The formula for success used to be simple: Provide a quality service at an affordable price, supported by exemplary customer service, and you’re a winner. But nothing is simple anymore.
This formula has worked especially well in rural America, where the heads of companies meet their customers on the street, at PTA meetings or in the pews on a regular basis and must be able to hold their heads high. However, forces are at work to render this formula insufficient, if not obsolete. These forces may be social-, economic- or technology-based and would all be part of a healthy competitive environment if it were not for the regulatory entanglements preventing rural operators from responding.
For example: A new dynamic has replaced the three elements in this formula for success. Some might call it vanity, some simply the desire for the latest functionality, but the demand for next-generation devices has replaced network and service quality as the No. 1 criterion for choosing a wireless provider. In a perfect world, rural wireless operators could respond to this demand. But not only is the world no longer simple, it is imperfect. Rural and regional wireless operators cannot get their hands on these devices.
This is one example of how regulation is making it difficult for these operators to respond to new market demands and to compete. It also is an example of what brought the Rural Cellular Association out of its home in Texas in 2008 and into the hotbed of policy and lobbying in Washington, D.C. It also led the organization to hire what Johnie Johnson, CEO of Nex-Tech Wireless and past president of the RCA, called a thoroughbred leader to head the organization.
That thoroughbred is Steven K. Berry, CEO and executive director of the RCA.
Berry has argued for fairness in the wireless communications market for years. Today he is arguing on behalf of rural and competitive providers. But several years ago he argued from the other side as head of legislative and advocacy operations at CTIA, an organization known primarily for supporting larger operators. He did the same for the cable industry at the NCTA. And prior to that, Berry rubbed shoulders with the Washington elite working behind the scenes in the House, Senate and State Department.
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Steven Berry will deliver a keynote address at the upcoming Billing & OSS World Conference & Expo on June 9 in Washington, D.C. FCC associate chief Marcus Maher will also speak on further implications of the National Broadband Plan. |
Berry said this experience has galvanized his thinking over the years. Now, “I feel I can bring all those experiences together and find solutions for RCA members. I think the cumulative experience gives me an insight into what is doable and where we can make headway,” he said.
Although some regulation has obviously been helpful to his constituency, Berry said the RCA must ramp up its efforts for advocacy on policy issues that affect the bottom line of its members. “The board has asked me not so much to change the direction of the organization, but the intensity of the focus.”
