Stories of Innovation

In the hills of eastern Kentucky, NTCA leader Keith Gabbard is more than the general manager of a telephone company. Keith is a first responder to a growing and monumental challenge in rural America-- mental health.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host a Agriculture and Rural SuperCluster meeting at Purdue next month.

In small towns throughout rural America, broadband providers are seldom just broadband providers.

On July 31, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) convened a National Cybersecurity Summit in New York City to discuss cybersecurity threats and the public-private partnership to protect critical infrastructure and national security.

NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association kicked off its season of Regional Conferences July 15, 2018, in Hilton Head, S.C.

Both cases speak to the increasing prevalence of technology in our lives. Or, more specifically, technology that can provide third-parties with a stunningly accurate picture of a person's "familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations."

Churches in rural America are often more than houses of worship—these spaces of congregation and fellowship also can serve as community centers, as Seaside United Methodist Church does in the small town of Sunset Beach, N.C.

There is a market; there is a bar; there is a fire department; there is some industry in the form of small businesses. But, the town's claim to fame is the annual Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest.

Across rural America are people who have the skills and motivation to contribute to the larger economy—but the small towns in which they live often lack the big businesses and organizations that can offer the jobs they want.

With a new presidential administration came new leadership at the FCC—commissioner Ajit Pai was appointed chairman of the commission in January 2017, and soon after the political balance of the commission shifted.

Concern for robust, high-quality broadband networks is a defining characteristic of North Dakota—from the governor’s office to individual small towns across the state.

The internet moves at a breakneck pace. Goods are constantly being purchased, pages updated, content released, videos streamed—and access to this online world requires a robust broadband connection.

Here are a few of my favorite digital depictions of telco marketing success:

As NTCA Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield wrote recently on her blog, Minnesota is on the “cutting edge” when it comes to its state broadband matching grant program.

I was in Columbus last week for the Ohio Telecom Association meeting, which was held at hotel that was not even built when I still lived there. I noticed when missing a turn, however, that it was near a street that I drove nearly every summer day for eight years to my summer job.

April, 28, 2018, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association was a proud partner in the first event in a series of listening sessions focused on ways the government and private industries can work together to tackle rural broadband challenges and the opportunities improved e-connectivity bring to the people and economies of the nation’s rural regions.

Broadband industry stakeholders and advocates convened in Washington, D.C., this week for NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association’s 2018 Legislative and Policy (L&P) Conference, which began Monday, April 16, with an address from NTCA Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield.

Reliable broadband access can be difficult to come by in the middle of Tennessee, but Ben Lomand Connect (McMinnville, Tenn.) is making every effort to eradicate barriers to access.

Google Doodle this week celebrated what would have been the 310th birthday of Hannah Glasse. If you don't know who she was, don't be ashamed; I also needed to click the Doodle to learn.

If Tennyson (who died in 1892) were alive today, he might have written "darkly turns to deceit." Such is the hazard of on-line dating.