Earlier this month SNG’s Michael Curri and Derek Murphy travelled to South Carolina to assist in their broadband initiatives. Held by the Clemson Institute for Economic and Community Development and West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative (WCTel), the day long workshop gathered stakeholders interested in examining how broadband could help create a healthy and vibrant regional economy.
Dave Herron, CEO of WCTel, explained that after completing a Fiber-to-the-Premise network throughout their rural service area, “we were faced with the challenge of trying to get our communities and economic development professionals to realize the value of the infrastructure they had available to them.”
And that’s where SNG stepped in, along with Clemson University’s Institute of Economic and Community Development, to conduct a workshop for local economic development professionals, educational communities, Chambers of Commerce, State Dept. of Commerce, and several other community leaders. SNG’s expertise in maximizing the desirable outcomes enabled by investment in advanced broadband infrastructure were seen a key to demonstrate “what’s possible” with the WCTel network.
Explains Herron, “We needed to show local leaders how to utilize the network to promote economic and social development. We are committed to educating the community and are extremely hopeful that the leadership group formed will help in that effort, demonstrating to the communities how network utilization will to attract new industries, enhance existing businesses, and create jobs for our communities.”
Michael Curri explained how exciting it was to see a strong desire among the participants to work together – that day and in the future as they organized. “We helped create real momentum – it will be exciting to see the socio-economic benefits that will be realized thanks to the combination of the WCTel network and a mobilized leadership group.”