Rural Connect

NRTC offers Rural Connect as a place for its members and others interested to follow all topics related to communications technology and how it affects rural electric cooperatives and telecommunications providers. NRTC uses this blog to announce and discuss its products and services. NRTC posts all Rural Connect content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, where you can use the blog to discuss technology, regulatory, legislative and business issues.

Mar 21, 2019

Coalition Unveils Plan for Effective Broadband Mapping

by Randy Sukow

USTelecom this afternoon announced that a coalition of ISPs and industry associations will soon begin a two-state pilot program involving crowdsourcing and other techniques to finally settle the broadband mapping problem. While some say the current census block-based FCC Form 477 mapping process has...

Mar 21, 2019

Rural Networks Need the Speed

by Randy Sukow

One of the main themes of NRTC CEO Tim Bryan’s speech at the NRTC Annual Meeting for electric cooperatives touched on the many parts of the nation that lack adequate throughput, as the engineers describe it. The more common term is “speed,” as measured on the internet as megabits p...

Mar 15, 2019

Who’s Got Ideas? Looking to Spark Partitioning/Disaggregation Deals

by Randy Sukow

As required in a recent appropriations bill, the FCC has begun looking for ways to convince national wireless license holders to lease or sell parts of their spectrum to rural service providers. During today’s monthly open meeting, the Commission opened a proceeding that asks the public for th...

Mar 15, 2019

NRTC Contributes to NRECA Utility Connected Home

by Randy Sukow

One of the more popular spots this week at NRECA TechAdvantage exhibit floor was the “Utility Connected Home,” a demonstration of how an increasing list of internet-connected devices connect consumers in the home with their electric providers. NRTC offers its members several forms of bro...

Mar 14, 2019

Telephone Co-op Appeals to Electrics for Fiber Partnerships

by Randy Sukow

NRECA invited Kristi Westbrock, CEO and general manager of Consolidated Telephone Co. (CTC) in Brainerd, MN, to tell her story. CTC has been engaged in broadband partnerships with Minnesota electric cooperatives for a decade and it has been a good experience. She would love to do it again. “C...

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