2010 Buyers Guide - Broadband Properties

Texas Cooperative
Spurs Economic Growth
New fiber and old-fashioned ideas about being a fearless first mover in a
competitive marketplace have given GVTC – and its home counties – a big
edge in tough times.
By Steven S. Ross ■ Broadband Properties
Who knows more about the
economics of telecommunications
and the value of fiberto-the-home
deployments – Wall Streetbankers
or the ranchers and other local
businesspeople who serve on the board
of GVTC, the largest telephone cooperative
in Texas? Judging by GVTC’s
performance, one would have to go with
the ranchers.
Using mainly its own current cash
flow, GVTC has built fiber out to about
two-thirds of its 32,000 customer/members
in a 2,000-square-mile service area
that sprawls across 11 counties north
of San Antonio. The build, which uses
mainly Calix equipment, started in
2004, just six months after Ritchie Sorrells
was hired as president and CEO.
The area, fed by Texas oil wealth,
San Antonio’s high-tech companies and
a large military presence, has been somewhat
insulated from (although hardly
immune to) the nationwide economic
downturn. But GVTC’s presence clearly
has also helped. Telcos, especially local
telcos, tend to work hand in glove with
local economic development authorities.
GVTC takes cooperation a step further,
providing much of the funding for the
Kendall County Economic Development
Corporation (whose CEO, Dan
Rogers, spoke at the 2008 Broadband
Properties Summit; see the report on his
speech in the sidebar).
“Dan Rogers came two years ago to
run the Economic Development Corporation
[EDC],” says Jeff Mnick, vice
president for sales and marketing for
Jeff Mnick (left), GVTC vice president of sales and marketing and Ritchie Sorrells, CEO.
GVTC. “We are not only a leader in
Kendall County economic development,
we’re a leader in every chamber [of commerce]
there is. One of our managers is
starting up an economic development
operation in Bulverde. That’s his job,
and because we have that exposure to
economic development in a leadership
position, people are looking to us to take
the ball downfield.”
Benefiting From Economic
Development
What’s the benefit to GVTC? “We look
at the metrics, the internal rate of return,
but we expect the business,” says
Sorrells. “We’re not going to hold anyone
hostage, but we’re going to ask for
the business, and we’re going to ask for
it in a focused way.
“To illustrate, we saw an opportunity
in Boerne, where as a CLEC we
already had an HFC [hybrid fiber/coax]
network, to overbuild to the business
community with fiber optics and focus
on the business community.
“We recognized that this would provide
a differentiator for Boerne. As a
About the Author
Steve is corporate editor of Broadband Properties. See his blog, “Take it to the Bank,”
at www.bbpmag.com. He can be reached at steve@broadbandproperties.com.
November/December 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 71