THE OKALOOSA BENEFIT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM |
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To say that the recent deregulation of the telecommunications industry has caused a confused frenzy of corporate posturing is to say that a Pandora’s box has been opened to release a multitude of possibilities of how we live and conduct our lives with this industry in the next millennium. It is quite apparent from my inquiries into the industry that the pundits are still waiting for the sediment to settle in their crystal balls. The membership of the chamber’s Information Technology committee is still trying to sort it out and is beginning to see a central theme evolve that can be a hidden opportunity if it is approached strategically.
Since the last reform of telecommunications law in 1936 and the break-up of AT&T in 1984 to create the regional Bell companies, no single act of telecommunications legislation has had such a profound impact on free-market competition as the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Now here is how we the chamber and the community can benefit.
The chamber’s Information Technology committee is in agreement with the industry assessments of the telecommunications industry as well as the Internet service providers that the key to survival in the future marketplace is going to be based on who can establish the closest relationship with the customer. Customer service and contact is going to be the tie-breaker. The technologies that the competitors are planning on bringing to the market are impressive, each attempting to find the edge to win our hearts. We will be inundated with more bundled options than we know what to do with. But the key to winning this scramble for the market is going to be won by those that are close to the customer base, physically and professionally. We have four Internet service providers working on our committee: Gulf Coast Internet, GulfNet Technologies, WebMasters, and ETS that are striving to make this committee work and to ensure that they stay close to the community pulse.
Since these telecommunications entities are anxious to establish footholds in our market, we have been cast into a position of bargaining leverage not realized in our times. We are finally in a position as a community to assert our collective position on how we feel these industries should work with our communities. We have considerable needs (e.g. educational technology) in our area that we want to be approach with strong, committed business alliances. With an accurate consensus of what we want a strategic business partner to help us with, we place ourselves in as strong a position as we have seen in 60 years. It is a buyer’s market. Within the last couple of weeks AT&T and BellSouth have announced intentions to go in to the Florida market. Just five months earlier, AT&T pledged $150 million in the next five years to get schools hooked up to the Internet. This is a considerable stake in garnering good will, I suspect we are as deserving of that pot of goodwill as any community.
This leveraging is one of the things the chamber Information Technology committee is seeking to do. To represent a collective voice to the telecommunications industry and make them pass muster with us.
On a separate subject, we learned that the National Telecommunications & Information Administration recently announced the 1996 schedule for information infrastructure grants for communities to integrate information technology enhancements. Since 1994, this grant program has awarded more than $60 million in matching grant funds to non-profit organizations, such as schools, libraries, hospitals, public safety entities, and state and local governments. Florida has received only $200,000 of that money. Last year, two applications were submitted from Okaloosa County by the tireless efforts of Susan Lowery of Choctawhatchee High School and Jeff Roser of the Okaloosa School District Office of Instructional Technology. Unfortunately, neither won awards. However, the submitters are members of our committee so perhaps with the brain trust we now have we can give it another good shot. Chap Reed of the Total Quality Institute and the Florida Manufacturing Technology Center has some great ideas for benchmarking some of these educational issues with TQM Sterling Award recipients.
The committee is looking forward to a high-tech computer/online expo in the fall. Plans are under way to bring in top name companies to allow the community to see cutting edge technology. Dan Bender of DJB Enterprises is our energy source on this project.
We are still working hard to spread the word on KickStart, the community connectivity initiative published by the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council and are finding support in several areas.
This article was published in the April 1996 issue of Coastlines, a publication for the Fort Walton Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce courtesy of the Daily News.