CEO: Startup Rural Broadband Services Corporation Has Big Plans

A startup company known as Rural Broadband Services Corporation has big plans for rural Tahlequah, Oklahoma -- plans that RBSC CEO Roy Choates hopes he will be able to repeat in other rural communities that lack high-speed broadband connectivity.

“We have a philosophy called ‘shared infrastructure,’” said Choates. “In rural America you don’t need two or three different companies building a fiber network.”

For example, he said he expects to supply connectivity to support utility company smart grid deployments, eliminating the need for the utility to deploy its own fiber. He also believes broadband will be key to important rural initiatives such as telemedicine, distance learning and the ConnectED program that aims to bring high-speed Internet to the nation’s schools.