A Pandemic Highlights Two Rural Americas, With Shirley Bloomfield

Rural Broadband Today

Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Stephen Smith: Hello, I'm Stephen Smith. Welcome to our first episode of our new podcast. Now, some of our listeners may be familiar with the StoryConnect podcast. That's another show produced by WordSouth that focuses on the communications marketing issues. But there are often issues that we'd like to explore that go beyond marketing communications. And this new podcast really gives us a platform to explore those broader topics. And I can think of no better way to launch this new show than with our guest today, Mrs. Shirley Bloomfield. Shirley, welcome to our show.

Shirley Bloomfield: Thank you, Stephen. I am honored to be your first guest for this podcast that you're just launching.

Stephen Smith: Well, thank you for making time for us today. Shirley is the CEO of NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association. Now, that is the premier association that represents nearly 850 independent, community-based telecommunications companies. Shirley has more than 30 years experience representing the small, independent telecom operators, and I'd like to start by jumping into that. Shirley, in the time that you've been serving this industry, have you ever seen such a time of challenge for these rural broadband providers?

Shirley Bloomfield: That is a loaded question, Stephen. Absolutely not. What I have found over the course of the history of this industry is that change has been more evolutionary. This felt like the rug got pulled out from everybody very quickly. But I will add, I've also been so impressed at how quickly everybody pivoted to new ways of operating, new ways to deal with customers, and new ways to deal with installs. It's been inspirational.

Stephen Smith: So what are some of the efforts that you have seen from these providers that have really shown some innovative ways to deal with this pandemic?

Shirley Bloomfield: So one of the things that has been the most interesting to me was the concern that these companies had for their technicians. And yet at the same time realizing they had school children suddenly doing online learning who needed connectivity. You had adults working from home for the first time. That created a really interesting demand point. But watching these companies figure out new ways — I had one general manager who actually referred to his tech teams as "MacGyvering", as they did installs. You know, thinking through how do you do things differently? How do you not have your techs come into the office every day, but do installs out of whatever they have in their truck? Or watching people create these picture images of photos to send to the customers as they stood outside windows and said "connect the red wire to the round opening." You know, it's that spirit of innovation when they think about, you know, how you're going to handle some of those cases.

Shirley Bloomfield: The other thing that I just have been blown away by is how people have thought about their school children in their communities and the way some companies have literally redirected their fiber plant that was going directly to the schools and getting that fiber infrastructure closer to the students' homes who needed it. People who were thinking about, "well, you know, I may have the connectivity I'm going to provide, but my schoolchildren in my community may not have access to a laptop" and providing some of those needs. So I just think that whole sense of, you know, what do my customers need? What does my community need? And then just doing it and watching the employees of these companies rally around that cause. It's very inspirational.

Stephen Smith: Well, this is certainly a story that you have been telling for many, many years, but now that we are in this crisis, it's really highlighted just how critical broadband service is. And likewise how detrimental it is not having broadband service in the unserved population.

Shirley Bloomfield: That has been a real eye-opener, I think, for a lot of policymakers, who are now suddenly, it feels like, having this light bulb go off of "oh, my gosh. There are parts of this country that don't have connectivity, and they don't have access. And what can we do to solve it?" And there is a small part of me that does think, you know what, we've been telling you this for decades, how important it is to make sure that no matter where people live, that they have access to this infrastructure. So instead of getting petty, we have pivoted very quickly to try to direct their attention, their enthusiasm, and hopefully, federal support, to actually creating these networks.

Shirley Bloomfield: The other thing I think it highlights a little bit, Stephen, is that in my mind there really are two rural Americans. So when policymakers like to pivot to rural America is really suffering; there's no Internet connectivity. I do find myself having to remind people that there is a rural—rural divide. There is a rural America that is served by community-based providers who live and work and play and raise their children in their communities. They are future-focused. They have built amazing infrastructure, and we have seen that infrastructure rise to the occasion. They've been able to handle the increased bandwidth usage demands. They have been able to handle new customers coming on, increasing speeds, and manage that beautifully, frankly. And then there's a rural America that is served by larger carriers where historically they have not put their money in investing in the network. They have put their money into their more competitive markets, which, from a business perspective, makes sense. But what it's done is it's really created two different kinds of rural service standards, and that is a bridge that policymakers really need to be focusing on.

Stephen Smith: Well, that's a great point. WordSouth serves several clients who have distressed counties in their service areas and even some of the poorest counties in their particular states. And yet they have a 100 percent fiber-to-the-home network there that is helping make a real difference in those communities.

Shirley Bloomfield: Absolutely. When you think about how the American economy is going to rebound, I think those communities are perfectly situated to capture whatever economic rebound we're able to do, as well as potentially attract new businesses and attract new workers, who suddenly find that their work can be a lot more mobile and remote than we imagined a year ago.

Stephen Smith: And what kind of sense do you have, Shirley, of how permanent some of this shift that we've seen is going to be in terms of remote working, distance learning, and that sort of thing?

Shirley Bloomfield: You know, it's a really interesting question, and I really wish I had a magic ball to take a look at it, because there is a part of me that says, "will this be like 9/11?" Where we, as a country, kind of got turned topsy turvy, our pattern shifted. But then, quite frankly, a year later, it was like we had kind of short-term amnesia, and we're kind of right back to doing things the way we had done them previously. I think there's obviously a lot of really key indicators along the way. Will there be a vaccine? When will that come? Will there be effective ways to treat COVID-19, if people are impacted? Will we have enough PPE and medical support? All of those thi...