Entries by Shellie

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Public-Private Partnership to Benefit more than 1200 homes and businesses in rural Mason and Island Counties

February 2, 2022 Olympia, WA.  The Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) has awarded the Washington Independent Telecommunications Association (WITA) $14.8 M to provide new services to more than 1200 underserved and unserved homes and businesses.  This public-private partnership teams WITA, a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1915, with two small, family-owned telecommunications companies:  Hood Canal Communications (established […]

February 8, 2022 by

County, ToledoTel Broadband Agreement Approved; More Than 800 New Winlock Connections Possible by End of 2022

Published Wednesday, December 1, 2021 4:34 pm – Chronline article By Eric Rosane / ericr@chronline.com Lewis County commissioners on Tuesday approved a finalized telecommunications agreement with ToledoTel that details a 25-year public-private venture to bring broadband internet services to unserved parts of Winlock. The full scope of the agreement is tentative on the county being awarded $23.5 million […]

December 6, 2021 by

Fight Churn and Grow Revenue

None of us like to see our customers churn. Especially when, if we use the average US$400 (CA$521) customer acquisition cost of Bell and Telus, this means that the top four United States carriers are not only kissing goodbye to $65 million per month in lost future revenue, but another $76 million in customer replacement costs. […]

August 2, 2021 by

Sleight of hand: Inslee signs conflicting broadband bills

The state legislature this session passed two separate bills, ESHB 1336 sponsored by Rep. Drew Hansen (R-23) and SSSB 5383 sponsored by Sen. Lisa Wellman (D-41), which set up conflicting public policies for how local governments can provide retail broadband service, and Governor Jay Inslee last week added further legal ambiguity by signing them both off camera—simultaneously—using his left hand […]

May 26, 2021 by

Telco email services: Do you give your email away for free?

We read an interesting paper recently from atmail, one of our Premier Associate Members, titled How to Convert Your Email Platform from Loss to Profit.  In an industry first, atmail went out and found the email pricing from 367 telco, ISP, and hosting providers worldwide, to help educate all of us about how much telcos charge […]

February 8, 2021 by

WITA’s Friend Narda Jones Goes to the White House

On January 15th the White House announced that Narda Jones will become the Legislative Director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy.  She tells me that she’s a “day one” employee meaning she starts work for the Biden Administration on day one of his presidency. Many of you have had an opportunity to spend […]

January 17, 2021 by

Whidbey Telecom Receives ReConnect Grant and Award of Excellence

In late October Whidbey Telecom became only the second recipient of a USDA ReConnect grant in the state of Washington. In addition, USDA Washington State Director for Rural Development Kirk Pearson presented Whidbey Telecom with the Washington State Infrastructure Award of Excellence for their efforts to provide high-speed broadband to their customers. Whidbey Telecom will use the ReConnect grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network to connect underserved residents and businesses to high-speed broadband internet in Point Roberts, Washington.

November 3, 2020 by

NISC Speed Test Presentation

The FCC speed and latency test requirements are quickly approaching for many companies. The details are starting to be finalized. NISC is closely following these updates, not only from a regulatory perspective but also from a technical perspective. During a recent Webex presentation, Ryan Larson, Senior Strategy & Marketing Manager from NISC, gave an overview of the requirements and an update on items that NISC has discovered during their cooperative testing with residential gateway manufacturers and service providers.

July 27, 2020 by

WITA Members: Here for our Communities. Still.

“These are the communities that we serve; our friends and neighbors. We have a duty to do what is right during times of crisis.” James Brooks, Inland Telephone Company. I’ve spoken with many of our members in the last few days, all of whom are reaching out to their local communities to see how they […]

April 13, 2020 by

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