Digital disruption to telecoms infrastructure
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RiverStreet Networks: digital disruption to telecoms infrastructure WRITTEN BY
SOPHIE CHAPMAN
PRODUCED BY
CRAIG DANIELS
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RIVERSTREET NETWORKS
As RiverStreet evolves with the changing telecom landscape, RiverStreet Networks’ CTO tells us about the company’s digital transformation journey
R
iverStreet Networks was established in 1951 to create access to telephone services in rural North Carolina.
The Communications Act of 1934 ensured that 04
having access to a telephone is an inalienable right, leading to companies and cooperatives being subsidized to build telephone infrastructure. “Our mission at the time, although we didn’t know it, was to serve the unserved,” says Jody Call, the firm’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Until 2014, the company had around 10,000 customers. This changed when the government began reducing subsidies due to a lack of access lines as a result of the proliferation of mobile devices. “We had a lot of attrition of our access lines and our company was growing as more of a broadband provider. We had overbuilt our entire network in our cooperative footprint of about 10,000 customers with gigabit fiber to the home, and we had pretty much captured the market here – so we started expanding outside of the county,” he adds.
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“ Our mission at the time, although we didn’t know it, was to serve the un-served” — Jody Call, Chief Technology Officer, RiverStreet Networks w w w.my ri ve rst reet . n et
RIVERSTREET NETWORKS
“ We’ve had to disrupt our own internal processes and ways of thinking and to accommodate and embrace new technologies” 06
— Jody Call, Chief Technology Officer, RiverStreet Networks
Under its expansion strategy, RiverStreet has acquired and merged with other businesses in the state of Wilkes County, North Carolina. The company anticipates that its customer and account rate will reach 35,000 by the end of this year, following the completion of further deals, with 25,000 of those customers connecting to broadband. “The paradigm shift in the industry is to provide broadband in the unserved and under-served areas and to address the digital divide – we’re looking at that through several different ways of infrastructure,” says Call. RiverStreet upgrades fiber to home, DSL networks, RF cables and traditional cable television, and is looking into fixed wireless options. Part of RiverStreet’s continual transformation includes regularly evaluating each incumbent vendor relationship and their respective product roadmaps. These relationships and roadmaps have to be aligned with the firm’s current and future plans as they change – technologies change, customer needs change, and cost is always an underlying factor. Avoiding getting too comfortable in any vendor relationship is paramount in how
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘RIVERSTREET NETWORKS: DRONE COMPILATION’ 07 RiverStreet’s Operations group stays
a single screen to watch OTT, app-
focused on addressing customer
based content. The look and feel of
needs and continuing to serve more
traditional TV are merged with current,
of the unserved popluation. Recently,
app-based, OTT streaming. This
as part of this evolving mindset, the
product is poised to perform well in
company partnered with Sacramento-
RiverStreet’s continued growth across
based MobiTV to complement and
their diverse markets.
eventually replace its existing IPTV
As the business has evolved with
deployment with an OTT (over-the-top)
the environment surrounding it, digital
TV package that closely resembles
disruption has been at the heart of its
RiverStreet’s legacy IPTV offering.
operations. “Typically, a lot of companies
This OTT technology allows the firm’s
in our industry are very rooted or set in
customers the option of watching
one way of doing things. We’ve had to
TV as they previously had in a linear
disrupt our own internal processes and
fashion while adding the option of
ways of thinking and to accommodate w w w.my ri ve rst reet . n et
RIVERSTREET NETWORKS
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and embrace new technologies.”
how we provision customers is digital,
The CTO recalls a change in culture
how we upgrade them – everything
throughout the firm’s evolution, with
is reliant on technology,” he notes.
the business being a more IT-based
When the company began embracing
operation than ever before. Over 50%
digital transformation, it realised fiber
of the company’s staff work in IT, with
was the best connectivity option for
technology underpinning the company’s
the state. “When we embraced fiber to
core functions. “RiverStreet is a
the home technology in 2014, we said,
technology-based company. If it weren’t
‘This is the only way to do a network’.
for digital, as far as what we provide
However, it’s expensive and we had to
to our customers, we would not have a
take the blinders off and realize that there
business case at all. Everything we rely
are other ways to serve the unserved
on is integrated into our digital billing
customers in the rural areas, and that
system. Our mapping system is digital,
could be fixed wireless,” says Call.
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Jody R. Call, Chief Technology Officer Jody R. Call oversees the organization’s operations while aligning its strategic vision with the customers’ growing and ever-evolving technological needs. Bleeding edge deployments, calculated risks, and industry disruptions in rural communications are a normal day’s work in this role, which requires a growth mindset and the willingness to adapt and change direction with short notice. Call was hired in 2006 as a systems engineer to manage the company’s IPTV roll out. Later that year, he took on the task to design, engineer, and deploy the network topology for the 8-year, $44+ million, fiber-to-the-home project effectively migrating all of Wilkes Communications’ 9,000+ legacy copper / DSL subscribers to an all-active, Gigabit, fiber network; one of the first companies in the United States to do so. During his combined 23+ year career he has simultaneously taught several years at the collegiate and post-secondary level specializing in course concentrations including: networking, cyber security, hardware and software systems concepts, network operating systems, and general IT concepts. Call holds an A.A.S in Electronics Engineering, a B.S. in Human Services, and a M.A. Ed. in Instructional Technology: Information Systems. He has completed post-graduate work in wireless technologies and network engineering and has held or currently holds industry-relevant certifications from Cisco, ITILv3, Apple, Dell, and CompTIA. Call resides in his hometown of Wilkesboro in rural North Carolina, with his wife, daughter, son, five cats, and ten dogs.
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RIVERSTREET NETWORKS
1951
Year founded
150
Approximate number of employees
10
HQ
Wilkes County, NC
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Fixed wireless connectivity can be connected using existing assets such as cellphone towers, state, county or city owned towers, water towers, and grain silos at agricultural locations. “We’ve transformed our mindset to say, ‘It’s okay to offer this’,” he adds. RiverStreet recently entered into a 10 to 20-year partnership with the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC), which governs the 26 cooperatives across the state. “There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about electric coops wanting to
“ Our mission at the time, although we didn’t know it, was to serve the un-served” — Jody Call, Chief Technology Officer, RiverStreet Networks
get into the broadband business – they don’t want to do it for a lot of the same w w w.my ri ve rst reet . n et
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RIVERSTREET NETWORKS
“ We don’t just want to survive in the industry, we want to be able to thrive” — Jody Call, Chief Technology Officer, RiverStreet Networks
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reasons we don’t want to get into the electric business, because it’s foreign to us. We wanted a partnership in which we share revenue, but we could utilize the NCEMC’s fiber optic infrastructure connected to substations, and in return we could do fixed wireless or fiber to the home for customers in rural areas.” The NCEMC has roughly 1.2mn customers across North Carolina, with about 700,000 being within the 17 counties RiverStreet is targeting. “First, we get customers connected to fixed wireless; that shows us where the interest is. Then we could then build a permanent fiber to the home solution to those pockets.
It’s probably the biggest project we have going on,” Call adds. Another aspect of the company’s transformation journey is maintaining a growth mindset, despite a lull in funding. “It is important to continue to grow rather than waiting for someone else to come in and help. We’ve been so reliant on government subsidies, with organisations like the FCC providing settlements based on access lines. But that is slowly going away, and we don’t just want to survive in the industry, we want to be able to thrive.” Growth is driving the firm’s operations, with upgradeability and scalability being top priorities for RiverStreet. “We’re also looking out for our employees and their families, their retirements and the growth of this company. If we’ve grown this much since 2014, we can only imagine how much more we can grow if we look another 10 years into the future,” remarks Call.
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Riverstreet Networks 1400 River St, Wilkesboro, NC 28697, USA T +1 844-238-0131 www.myriverstreet.net