Arlington, Va. (October 28, 2014)-Dozens of members of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association were invited to the White House Executive Office Building today for an event hosted by the White House Rural Council. The event, titled “White House Rural Council: Convening With NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association,” focused on the association’s Smart Rural Community initiative.
The Smart Rural Community initiative promotes rural broadband networks that assist local communities with economic development, commerce, education, health care and government services. The initiative encourages collaboration between both community leaders and community members. The event featured presentations from Smart Rural Community award winners Nancy J. White, chief executive officer of North Central Telephone Cooperative (Lafayette, Tenn.); Keith Gabbard, general manager of Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (McKee, Ky.); and Brian Thomason, general manager and chief executive officer of Blue Valley Tele-Communications, Inc. (Home, Kan.).
“Members of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association are proven solutions providers when it comes to broadband services for the communities where they live and work,” said NTCA Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield. “We appreciate this opportunity to engage members of the administration who are also dedicated to improving education, health care, agriculture and public safety in rural America through broadband deployment.”
“Expanding telecommunications is a central component of this administration’s comprehensive effort to build jobs and economic security in rural America,” said Doug McKalip, senior policy advisor for rural affairs for the White House Domestic Policy Council.
For more information about the NTCA Smart Rural Community initiative, please visit www.ntca.org/smart
