Dirt roads & telephones: telecom is up and running in rural Utah.

• Author: Little, Candace M.
• Position: Telecom Feature

Widespread adoption of telecommunication technology is a two-way street. While using telecommunications advances business, if businesses do not honor the status quo, they can suffer dire consequences. Most successful companies have adopted as much telecommunications technology as possible. It is rare to find a business without a Website, email and certainly every successful business has a telephone, right?

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As city-dwellers commute to work, they hardly notice the overhead telephone wires and Wi-Fi hotspots at every corner. But in rural Utah telecommunication outlets sometimes stick out like--well, like a huge telephone pole in the middle of a desert.

Rural Utah isn't exempt from the two-way technology street, and businesses there rely on telecommunication service providers to help them succeed. That's where the Utah Rural Technology Association (URTA) comes into play. Made up of 14 independent telephone companies and servicing 23 out of Utah's 29 counties, URTA was organized to promote rural telephony in Utah and to educate the public and lawmakers of the need of advanced voice and data networks in rural Utah. While each URTA company varies in size and services, together they provide a variety of telecom assistance including telephone, fax, Internet and cable television to 80 percent of the state of Utah (geographically), as well as some surrounding areas in Wyoming and Arizona.

In The Middle of Nowhere

Running a rural telephone company has its unique challenges. Beehive Telephone Company has 20 central office locations dispersed around paved roads, dirt roads and even no roads at all. The company provides phones, Internet and data, including compressed video, to the residents, businesses and schools in remote parts of 11 counties.

Bryan Scott, chief information officer and IT manager for Beehive, explains the company's ability to provide service isn't always dependent on its own limitations, but also government regulations, paper work and time required for those to take form. Departments like the Bureau 1 of Land Management help regulate equipment installation in rural areas.

John Brewer, first vice president of URTA, says the companies in URTA learn from each other and also band together to tell their side of the story on a particular government or legal issue. "One of the reasons we formed URTA was to combine our companies to lobby legislature and to get small company issues in front of the state," he says.

There...