However, we do still serve some very rural markets directly and have neighboring rural markets that are unserved. Lighting up 100% of our footprint with Fiber is definitely our long-term goal. Will: Actually, we now have over 62% of our customers on FTTP. What’s the plan to light up 100% of your customers with fiber? (Heck, Google can’t seem to do it, so you must have some best practices.) ISE: As of early spring, you provided 47% of your customers with your advanced Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure with speeds up to 1 Gig.
#GO HARD OR GO HOME WILL I AM OFFICIAL VIDEO SOFTWARE#
Sometimes the latest, greatest widget that everyone wants only works with one vendor or software product - therefore, having an integrated, easy-to-use customer interface cannot be accomplished.
Offering a variety of solutions in a simple, easy-to-use manner is not always achievable when the components of those solutions are constantly changing. The complexities of our fast-changing, constantly evolving technology business are always challenging us to stay easy-to-do-business-with. Both of these are very important to our goals and our relationships with our customers. Will: We have kept our core mission to globally connect our communities, but we have added in another key piece to the puzzle: easy to do business with. ISE: How has your mission evolved, and what concrete network realities have challenged that mission? But it does create a special culture where everyone feels connected. None of it is easy, and can make for some awkward Thanksgiving dinners. Equally, strive to treat employees like family. The biggest family-related item I have learned is to hold family to the same level of accountability as any other employee. The bar set by my father and uncle was high. My grandparents ran it before my father took over the reins. My Great Grandmother was the first switchboard operator who ended up purchasing the company. Will: The family business actually goes back several generations. What are your greatest learnings from this journey? ISE: Family business can be tricky, to say the least. Here are 2 questions related to that history. At that time, the vision was: To provide Home Telephone customers with service on par with that of global telecommunications companies while maintaining the company’s reputation for local investment, leadership and service. Robert and Dozier Helmly began managing Home Telephone Company in 1962. Helmly, Home Telecom’s President and CEO, has to say about RDOF, Edge Compute, and leading a family-based business in telecom.