How difficult is it to get businesses to think of cable when it comes to equipping their offices? It’s getting easier every day. The cable industry has made a lot of strides in the last 3-5 years as a full service telecom provider. Getting into the HSD business helped us to get recognition. It’s still highly competitive, but the reception out there for an alternative, facilities-based network is getting better and better all the time. Is there any talk of creating some sort of consortium among the cable ops that could get a national message out? There have been some ongoing discussions from a handful of large MSOs over the last 2 years. There have been some pretty serious talks about how to create a "cable first" offering, if you will, that provides the message of cable commercial services as a viable alternative. It’s really going to take the cable companies working together … with CableLabs, CTAM and others to create some uniformity. How helpful would it be to have a cellular service? Adding anything to the bundle that provides customers, both residential and business, with economies of scale would be helpful. … While customers may not be directly asking for it now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it wouldn’t be in demand. It’s a matter of education. What’s Verizon up to in your area, and what does that mean for you? Here in N VA, they are working to FTTP deployment. They’ve filed for franchise agreements in a handful of municipalities. The local exchange carrier is already the predominant competitor to us in the cable industry. The LECs view what we’ve done as the right move. I still think our localism sets us apart. The model of a LEC is not as entrenched in that localism that the cable industry has become known for. Being able to go out and shake hands with customers and build those relationships on a one-on-one level is going to remain an advantage. New Year’s resolution? My wife and I have twins on the way and 3 children already. My personal resolution is to get prepared for that.

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FCC Launches Update to Broadband Health Map

The FCC updated its Mapping Broadband Health in America platform Friday to include new variables to better examine maternal health. Now, the platform allows users to visualize and survey

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