Stephen Smith: And thank you for listening in to another episode of Rural Broadband Today. And I'm excited to have as our guest on the show Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley. Commissioner, we're delighted to have you on the show.

Brandon Presley: I am glad to be with you. I appreciate the chance. For a long time, we've been needing to link up.

Stephen Smith: Yeah, that's for sure. I've been following your career over there for some time, and I think you really put the service in public service commissioner.

Brandon Presley: I appreciate that. I appreciate that very much.

Stephen Smith: So let's kind of start there and give our listeners a little background in how you got to the Public Service Commission. I know there's been a few stops along the way, so just give us a little background.

Brandon Presley: Well, for my first political office, I was elected mayor of my hometown of Nettleton back in 2001. Then I served there. I was reelected in 2005. Then the public service commissioner that had been in office for 16 years had decided not to seek reelection in 2007. So in Mississippi municipal elections — like in Alabama and most states — are on an off-year compared to when state elections are. And so when I was reelected in 2005, I was about two years into that term when the seat on the Public Service Commission came open. I ran, and I was elected. So I had to resign as mayor on December 31, 2007, and of course, became commissioner the next day. That's sort of been my career coming from local government into state government. Then, of course, I ran for reelection in 2011, 2015, and then last year. Luckily last year, I slipped by without having an opponent.

Stephen Smith: Now that speaks to your popularity and the fact that the public has trust in you. Thanks for doing a great job.

Brandon Presley: Either that or nobody else wants this crazy job, one of the two.

Stephen Smith: Well, it's easy for citizens to look at the governor and see what they do and even your local senators and representatives. But when you think about the Public Service Commission, it's not always clear exactly what the role of a commissioner is. Now, explain for our listeners a little bit about what a public service commissioner does.

Brandon Presley: Well, you know, in Mississippi, the Public Service Commission is one of the oldest state agencies. It's actually mentioned in our state constitution. It began as the Railroad Commission because of railroads coming through areas, and obviously the need to protect landowners, ensure fair transportation rates, and those sort of things. And then over the years, as monopoly systems kind of increased in their penetration really and how our society works, the Public Service Commission became more of a regulatory body, not just over railroads, but electricity, water, sewer, natural gas (as it came in as an energy source), and telephones. And then, of course, in 2020, that's morphed into really a different take on telecommunications. When you look at things like broadband and others, and although we don't regulate the cost for service to broadband, our agency is tasked with enforcing and administering much of the FCC's rules related to the Connect America Fund, the Universal Service Fund. We also have a role to play in that related to telecommunications.

Brandon Presley: In a broader sense, the legislature a few years ago tasked the Commission with making sure that — in carrying out all of our duties — that we advance the economic development of the state. Of course, one of our duties is related to the expenditure of broadband money and how policy works on both the federal level, but making sure we get the most for the state.

Stephen Smith: So let's boil that down to how the Public Service Commission impacts the daily lives of the citizens.

Brandon Presley: Well, you know, we regulate the vital services of the people, the state. You know, nobody could imagine in 2020 not having electricity, not being able to get a phone. These are the machines, if you will, that make our economy work and make modern life work.

Brandon Presley: And so, you know, our job when it comes to electricity is to make sure it's reliable, affordable, and the lights are always on. That's kind of a worn-out phrase, but it's true. And the same thing with other services. But I've tried to take a different take on that. Yes, that's part of our job is to make sure that the current system works. But also, how are we expanding services to people who lack them? How are we making sure that, for instance, rural communities get access to natural gas service, so they have the same options to heat their home as someone living in a city? And, of course, that applies to broadband. But also, you know, and incidentally, just yesterday we got notice of a grant that has been awarded to one of our small towns to go out into a rural area to provide water. And we're working on some legislation to make sure that the laws are clear that this city, this town really, can go out and serve these rural customers. So we think that, you know, everybody has access to community water, but they don't. So we still have some basic building blocks of services that we're still working on. But, you know, the one that is leapfrogged just about everything, to be candid with you, has been the topic of your podcast and your work, and that's broadband.

Stephen Smith: Absolutely. And I think we knew leading up to the current [global pandemic] situation that we're in that broadband and solving this rural broadband problem definitely needed to be a focus of the country. I mean, we can look back even to 2009-2010 with the stimulus grants, the ReConnect, and things of that nature. There's been momentum, but I think that pales in comparison to the attention that rural broadband is getting now because of all the folks sitting at home working, going to school, and having to access those services from the house.

Brandon Presley: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, we knew that this was an issue going into COVID-19. It was getting a lot of the appropriate attention, and not just on the federal level, but the state level. But I think that we never had to really rely on the system. We were in a situation where we were reacting to the fact that people lacked service, but that was not coupled with the sense of a national emergency or a pandemic. [A pandemic] where we had to within a period of really two weeks, to be fair about the calendar, the whole country had to transition in a major shift to online work, online education, telehealth, telemedicine, and we had to do it. And we were somewhat, I think for rural areas, not caught by surprise — because we knew this was an issue and some of us had been working on it for a long time — but the issue was forced. And we had to really see the realities of where this lack of public leadership in many places had gotten us. And essentially, we were forced into that situation by events outside of our control, and it just made it starker, clearer, closer, and personal. And the very things that many of us have been talking about for years, came to pass in reality and in which other people — legislators, policymakers, and the like — could see...

Stephen Smith: Hello, I'm Stephen Smith. Welcome to our first episode of our new podcast. Now, some of our listeners may be familiar with the StoryConnect podcast. That's another show produced by WordSouth that focuses on the communications marketing issues. But there are often issues that we'd like to explore that go beyond marketing communications. And this new podcast really gives us a platform to explore those broader topics. And I can think of no better way to launch this new show than with our guest today, Mrs. Shirley Bloomfield. Shirley, welcome to our show.

Shirley Bloomfield: Thank you, Stephen. I am honored to be your first guest for this podcast that you're just launching.

Stephen Smith: Well, thank you for making time for us today. Shirley is the CEO of NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association. Now, that is the premier association that represents nearly 850 independent, community-based telecommunications companies. Shirley has more than 30 years experience representing the small, independent telecom operators, and I'd like to start by jumping into that. Shirley, in the time that you've been serving this industry, have you ever seen such a time of challenge for these rural broadband providers?

Shirley Bloomfield: That is a loaded question, Stephen. Absolutely not. What I have found over the course of the history of this industry is that change has been more evolutionary. This felt like the rug got pulled out from everybody very quickly. But I will add, I've also been so impressed at how quickly everybody pivoted to new ways of operating, new ways to deal with customers, and new ways to deal with installs. It's been inspirational.

Stephen Smith: So what are some of the efforts that you have seen from these providers that have really shown some innovative ways to deal with this pandemic?

Shirley Bloomfield: So one of the things that has been the most interesting to me was the concern that these companies had for their technicians. And yet at the same time realizing they had school children suddenly doing online learning who needed connectivity. You had adults working from home for the first time. That created a really interesting demand point. But watching these companies figure out new ways — I had one general manager who actually referred to his tech teams as "MacGyvering", as they did installs. You know, thinking through how do you do things differently? How do you not have your techs come into the office every day, but do installs out of whatever they have in their truck? Or watching people create these picture images of photos to send to the customers as they stood outside windows and said "connect the red wire to the round opening." You know, it's that spirit of innovation when they think about, you know, how you're going to handle some of those cases.

Shirley Bloomfield: The other thing that I just have been blown away by is how people have thought about their school children in their communities and the way some companies have literally redirected their fiber plant that was going directly to the schools and getting that fiber infrastructure closer to the students' homes who needed it. People who were thinking about, "well, you know, I may have the connectivity I'm going to provide, but my schoolchildren in my community may not have access to a laptop" and providing some of those needs. So I just think that whole sense of, you know, what do my customers need? What does my community need? And then just doing it and watching the employees of these companies rally around that cause. It's very inspirational.

Stephen Smith: Well, this is certainly a story that you have been telling for many, many years, but now that we are in this crisis, it's really highlighted just how critical broadband service is. And likewise how detrimental it is not having broadband service in the unserved population.

Shirley Bloomfield: That has been a real eye-opener, I think, for a lot of policymakers, who are now suddenly, it feels like, having this light bulb go off of "oh, my gosh. There are parts of this country that don't have connectivity, and they don't have access. And what can we do to solve it?" And there is a small part of me that does think, you know what, we've been telling you this for decades, how important it is to make sure that no matter where people live, that they have access to this infrastructure. So instead of getting petty, we have pivoted very quickly to try to direct their attention, their enthusiasm, and hopefully, federal support, to actually creating these networks.

Shirley Bloomfield: The other thing I think it highlights a little bit, Stephen, is that in my mind there really are two rural Americans. So when policymakers like to pivot to rural America is really suffering; there's no Internet connectivity. I do find myself having to remind people that there is a rural—rural divide. There is a rural America that is served by community-based providers who live and work and play and raise their children in their communities. They are future-focused. They have built amazing infrastructure, and we have seen that infrastructure rise to the occasion. They've been able to handle the increased bandwidth usage demands. They have been able to handle new customers coming on, increasing speeds, and manage that beautifully, frankly. And then there's a rural America that is served by larger carriers where historically they have not put their money in investing in the network. They have put their money into their more competitive markets, which, from a business perspective, makes sense. But what it's done is it's really created two different kinds of rural service standards, and that is a bridge that policymakers really need to be focusing on.

Stephen Smith: Well, that's a great point. WordSouth serves several clients who have distressed counties in their service areas and even some of the poorest counties in their particular states. And yet they have a 100 percent fiber-to-the-home network there that is helping make a real difference in those communities.

Shirley Bloomfield: Absolutely. When you think about how the American economy is going to rebound, I think those communities are perfectly situated to capture whatever economic rebound we're able to do, as well as potentially attract new businesses and attract new workers, who suddenly find that their work can be a lot more mobile and remote than we imagined a year ago.

Stephen Smith: And what kind of sense do you have, Shirley, of how permanent some of this shift that we've seen is going to be in terms of remote working, distance learning, and that sort of thing?

Shirley Bloomfield: You know, it's a really interesting question, and I really wish I had a magic ball to take a look at it, because there is a part of me that says, "will this be like 9/11?" Where we, as a country, kind of got turned topsy turvy, our pattern shifted. But then, quite frankly, a year later, it was like we had kind of short-term amnesia, and we're kind of right back to doing things the way we had done them previously. I think there's obviously a lot of really key indicators along the way. Will there be a vaccine? When will that come? Will there be effective ways to treat COVID-19, if people are impacted? Will we have enough PPE and medical support? All of those thi...