At the turn of the 21st century, we at NTCA—struck by the dearth of available quantitative data on our member companies and rural telcos more generally—distributed a survey in an effort to offer some hard numbers of the compelling anecdotal stories of the challenges of serving rural America that had been collected through the years.
That first survey was distributed via fax, and all data entry was done by hand. But as primitive as the logistics now seem, the results provided by 194 member companies provided NTCA with exactly what it needed to bolster its advocacy efforts: reliable data about its member companies’ activities, and the challenges they faced on an ongoing basis. The survey results were—and continue to be—widely distributed at the FCC and on Capitol Hill. The data gathered plays an important role in NTCA’s myriad FCC pleadings drafted throughout the course of the year.