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| Monthly Newsletter for TSTCI Member Companies |
August 2000
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| www.tstci.org |
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Volume IV, No.
8
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| Texas Statewide Telephone Cooperative, Inc. is a statewide telecommunications non-profit organization representing the interests of Texas rural independent telephone systems. All member companies are regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. |
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| The attendance at the 2000 Futures Retreat was smaller than normal,
but those who did attend agreed that it was well worth the time investment.
One of the attendees commented that “These sessions help us as we try to
be the visionary leaders of our respective companies”.
The keynote speaker, W Mitchell, inspired and challenged the attendees with his powerful message, “Taking Responsibility for Change”. Then Mr. Timm Bechter of Legg Mason shared his company’s views of the values of rural telephone cooperatives and small commercial companies. Mr. Wade Malcolm of Utility.com described the business strategies of dot-com utility companies who are positioning to provide telephone service in rural areas packaged with electric, gas and other utilities. The Friday morning roundtable provided an excellent opportunity to discuss common issues that all the rural companies are now facing. Some of the issues discussed were e-commerce, cable broadband access and a MAG Plan update. Overall, the attendees gave the conference an excellent rating.
If you weren’t able to attend this year’s conference, we missed you!
Why not block August 1-3 now for next year and keep it at the top
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Platinum
Eastex Telephone Cooperative, Inc. Silver
Bronze
Dell Telephone Cooperative, Inc. Five Area Telephone Cooperative, Inc. McWhorter, Cobb and Johnson, L.L.P. Mid America Computer Corporation Santa Rosa Telephone Cooperative, Inc. South Plains Telephone Cooperative, Inc. |
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Mark your calendars!
Don't miss the TSTCI Annual
Membership Meeting at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio
Wednesday, October 4 through
Friday October 6!
| Texas Connectivity Conference
The Third Annual TeleCommunity Conference on Infrastructure was held at the Joe Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas on August 14-15. Hosting the event was the TeleCommunity Resource Center, Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board and the Telecommunication and Information Policy Institute. Experts from government and industry gathered to share facts and ideas
with other public and community leaders on different bandwidth resources
and support programs available for communities across Texas. TSTCI
President Weldon R. Gray and Member Services Director Cammie Hughes both
attended the conference.
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PUC Strengthens Phone Competition
Review
The PUC has established a set of ongoing "performance measures" to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of Southwestern Bell's performance during the transition to a competitive market. Every six months, the PUC will review performance measures agreed to by SWBT and its competitors, during which the PUC determines if any changes to the performance measures are necessary. The last review resulted in elimination of 29 performance measures, while adding another 20, relating mainly to DSL service. As an incentive to competition, SWBT is required to pay penalties for
any deficiencies in performance measures. Since the beginning of
the year, SWBT's penalties have been dropping substantially, reflecting
improvements in performance. This improvement indicates to the PUC
that competition barriers in Texas local phone markets are continuing to
fall.
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| Member Company Spotlight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Have you surfed the web lately? Several of our member companies
have some pretty terrific websites featuring their services, news from
their companies, and more! Next time you're online, why not take
a look and see what your co-members are doing.
If your company has a website not listed here, or if your website has
a change in URL, please be sure to let us know. Links to Member Company
and Associate Member Company websites are provided on TSTCI's website at
www.tstci.org.
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| Board Approves New Associate
Member Applications
TSTCI is pleased to announce the approval of five new Associate Member applications. Please join us in welcoming the following companies: AirNet Communications Corporation
FEC Communications
Foxfire Consulting, LLC
ITCs-Independent Telecom Consultants
Siemens I.C.N. (effective 2001)
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Ohio Introduces First Internet
Public School
The state of Ohio has announced that a new public school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), is accepting applications for enrollment. ECOT is a statewide chartered public school offering curriculum through the Internet, allowing students to work toward a diploma within their own home, providing a safe, secure environment in which students and parents can work together. All Ohio school-aged children are eligible for enrollment. The in-home school provides each student with a computer, printer and scanner in their home at no cost, as well as a second phone line dedicated to the computer. The program is completely funded by the State of Ohio. It will be interesting to see if a similar program is proposed for Texas
in the upcoming legislative session.
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| Upcoming Events | ||||
| September 2000 | ||||
| 4 | Labor Day (TSTCI Office Closed) | |||
| 7 | PUC Open Meeting | |||
| 10-13 | TTA Annual Meeting - San Antonio, Texas | |||
| 18-19 | RUS CPA Seminar - Charlotte, NC | |||
| 21 | PUC Open Meeting | |||
| October 2000 | ||||
| 1-4 | USTA Annual Convention - Miami Beach, Florida | |||
| 4-6 | TSTCI Annual Membership Meeting - San Antonio, Texas | |||
| 5 | PUC Open Meeting | |||
| 19 | PUC Open Meeting | |||
| November 2000 | ||||
| 2 | PUC Upen Meeting | |||
| 10 | Veterans Day (TSTCI Offices Closed) | |||
| 23-24 | Thanksgiving Holidays (TSTCI Offices Closed) | |||