by Ron Laudner,  2011 OPASTCO Chairman

Opportunity can be defined in several different ways. Many of them involve words like “risk” and “uncertainty,” but all of them refer to a “positive” outcome. I would like to see each one of us here in this room; our membership and our industry strive to create and take advantage of the opportunities this uncertainty and risk will create.

With the National Broadband Plan looming large and with all of the risk and uncertainty surrounding it, there seems to be ample opportunities to shape and craft our business to be successful in this next generation of service. The next transition we make will transform how we conduct our business, our relationships with our customers and the types of services we will provide. We have heard much about all of this during our meetings here in Miami this week.

As incoming chair of OPASTCO, I would like to make it one of our missions, along with the staff, our peers in the industry and our consumers to attack this risk and uncertainty, capture it and work to be a part of the dialogue. This dialogue will create and shape the vast opportunities we’ll find in our association and our businesses in the future.

I want OPASTCO to be focused on what is in the best interest of our rural consumers, our rural industry and all of rural America.  By doing this, we can’t fail in our mission.

OPASTCO is evolving to meet your needs. Our first step was to focus on the deployment of broadband networks that are enabled to allow customers access to the multitude of devices and services that require an IP world to function.

However, the evolution doesn't stop there, and we must continue to focus on what lies ahead. The challenges will be formidable. Technology will advance at an even greater pace. IP may not be the protocol of choice in the future, but one thing is for sure: the world economy will be driven by a global broadband infrastructure.

Together we must justify that the networks we are building today are not just to simply bring entertainment to our customers, but are there to provide rural Americans with advanced services such as high-resolution medical imaging, e-commerce, and high-definition 3D remote surveillance
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Symmetrical, high-bandwidth broadband connections are key to rural economic development. Businesses will look first for the availability of these connections when considering locating in rural areas, and we must be prepared to meet those needs.

Advocacy in Washington will be key to our success, and a lack of a strong advocacy will doom us forever. We have the greatest chance here today to be a part of the discussion that will shape the thoughts and decisions that will ultimately drive our engines in the future.

Last week Congress swore into office many new faces. We will have a lot of work to do on the Hill to meet these new members, build relationships and educate them on many of the important issues facing our industry. This effort will be critical to achieve the success we need to continue to do the great job of building and maintaining our networks.

It will be difficult to peer into the crystal ball and try to evaluate what will become important to this Congress, but I CAN tell you it will involve economic recovery, development and the creation of jobs! All of these will be a top priority for our government and their focus of the discussions.

To be an integral part of this conversation, rural communities will need to have access to robust and affordable broadband. Clearly, the ability of rural providers to offer broadband services at competitive prices will be critical to generating the new ideas and opportunities that will exist in the future, opportunities to create jobs and opportunities for our communities to thrive in the new global economy.

As written by Vantage Point Solutions in the Rural Telecom Education Series, we must work to ensure there is adequate support for sustaining these networks in areas where great distances and few customers would normally hinder business and job growth.

The availability of broadband in rural America is also critical in retaining business and keeping people working. Business, farms and ranches rely on these networks to enable day-to-day operations. Without access to affordable broadband, the prospect of our customers doing business within our communities will be less attractive, if not impossible.

As you have heard, there will be much discussion in the near future regarding important changes and decisions surrounding broadband. OPASTCO, its leadership and the entire industry, along with all of you, are poised to help lead the crafting of the rules and regulations that will be a roadmap to guide our industry, a roadmap to find all of the new opportunities in this new future.

You can play an important role in all of this. In May, OPASTCO will be conducting its Legislative and Regulatory Conference in Washington, D.C. I know we tell you this every year, but “If not now, when? If not you, who?” I encourage each of you, as well as ALL of the OPASTCO membership, to get involved either in this conference or in any effort to reach out to the Hill. We have to fight where the battle is waged, not from the sidelines and places our leaders can’t be reached. There are many weapons, in the form of tools, on the website that can be utilized to take our message to Washington and help be a part of the solution. Getting involved will also help us all learn about the opportunities that are sure to be created along the way.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of access to broadband for the future of rural America and the United States as a whole. Broadband is becoming the very lifeblood of our economy. When discussing broadband speeds and access, it has been said over and over that the broadband of today is the narrowband of tomorrow.

As the need for robust broadband increases, our networks will become the only vehicle that will meet these growing broadband needs. Entertainment, video, gaming, education, health care and cloud computing will demand broadband size and speeds we have never imagined, but only we can provide. Customers will continue to demand mobility in their lives, but the limitations of that bandwidth cannot meet these future “ultra high-speed” demands of our consumers down the road.

Most consumers will require both types of connectivity, and we will need to work hard to meet those needs and create the business opportunities that will come as a result.

Be a part of the process, participate in the discussion, help to educate our leaders in Washington, and continue to work together to define and create the opportunities that will drive our business and become the economic engines of our communities.

Many of the past leaders of OPASTCO have arrived at this day with ideas, goals and qualities far greater than mine only to find the issues change and new challenges arrive in our industry that need to be met head on, challenges that end up steering the ship. I truly feel that we can be that integral part of the discussion and shape the direction of our industry during this uncertain, risk-filled time. We ourselves can work to create the very opportunities that will drive our business in this new future, the future currently unknown and foreign to us; but by working very hard together we can build those networks to meet future demand and work to gain the continued support for maintaining them.

To do what’s right for our industry is one thing: to do what is important for rural America is one thing; and to do what is right for ALL of America is yet another; but to do nothing is wrong. We will try very hard as the leaders of OPASTCO to continue to participate right alongside the rest of the industry to help shape and guide the decisions that will come out of Washington. Failure to do so will be catastrophic!

So what does it mean to be an IP association? Maybe IP should stand for innovative and proactive. Innovative because we will continue to find new ways to provide our customers with the most advanced services and proactive because we have met the challenge and built the networks of the future... and did it today!

The mission of OPASTCO should be to do what is best for rural America and its consumers. You cannot fail by taking that approach. We may lose some of the battles, and we may not always agree, but in the long term we will be stronger as an industry and stronger for our customers. The cost of our investments in this future transition of the industry will be large, but failing to build them will be even larger. The battle on the Hill will be a hard, long fight, but the failure to fight will be disastrous!

Thanks to everyone for participating in the discussions here in Miami this week. I look forward to 2011 and seeing you all at future meetings.