Across the country and serving about 35 of our landmass. Host could you name a couple of those companies to help us get familiar . Guest absolutely. We could go all the way to western south dakota by Mount Rushmore to visit golden west and we could go to citizens on the Mississippi River up in wisconsin where we got cooperatives and if you are in my state of virginia weve got scott county down in the very tip of the state serving the tristate area so ive got 850. Host when you talk about landmass you not talking landmass or population at all. Guest peter, you hit upon the key part of this. Its about 5 of the American Population but they are truly the providers in this extremely rural part of the country and everywhere from alaska down to the panhandle of florida so they stretched all across and it got everybody from someone who is got about 150 subscribers to probably my Largest Company has just about 100,000 subscribers. They are serving those areas with quite frankly the Bell Compani
Cable Television Program as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Host this week on the communicators, our guest is Shirley Bloomfield from ntca, the Rural Broadband association. She is the ceo of it. Pauluest reporter is kirby. Shirley bloomfield, who do you represent at ntca . Shirley i represent around 850 communitybased Rural Broadband providers. They are the companies that traditionally were the local phone companies that had to evolve and evolve quickly. Broadband providers. About 35 of our landmass in this country. Host could you name a couple of those companies . Shirley absolutely, we could go all the way to western south dakota by matt . , we can go to wisconsin, where we have a number of Telephone Cooperatives. And if looking over here in my state of virginia, we have scott county down in the very tip of the state, the tristate area. I have 800 and 50. 850. Host so you are talking landmass, not necessarily population. Shirley absolutely, and
They have been serving about 35 of our landmass across the country. Could you name some of those companies to help us get familiar . Absolutely. We could go all the way to western south dakota, not rushmore. We could go to citizens on the mississippi river, up to wisconsin where i have telephone cooperatives. And even here in my state of virginia. We have scott county in the very tip of the state, serving the tristate area. But i have 850 of them. When you talk about landmass, you are talking about landmass and not necessarily population. Absolutely. You hit a key part of this. Is about 5 of the american population, but they are truly the providers in the most extreme and rural parts of the country. Everywhere from alaska to the panhandle of florida, so they stretch all across. I have everybody from somebody who has about 150 subscribers to probably my Largest Company that has just about 100,000 subscribers. They are serving those areas that the companies chose years ago to not provide
Host and this week on the communicators, our guest is Shirley Bloomfield of ntca, the Rural Broadband association. Shes the ceo there. Our guest reporter from Telecommunications Reports is paul kirby. Huly bloomfield Shirley Bloomfield, who do you represent . Guest about 850 communitybased broadband providers across the country, theyre in 46 states, so theyre the companies that traditionally were the local phone companies that had to evolve and evolved very quickly to become a broadband provider. So they truly are the onestop communication providers in a lot of areas around the country serving about 35 of our land mass. Host could you name a couple of those companies to help us get familiar . Guest oh, absolutely. All the way to western south dakota by mount rushmore, we could go to citizens on the Mississippi River up in wisconsin where ive got a number of cooperatives, and if were look over here in few state of virginia in my state of virginia, weve got scott county down in the very
Government. Former senator gordon smith is the longtime president and ceo of the National Association of broadcasters. He is our guest this week on the communicators. Before we get started looking at some of the issues that the nab is facing, how many people in this day of netflix and hulu and amazon are actually watching broadcast tv . Sen. Smith an awful lot. One of the things people insist on his having local news, weather, sports, emergency information. It is the lifeline. Natural or human disasters, it lets people know what is coming, how to find shelter, how to get rescue and recovery. The broadcasters, radio or television, is a Public Servant to be the first in former. It is unique in our country where so many of our communities have their own local television stations, and they are on the job at the peril of their own lives when a storm is coming. That is a franchise in all of telik medications that ,roadcasting owns and operates we are alone doing that given the peril of newsp