, comparting the size of the supercomputer to what it would have been with equivalent iPhone computing power. “That mid-decade computer king might weigh as much as 13,750 tons [27.5 million pounds]. It could also require 5,000 times more floor space, which would mean 80,000 square feet of real estate. Think of a large office building or nearly two acres of land — all in your back pocket.”

Then consider how these devices have changed people’s lives. For many, a smartphone is the chief source of news and information and the most important tool for contacting friends, family and the workplace. It has replaced or augmented the TV, AM/FM radio, wallet, pagers, calculators, still and video cameras and many other devices. With the emergence of artificial intelligence and virtual/augmented reality technologies, the list of important applications grows steadily.

It has become impossible to provide a full slate of broadband services in the modern age without offering mobile devices connected to 4G and 5G nationwide networks. That is exactly what NRTC Mobile Solutions can do for rural ISPs with a cost-effective MVNO solution.

The NTCA-NRTC Collaboration is now making this modernization possible for 12 NTCA members a year after the alliance signed its first member.

NTCA and NRTC created the program in reaction to cable TV companies, which in recent years have used a similar MVNO approach to expand their fiber/coaxial home broadband services with mobile broadband in rural areas. “The cable companies are the main driver [of competition], like Spectrum, Xfinity, Cox, Mediacom, Midco, TDS, and more are coming,” said Zach Nichols, manager, Business Development/Implementation for NRTC Mobile Solutions.

In other rural areas, mobile phone companies are “making a splash,” including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, by establishing fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband service to the home and with bundled mobile services, Nichols said.

NTCA has members serving a wide range of geographical areas, from very remote exchanges with fewer than a thousand subscribers to areas bordering metropolitan suburbs and exurbs. But those turning to the NTCA-NRTC Collaboration do not belong to any single market size. Anywhere where cable or FWA present competition, the MVNO offer might be the solution.

The NTCA-NRTC offer includes financing for mobile devices, activation credits for new subscribers, marketing support and waiver of up-front activation fees.

While NRTC’s telco members have a head-start towards establishing mobile service through the NTCA offer, its electric members that have created broadband services are operating under the same competitive conditions. “The reasons they should bundle mobile would be the same as the telcos,” Nichols said. Electric members interested in exploring NRTC Mobile Solutions should contact their RBMs.