I often feel like a proud family member when sharing (or some might even call it bragging about) how hard NTCA members are working to bring reliable high-speed broadband to the residents and businesses in your communities. Whether it’s through social media, this blog, or a video chat these days, it’s always a delight to demonstrate to folks in Washington the incredible difference you all are making in the lives of your communities. Sometimes I feel like a FaceBook or Twitter “stalker” when I follow along with what NTCA rural broadband providers are up to in the field – building fiber, connecting schools and getting ReConnect or Cares Act support to continue deploying broadband to those they serve.
While sharing your individual stories one on one is certainly an effective – and fun! – way of communicating, we also need data on what all of you are doing together to advocate for your needs as effectively as possible. To justify our claims that this industry as a whole continues to lead the charge on rural broadband, we need to be able to explain and show trends in how you all are advancing fiber, increasing speeds, serving customers, and connecting schools and libraries. Honestly, as with everything these days, it’s about DATA, DATA, DATA!
For us to round out our advocacy with both individual stories and industry-wide data, we need your help – we NEED you to complete our annual Broadband/Internet Availability Survey. The deadline for doing so is this Friday, October 2. We have been conducting this member survey for two decades (see the 2019 report here) – I know it’s not easy to do surveys, but every year more than 100 providers respond and this has become an essential part of our ability to tell your story completely over that time. This data also sets you apart from other entities in the broadband space so I cannot impress upon you how important this data is to us and how valuable it is to us in telling your story. I don’t think I have ever testified before Congress on NTCA member’s behalf without having some of the latest data in hand.
So please complete the survey if you can – and keep sharing the individual stories of success as well!