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.

Oct 29, 2020

Michael Brown Gives NRTC a Network Architecture Advantage

by Randy Sukow

NRTC in October greeted Michael Brown, a long-time telecom industry veteran, who becomes Vice President of Engineering in the company’s Broadband Solutions group. Brown’s main focus is on technical architecture for broadband services, especially “internet services, voice services, and architec...

Oct 28, 2020

Commission Adopts 5G Fund Rules, but Auction Start Date is Unknown

by Randy Sukow

The FCC during yesterday’s monthly agenda meeting adopted the rules for a $9 billion “5G Fund,” a universal service program to distribute support for high-speed mobile networks to cover rural America. The rules will be similar to rules set for the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) revers...

Oct 27, 2020

David Primmer to Lead NRTC Supply Chain Streamlining

by Randy Sukow

NRTC recently welcomed David Primmer to the newly created post of vice president of Vendor and Supply Chain Management. He comes to NRTC at a time when it is expecting significant growth in some business sectors. It is examining changes to its supply chain process to ensure members get efficient del...

Oct 23, 2020

NRTC Begins Board Election Process in November

by Randy Sukow

In early November, members should look for emails from NRTC calling for nominees to the board of directors. We are planning to conduct the 2021 NRTC Annual Meeting featuring board elections as an online gathering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But we will manage the nominations and elections processe...

Oct 22, 2020

Funding for Broadband Mapping Draws Bipartisan Support

by Randy Sukow

A repeated complaint that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has lodged through most of 2020 is that while everybody in Washington, DC, and beyond seems to be eager to improve the Commission’s broadband mapping data-gathering process to replace the Commission’s flawed Form 477 data, Congress has so far been ...

Oct 19, 2020

NRTC Cybersecurity Webinar to Demonstrate a Live Hack in Progress

by Randy Sukow

For a real-world look at the hacker’s vocation, NRTC Managed Services invites members to a memorable webcast – “Cybersecurity - Now It's Personal!” The presentation will feature a live demonstration of a cyberattack in progress. We encourage all NRTC members to register now for the 90-minute...

Oct 13, 2020

Stanford Scholars Win Nobel for Spectrum Auction Breakthroughs

by Randy Sukow

Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, professors at Stanford University in California won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced yesterday. The award recognizes Milgrom and Wilson’s “improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction format...

Oct 13, 2020

Final Bidder List Sets Stage for Oct. 29 RDOF Reverse Auction

by Randy Sukow

The FCC today released a Public Notice announcing 386 applicants approved to participate in a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction. Phase I of the more than $20 billion support program will distribute approximately $16 billion through the auction, which begins Oct. 29. Among those ...

Oct 6, 2020

NRTC Promoting Online Safety and Privacy for Cybersecurity Awareness Month

by Dan Timmer

The overarching message of this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) – “If you Connect it, Protect it” – dives into the importance of keeping connected devices safe and secure from outside influence. NRTC is committed to that theme and to keeping its members’ online businesses sa...

Oct 5, 2020

For Rural Electrics Broadband Marketing Means Entering a New World

by Randy Sukow

Rural electric cooperatives starting up consumer broadband operations are learning that many of the proven practices they’ve used for decades to reach their customers do not translate well to marketing broadband services. It is more difficult to market a competitive service that is not quite as es...

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