2010 Buyers Guide - Broadband Properties

The total number of Internet customers
grew from more than 24,500 in
January 2008 to nearly 27,000 in June
2009. Bandwidth traffic per customer
doubled in the same 18 months, growing
from an average of about 0.015
megabytes per second to nearly 0.03.
To handle the flow and provide greater
reliability, GVTC turned its 1 Gbps fiber
backbone into two self-healing 10
Gbps rings (the route, roughly, is between
Interstate 10 and state Highway
281, radiating out of San Antonio). No
new fiber was laid; the extra bandwidth
comes from upgraded electronics and
wave-division multiplexing. In fact, the
1 Gbps ring remained in place.
The technical staff says that there was
no field work involved at all, even as customers
were gradually cut over to the 10
Gbps service. Everything was handled
inside the central offices. The work took
months, however, as customers received
new IP addresses for their VLANs and
other activities.
A strategy for the long term
Sorrells came to GVTC from the Houston
area after spending 26 years with
Alltel. “The board recognized that things
were changing and the board committed
itself to sustaining the co-op longterm,”
says Mnick. “They made a commitment
to compete, to do what it takes
to change the culture to create value and
really sustain ourselves long-term. They
wanted to be in control of their communication
provider and, to their credit,
they recognized a fundamental shift in
leadership was necessary.”
Today GVTC derives little revenue
from mobile operations, and gets more
than half its revenues from federal and
state subsidies and intercarrier payments.
Says Sorrells: “Six years ago, you did not
have to be real smart to realize things
weren’t going to be the same in the future
… what with wireless substitution and
the fact that you know the subsidy is not
going to grow. We have to create value
and replace lost revenue long-term. This
is where the board got it.”
“This board cherishes the value,
senses the value, of being local, of being
in control. One thing I like, at the
end of the day, is that our customers feel
fortunate that they are served by a company
like GVTC,” says Sorrells. “We
separate ourselves with great customer
service. That’s our differentiating value.
But we also have price and reliability of
the network, which complements that
spirit of customer service.
“Customers want options, choices.
Also, from a value proposition we have
to be connected to our community. We
have to be the leader that we are. We
have to demonstrate that.”
BRAND RECOGNITION
Sorrells admits that many of the residents
and businesses in the GVTC footprint
are new to the area and have never heard
of GVTC. “We have to be better marketers
than Time Warner,” he says. “Think
about this. You move here from Houston
or Provo. Everybody has heard of Time
Warner. You are going to be asked to go
November/December 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 73