TVS Takes Mobile Leap Through NCTC MVNO
By Sara Winegardner
It’s never easy being the first, but paving the way forward for others is easier when you have friends by your side. That’s how TVS Cable felt when it made the decision to be the first to launch mobile ser vice through the NCTC’s partnership with Reach. TVS Cable General Manager David Thacker not only applauds Reach and NCTC for their endless support leading up to the launch, but also his staff for meeting the new challenge with enthusiasm.
“We’ve always had a good staff that’s very knowledgeable on a diverse range of things, so we felt comfortable with it. I don’t feel like it was a huge leap, and we always had the co-op,” Thacker says. “They’re really doing the heavy lifting for us. As a small operator, I was just glad that we were one of the people that got the opportunity to be first.”
In the eyes of NCTC CEO Lou Borrelli, there was no better fit for the first launch given Thacker’s technical savvy, and he believes Thacker is far too modest when it comes to taking credit for the labor that went into TVS Mobile’s launch.
“There are things he took us through and was diligent in with the testing and the analysis because… when you’re a smaller operator and you are literally embedded in the community where you see everybody at the grocery store, church, the Walmart or wherever, there is nowhere to hide,” Borrelli said when TVS debuted the service in February. “To be able to introduce something like this, he was meticulous in making sure that experience is the experience that he would want to have, and that’s re ally the difference.”
TVS’ launch also supports NCTC’s stance that any of its members, regardless of size, can offer mobile through the MVNO. The combination of the support from the NCTC with the dedication of its staff has meant TVS hasn’t had to add new hires in order to bring mobile to its product lineup. The provider had approximately 30 full-time employees at the time of the mobile launch.
“Everybody just kind of really picked up the slack on it,” Thacker says. “A lot of our technical department really picked up a lot of the aspects. Our CSRs are provisioning phones and whatnot, but our tech support is truly doing a lot of the troubleshooting.”
NCTC and Reach provided training to TVS Cable employees, and Thacker called the coaching fantastic. He has no doubt it will only continue to get better as time goes on and as early adopters of the mobile solution encounter different roadblocks or ask unexpected questions.
“They’re going to learn because we’re going to get into and find things that, well, this needs to be in there, and the other early adopters are going to do the same thing. I think it’s going to make it a whole lot better for the people that are following later on,” he says.
TVS doesn’t reveal subscriber numbers, but Thacker says the offering has been very successful so far and everyone has been pleased with the last several months. TVS Mobile offers four plans with the two most affordable tiers giving customers 1GB and 3GB of data for $24.95/month and $29.95/month, respectively. It also has two unlimited options priced at $49.95/month and $59.95/month, and those are the most popular among new customers.
Now that the product is off the ground, TVS is thinking about the longer-term goals it has for mobile. “We eventually want to be able to do some more things with even our in-home WiFi, tying in with the devices to be able to have mobile backup from our cellular service,” Thacker says. “We want to try to have more synergies between those products. We’re looking at doing more WiFi hotspots and some hotspot 2.0 stuff for our customers… I’d rather them be traveling on our network than anybody else’s.”