PREFACE:
The New Hope Telephone Cooperative (NHTC) located in New Hope Alabama is a non-profit Telephony, Internet, and Cable service provider for the residents of Grant, New Hope, and Owens Cross Roads Alabama. The NHTC Internet Service Provider (ISP) name is NEHP.
NEHP IS A HUGE SUCCESS STORY:
This is a story that I am privileged to have been a part of, and am honored to tell.
To this day, Internet connectivity and Telephony services in rural communities all over America are lagging way behind those offered in major cities. All except for the rural communities of Grant, New Hope, and Owens Cross Roads Alabama that is.
One of my biggest worries upon moving here was the lack of telephony technology. When I first moved here, the Internet was barely a murmur and the Bulletin Board Service (BBS), the 80486, 14400bps modem, and the 340MB hard drive were kings. There was a local computer users group, but that name was very misleading. It was actually a handful of people that were trying to start a business and make money by providing custom built computers, BBS, and training services. But by and large, most people in this area couldn't even spell computer. This part of the country fit the description of 'Rural America' perfectly. Best modem connect speeds here were 12,000bps.
Naturally I called down to the NHTC and was given to 'Bob'. I asked Bob what could be done about my modem connect speed problems. He told me I was not alone and that my modem connect speed was limited by the telephone switch at the New Hope Central Office (CO). He told me that all they could guarantee was 9600bps. I asked him if they had any plans to upgrade the switch. He told me they were looking at that possibility.
Within the year, the NHTC upgraded the telephone switch at the Central Office (CO). When the Internet came along I purchased a dial-up Internet account with an ISP in the nearest major city, Huntsville Alabama, and achieved 28800bps connections. But, that is a long distance call from here.
So I called down to the NHTC and asked if they were going to start a local Internet service. I was connected with a man by the name of 'Bob Gruis' (now I knew his last name!) and he told me that they were considering it. Although it was never spoken, I got the distinct impression that this guy believed in in the future of the Internet, but that he was being held back by a lot of people that didn't. I could tell by his tone of voice and careful selection of words. This man had a very high IQ was very loyal, and was capable of vision. Couple that with what I already knew about the demographics of this area, it wasn't hard to figure out. It's not that the people in this area are dumb or bad, it's simply not a center of technology. And since the non-profit organization was headed by a board made of members from this area, I figured there was no way NHTC would add Internet service. I was gladly mistaken, within the year, the NHTC started an Internet service, called NEHP.
Bob called me and I bought a local Internet account. But just as quickly, I was having a terrible time with it. Lost connections, busy signals, huge ping times, high packet loss, and sometimes, it went down for days. I had emailed Bob results from ping and trace route tests spanning several weeks. And the local users group was complaining and adding fuel to the fire through political means by talking to the board members. Their motive was obvious, if NEHP fell, they would be the only game in town and they would have no competition so they would be open to sell their services for a profit, a large profit. Yes folks, the age old motivator money saw it's treacherous way into local politics once again. I was glad I kept my Internet account in Huntsville, and as it turns out, so were a lot of other people who were watching the same events transpire as I was.
So I called the NHTC again, and was connected with the Assistant Manager, Bob Gruis (now I knew his title!). I asked him if I could come down and talk to him, we set an appointment. I told him I wasn't of the ilk to come bitching without offering my abilities to help, I wanted NEHP to succeed, after all, it was in my best interest. I took printouts of ping, and trace-route results with me. He gave me a tour of the facility and we got into a lengthy conversation that lasted through lunch and most of the afternoon.
By the end of the day, we got to understand each other fairly well and knew we were going to be friends. He had committed to resolving the problem and I had committed to building the web site for NEHP and providing technical support as a volunteer. Bob told me there was one other volunteer, his name was Ted Elston. Bob set up a meeting and the three of us had lunch together. At that point, the fate of NEHP was set.
Bob still wouldn't tell us what the problem was, he told us he couldn't, but he said he would fix it, and he did. It wasn't until much later that we found out what was going on and why he wouldn't say anything at that time. At that time, the NHTC had contracted with a company in Huntsville called Airnet which had contracted with a company called Netresults for Internet bandwidth. My ping time and trace-route printouts proved that Netresults was the problem. The bandwidth Netresults were providing was insufficient and unreliable. They should have named themselves NoNetresults. The reason Bob couldn't tell us anything was because NHTC was considering taking legal action. The issue was settled out of court and both NEHP and AIRNET found another bandwidth provider.
All of the Internet problems we were experiencing magically went away, and I disposed of my Huntsville based Internet account and was enjoying reliable consistent Internet bandwidth and services. Bob started holding an Internet discussion group every third Monday of the week down at the cooperative CO. Which is exactly what a users group should be, free, non-profit, with volunteers and people from the local community.
To me and Ted, Bob is a Saint. Against all odds, demographic, technical, contractual, legal, and political, a single man by the name of Bob Gruis forged a non-profit community owned telephony provider into a full fledged Internet Service Provider (ISP). In our eyes, this took several miracles, not just two. In fact, down at the cooperative, the employees have taken to calling it "Bob's Internet"!
In the years since, the subscriber count doubled each year to where it is today at about 1200 users. Bob has continued to upgrade the equipment at the CO allowing the non-profit cooperative to offer high bandwidth connectivity options at a third of the cost that these same services cost in the nearest largest city.
Have you ever heard of that? A rural town that has better and lower cost service than the neighboring large city? It's usually the other way around, if you can get any high speed services at all in rural communities, they usually cost a whole lot more than the nearest city. And our nearest city Huntsville IS a technological center, home to the SMDC, US Army AMCOM, and NASA Marshal Space Flight Center. Lots of engineers, scientists, physicists, and computer specialists. In fact, NEHP had been offering ADSL to its customers for a year and a half when it was not available in Huntsville at any price.
When the 56K technologies came out, we queried the switch manufacturers to see if they had Remote Terminal (RT) electronics that would support 56K. We knew the existing RTs would not support it and we knew we had to upgrade the equipment to offer the technology to all NHTC subscribers and to satisfy the telecommunications act of 1996. But the switch manufacturers did not have any. We found out that they were lagging behind the computer industry technology by a long ways. We found out that they were just starting to design RTs that would support the 56K technology. We placed an order to not only replace all of the RTs in the area but to double the amount we already had. We thought we would be on a waiting list. We figured the big boys like the Bells would have in orders for thousands of these and poor little 'ol New Hope who wanted a measly 40 would be left out in the cold. We were surprised. Not only was there no waiting list, we were the first in line! Just think about that for a moment! How can that be? How can a handful of people and a modest little rural community be ahead of the pack?
And, NHTC has upgraded the cable plant to go digital! In response to a customer survey they sent out last year. If the community invests in it, it will grow, and perhaps we will have digital cable modems for Internet connectivity. In fact, we may have this technology before Huntsville does...again!
Let me put this in a business perspective. In New Hope, there are 1200 Internet users and 5000 telephone subscribers. In Huntsville, there are 24,000 Internet users and 200,000 telephone subscribers. In New Hope, the subscriber density is about 20 per mile of cable, In Huntsville, about 200 per mile of cable. In New Hope, telephone rates are half of what they cost in Huntsville, ISDN rates are 1/3 and we have had ADSL for a year and a half. And at the end of the year, the NHTC is a non-profit organization so any money left over is distributed back out to the subscribers! In Huntsville at the end of the year, the profit based Bell South threatens price hikes for next year! In New Hope, a tiny non-profit telephony provider is mandated by the telecommunications act to upgrade it's equipment. In Huntsville, the huge (spanning three states) profit based Bell company is exempt from the law! Read the telecommunications act of 1996, at the very bottom, you will find a clause exempting Bells.
This is just the opposite of what it should be. Huntsville being a technology center should have better equipment, Huntsville's telephony provider a Bell giant having over 10 times the support base and density should have far lower costs.
WHY?
The New Hope Telephone Cooperative is NON-PROFIT. Simple greed ladies and gentlemen, simply money. The profit based companies are ripping you off. They got Congress to put an exemption clause in the law for themselves. So they could continue to rip you off. At the tiny NON-PROFIT cooperative, all the money goes back into the infrastructure or back to the people, no CEO's, no stocks, no profit.
Several years later and NEHP is doing well and about to be the first to break new ground in the telephony market in this region again. The faces may have changed and the technology improved but Rusty is a great internet manager and is about to make fiber to the home a reality here in good ol New Hope Alabama, once again before the gigantic profit driven companies. Pretty amazing to me that a small community owned telco can set the bar for the big boys who should be setting the bar.
