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Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 9, 2009 · 
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The eighth annual TelcoTV Conference & Expo is taking place this week in Orlando, Fl., at the Orange County Convention Center. TelcoTV is the telecom industry’s premier event for the exploration of a comprehensive entertainment convergence strategy.
Rural Youth: Cell Phones are Essential
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, October 5, 2009 · ·
The 2009 Rural Youth Telecommunications Survey, conducted jointly by the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS) and NTCA, finds a significant number of today’s young, rural Americans view cellular telephone service as more essential than traditional landline telephone service, and the group views cell phones as a device capable of much more than voice calls.
Nearly nine out of ten respondents indicated they have a cell phone. Ninety percent of respondents use cell phones for purposes other than making voice calls. The majority use their phones for text messaging (72%) and picture taking (50%).
The annual survey also explored wireless, Internet and video usage habits of rural youth. Read more
Rural PC Project Releases Survey Results
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, September 21, 2009 · ·
The Rural PC Project, a joint partnership between NTCA, CSSA, and Microsoft, is attempting to increase broadband adoption by providing affordable and reliable laptops to rural consumers.
NTCA and CSSA are acting as program administrators, aggregating computer purchases to achieve lower per unit cost, while Microsoft has assisted with strategic planning support. Participating member telcos are able to offer the computers to their customer base on their own individual terms.
The Rural PC Project is currently conducting a pilot program with a handful of rural telcos. To date, more than 150 laptops have been shipped, including 25 netbooks. Read more
RUS Administrator Addresses NTCA
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, September 14, 2009 · ·
U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan S. Adelstein gave his first address to a trade association this morning at NTCA’s Fall Conference in New York. Read more about what Adelstein discussed, including the future of rural broadband.
Stay tuned to this week’s issue of NTCA’s The Washington Report to learn more.
NTCA Releases Cloud Computing ePaper
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 22, 2009 · ·
Application service providers (ASP), software as a service (SaaS), on-demand applications, hosted or managed services, cloud computing—each of these concepts is similar in nature. Regardless of what buzz word you choose, the same general principle emerges: the movement of applications from the desktop or server further back into the network, or the cloud. The product or application is then delivered to the end user via the Internet.
Many global tech companies and startups have entered the cloud computing fray, offering a wide variety of products and services, each targeted at perhaps a different audience. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Verizon Business, Salesforce.com — these are just a few of the companies blazing the cloud computing trail.
With the advent and prevalence of IP technology and network bandwidth, cloud computing might enable broadband service providers to move further up the stack, away from simply delivering a high-speed pipe, to offering new and innovative applications, and potentially creating new revenue streams. Read more
NTCA TV: New Vehicle for Advocacy Messages
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 15, 2009 · ·
NTCA seeks new ways to tell the rural telecom story and share its advocacy messages with policy-makers and the media. The association has established a YouTube channel called Rural Telecommunity, where it will post videos that enable members to share their messages in a concise and engaging format that is easily accessible.
The association also has created a new section on the NTCA Web site for NTCA TV. The new section currently has several advocacy message videos as well as congressional testimony. In the future, NTCA envisions expanding this to include your stories about serving customers in rural communities.