Let’s Do More with Better

By Todd Van Epps - Director of Shareholder Relations

Aureon held a series of in-person round tables during the early part of December. Gracious hosts were Sharon Telephone, Cascade Communications, Farmer’s Mutual Communication Telephone Company, and Northwest Communications. Two hours flew by with an agenda centered on rate cards, building lists, wireless testing, and video. Cara Walker led our first set of topics about rate cards and lit building lists.

As Aureon and our partners continue to get quicker to quote, national carriers have moved into online order tools. What does this mean; a company like AT&T will offer you a tool like Connectbase, find a service provider in a community, and send an order. Today, Aureon and its partners are not being considered for these larger accounts and our goal is to change that. I think we can all agree there is not a larger provider in the State of Iowa that can provide services as quickly and with the quality as our home base Iowa providers can. Let’s get in the game.

Chad Tracy spent some quality time discussing wireless testing and video and there were several technical people present to discuss testing parameters, NIUs, and committed burst size. The demand continues to increase; I applaud all of you for stepping up and proving that Iowa’s telcos are the best around. All of our commitment to quality has continued to boost Aureon (and you) up the list of top-tier providers.

Chad also covered video; past, present, and future. Past and present plans call for the removal of EOL equipment, bandwidth increases, and a migration out of our Merchant’s building. The present and future show Aureon battling 5G interference and the sought-after demand for quality video. This battle never ends, we thank you for your input and patience.

Thanks to those that attended. Let’s do more, with better.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What can the community-based providers do to assist?

A: We need a list of lit buildings and near net buildings, 500 ft. or less/anything you can service in 30 days

Q: What about the cell sites?

A: Honestly, Team Aureon, prefers that you take the cell sites off your lit building list. Cell sites are typically renewed on large-scale RFP.

Q: What rates do I use for ILEC versus CLEC, and what company are you bidding for?

A: The advice I can give is to allow us to bid at the most competitive rate you can. You may have a better grip on your ILEC and charge more, whereas you want to be more competitive in a CLEC market and go to the lowest rate tier.

Q: Which company?

A: I would suggest that you give us one sheet to work off initially to ensure we are all aligned. There are several of us at Aureon that will be more than happy to talk about this with you.