As I sit here in my office looking out on a beautiful (albeit cool) March day in Indiana, it doesn’t reflect the looming problem that is facing Indiana, the United States, and the world; COVID 1 9. This virus, which has its roots in China (although the exact origin is still unknown), has already affected our daily lives, forcing us to change our normal routines and habits. But, if the health experts are correct, it will get worse before it gets better. Already, schools are closing, and events are being cancelled (OMC, no March Madness — how will we cope). Store shelves are void of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Face masks, a long time staple in Asian countries, are being seen in rural American communities.
I recently spoke, via email, with a close friend of mine who works in China with a large technology company. His comment was everything is pretty much running along with few hitches. The population has adapted to the new “normal” and things are getting done. The question now is, can we put aside our petty political bickering (after all, it is an election year), panic buying, and doomsday predictions and adjust to what may become our new “normal”. I for one believe that we can, and we will.
Assuming the virus and its effect on event closures doesn’t curtail our construction efforts, 2020 will be the year that we should complete our FTTH (Fiber to the Home) builds in our Henry County regulated areas. Work has already started north of Millville and we are still performing cutovers on the areas we completed last year. Our hope is that in 2021, we will be 100% FTTH in all the regulated areas and will start abandoning and removing our ages old copper cables.
In our competitive areas, we finally completed our fiber build into New Castle downtown earlier this year. This will allow us to offer those businesses (and nearby residences) a superior fiber optic based service provided by a local Henry County provider. Additionally, we have continued to enhance our fiber networks in Wayne and Randolph Counties.
In our wireless network, we should have several new towers in Wayne, Randolph, and Henry County available for service this year. We also continue to upgrade our existing towers to offer more bandwidth and better coverage. Both are sorely needed when people are needing to work from home.
Speaking of wireless, we finally have our Streaming Digital TV product in testing. If the initial test results look good, we will roll the service out to limited customers for a more thorough testing, with the final result being a better TV product that either satellite or other streaming products. The Streaming Digital TV will have two service tiers and carry much the same channels as our existing digital video over fiber. Look for a final rollout to most all wireless customers in early summer.
Finally, I want to welcome these new businesses as NLBC customers. They are Gillman’s Home Center in Winchester, Crossroads Financial Credit Union in Winchester, KarMare Productions in Mooreland, and Dungan’s Plumbing and Heating in Cambridge City. All but KarMare are fiber customers, and all will enjoy the best and most reliable network available.
John E. Greene, Jr.
CEO and General Manager
New Lisbon Telephone Company and
New Lisbon Broadband and Communications, LLC
