Manager’s Report – November 2019

Lee Chambers portrait
Lee Chambers, CEO/General Manager

We are now officially in the holiday season. I first wanted to talk about a holiday that doesn’t get as much attention as Thanksgiving or Christmas, but is very important to me, especially this year, Veterans Day. We were honored to be able to host our fourth annual Veterans Day Breakfast highlighted this year by Representative Richie Yow as our guest speaker. Without the service of our veterans, we might not be able to celebrate the other two holidays we normally get to this time of year. We are always honored to host men and women from all branches of the military that have served during times of war and peace. Sandhill thanks you and I do as well.

Last week we reached a milestone for our industry – 50 years since the creation of the internet. In sitting with people across the country recently, faster internet speeds for many areas both urban and rural continues to be a challenge. However, Sandhill is still on track with our fiber plans to reach every home in our territory over the next several years and offer speeds up to 1 gigabit. All of our county schools, libraries, and other government facilities have had fiber services for years now allowing access to the newest technologies. We’re proud to be able to support education in our communities. One of our other services, television, is seeing changes as well. We will soon roll out two new products that many of you have asked for. Cloud DVR and Restart TV. Cloud DVR storage will allow you the ability to record and store many more shows than you currently can in a safe, redundant environment in one of our main offices. You no longer have to worry about home DVR boxes being damaged by power surges and wiping out your important recordings. Restart TV will allow you to restart a show in the event you don’t get home quite on time. It’s always frustrating when you don’t get home until 8:15 and miss the first few minutes of one of your favorite shows. With this feature, you can go to the beginning of the show even if your television was not previously turned on. Restart TV is not available on all channels as it is at the discretion of the content provider.

As promised, continue to be on the lookout for major announcements near the end of the year. Your cooperative has been working hard on regulations to help get us ready to provide more of what our Members want. Thank you all for continuing to support your local cooperative as we build out the best network that exceeds many larger cities across our country. As always, feel free to reach out to me or anyone at Sandhill for more information as we continue this great project for our communities.

Lee Chambers
CEO/General Manager