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Ericsson | Regional Connect Magazine
Treasuring the beauty of community and the Blue Ridge Mountains In western North Carolina, the blue hue of the mountains fading into the sky takes your breath away. But those gorgeous mountains make for a tough area to cover with wired and wireless communications. Fortunately, the communities deep in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains can count on Carolina West Wireless for highquality wireless communication. When Skyline Telephone, Surry Telephone and Wilkes Telephone banded together to form Carolina West, they created a wireless network that delivered the same types of service and value to rural communities as the residents of Raleigh, Charlotte and Winston-Salem enjoyed. Today, that same commitment holds true. Carolina West Wireless recently launched its 4G LTE network, marking a key company milestone and faster speeds for customers. “Regional Connect Magazine” caught up with CEO Slayton Stewart to learn more about Carolina West Wireless.
Q: Tell us about the communities Carolina West Wireless serves. A: Our main industries are agriculture, manufacturing, furniture and lumber. We have a number of universities in the area, including Appalachian State, Lees-McRae College, Lenoir-Rhyne and an extensive community college system. Additionally, tourism is big, as people can’t resist the mountains’ fall foliage. Musical roots run deep here. Every year, more than 100,000 visitors from around the world flock to the region to catch notable acts (including Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, Steve Martin and Zac Brown Band) at MerleFest.
And many people may not know it, but NASCAR started here. Back when bootleggers transported moonshine over the county lines, they modified their cars to evade the police. That habit of modifying cars and racing them turned into NASCAR. Q: What are Carolina West Wireless’ core values? A: We have four pillars of success: network, value, people and local. We try to create the best network possible because that’s something our customers deserve, and frankly, need. We aim to provide our customers with better value than residents of
