On Small Town/Rural ISP

As a Network Engineer for a small town/rural wireless internet service provider, I run into different circumstances than most larger ISPs I think. So I thought I would throw some of my thoughts out there concerning the situations I find myself encountering.

The company is very small so I find that I am involved a lot more in other aspects of the business. So rather than being able to stay totally focused on the tech aspects, I find myself continuously being drawn into the customer related aspects. Providing a service to them, which the performance bar is continuously being raised. Now pair that with a very restricted budget and you have an issue or two. In our area, a lot of people have moved out of the larger cities to enjoy the rural life, albeit with a fine home etc, but they expect the same type of broadband service they would receive in the city. This has become increasingly more so in the past year or two. When I first starting working here, most people just wanted to check their email and surf the internet a bit. Now they want video, VPNs, work from home, VOIP, gaming and so on. So the service really needs to be good. That tends to collide with the very restricted budget and so hardware and software. But the demand is there. Along with the is support/service provided.

Previously, when it was only one small town, there wasn't much in the way of tech support readily on hand outside of the company for customers computing needs. So this company tried to provide it all. Well as you grow and the needs become more complex, your customer base becomes broader and more complex, costs go up, you may find that is no longer economically viable to provide that we do it all service and time availability is greatly reduced. You may also find that some folks in the company realize that and some don't. Some wish to continue that trend but again looking at the cost vs return you have to consider the gain.

Along with that is the small town/rural feel. Most in a community are taught that it is good to help a neighbor. But there comes a point in business where it is not viable and to continue to do so would cost the company more than it is worth. Multiply that by many customers and you soon find yourself going in the hole. So your company finds itself in the position of trying to balance between the money making business and the small town feel of help the customer. You are also left with changing the attitude of your employees to match that. They can no longer afford to give away so much and they have to realize that. Keep giving it away and there will be no company, no service to the customer at all, quality goes down the drain and again as a result no customers.

So it is a balancing act as well as a readjustment. We have to move from the good ole boy, give it away attitude to the business we need to make money to survive but don't kill the customer mode of operation and thinking. That is often a difficult thing to do which many small companies cannot accomplish.

tk