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Connected Nation
This is Connected Nation – an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband. From closing the Digital Divide to simply improving your internet speeds, we talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our communities.
The podcast was honored in 2024 with an Award of Excellence for Podcast Series - Technology. This is the highest honor given by the Communicator Awards. More recently, the podcast received an Award of Distinction in 2025. It received the same honor in 2023 and 2022.
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Connected Nation
Before the storm: What ISPs can do as we enter hurricane season
Hurricane season is here — and it’s expected to be one of the most active on record. In this episode of Connected Nation, we sit down with three industry leaders who know exactly what it takes to keep people online before, during, and after a disaster.
Together, they unpack real lessons from 2024’s devastating Hurricane Helene, including how to prepare for outages, deploy emergency Wi-Fi, and coordinate with first responders — and why small and regional ISPs are critical lifelines in rural communities.
They also dive into innovative solutions like Calix's SmartTown, the power of resilient networks, and how partnerships can save lives.
(PRODUCTION NOTE: We had an issue when exporting Brad's audio file and he is unfortunately not heard answering the last two questions. We apologize for the error.)
Recommended and related links:
The Weather Channel's 2025 hurricane prediction
Joint press release: After Hurricane Helene
Calix website
MC Communications website
Jessica Denson (00:08):
Hurricane season officially starts June 1st. And according to early predictions from the experts at the Weather Channel, it's could be a rough one. Meteorologists predict, 19 storms to form in 20 25, 9 of which will become hurricanes, and four of which could reach category three status or stronger. That's above the 30 year average tally for both, both hurricanes and storms. Being connected before, during, and after these storms is critical to keeping people safe. So on this episode of Connected Nation ahead of the 2025 hurricane season, we talk with leadership at three companies about ways to prepare for what's coming, how to keep people online when things get really bad, and how to respond in the wake of disaster. I'm Justen, and this is Connected Nation. I'm Jessica Denson, and today my guest are Christina Wilson, area Vice President for Customer Success with CX Ellen Stallings, president of River Wave Broadband. And Brad Kane, general Manager and Chief Operating Officer at ERC Broadband. Welcome. It's a big group today. Welcome all of you, <laugh>. Thank you. Hi. Thanks for having us. <laugh>. Uh, this is a really important topic. I've been looking forward to this just because it, it's good to help others get ready for this time of season, but also because, uh, I, I love what each of you do. And, um, so I'm gonna dive in and give our, uh, audience a little background on each of you, if that sounds great. Christina Wilson (01:40):
Sounds good. It's good. Jessica Denson (01:40):
All right. Right. Let's begin with you, Christina. What led you to want to work in this type of business? And again, you're with customer success at cx. Christina Wilson (01:49):
Yeah, thank you so much, Jessica. Um, so starting out in my career, I did not have what one would call a traditional entry into the workforce. I, uh, kind of cut my teeth on starting businesses and growing them, and then selling them. My last business, I started in 1999, grew it for several years, sold it, decided to stay home. I was gonna stay home with my three little girls Jessica Denson (02:13):
<laugh>. Christina Wilson (02:13):
And then in 2008, found myself, uh, being hired by, uh, a business process outsourcer. What is that? Well, they create virtual call centers, uh, for Fortune 100, fortune 500 companies. And I ended up managing 28,000 virtual call center representatives in their performance <laugh> Wow. For three of their top customers. So how I, I went from owning a business to that no one knows, but I did it. Um, and then from there, my next role was working and leading, uh, a global live chat platform. It was a SaaS platform, so that's where I cut my SaaS teeth. Um, and the company was called LivePerson and managed their global, uh, outsourced labor force for tier one telcos. So like at and t, Verizon and the like. And, um, after doing that, moved on to AI and joined a startup. And if anybody's ever had experience at a startup, boy, is that a challenge?
(03:13)
Learned a lot, but also, uh, partnered with other tier one telcos. After doing that, I was like, I wanna find a company that has great software and a vision for the future that innovates and found cx. Um, and I joined CX in 2018, right after they had launched the first part of the cloud, which was Marketing Cloud then and Support Cloud. I joined a small, tiny team. I was the third customer success person. And, um, fast forward seven years, and we are now well over 200 folks working on the customer success team. And I just love what we do, supporting our customers and helping them drive their business impact. It's been a, a wild ride, and I love the journey Jessica Denson (03:57):
And, uh, quite the pedigree there. <laugh> a lot to unpack. Um, you know, uh, having three daughters I imagine is a lot like running about 28,000 callers. Right. <laugh>, I couldn't let that go by <laugh>. Oh, yeah. Christina Wilson (04:11):
Yeah. You learn to manage all kinds of emotions and then all kinds of, uh, of tasks, uh, all at the same time. So you're probably right. That's, that's probably how I went from one to the other. Jessica Denson (04:24):
And, um, I saw, 'cause I did do a little bit of research that you attended Missouri, uh, south State University, but you also, um, took some, some courses or, or continuing education at Harvard Business School, correct. Christina Wilson (04:37):
Yeah. One of our philosophies here at Calx is be a lifelong learner. And that, that absolutely, uh, defines who I am. I'm curious about everything and all things and too many things all at once. And we had the, the, the privilege of actually taking part in some of the, the online leadership programs through Harvard. And I love learning the way that they take you through the case studies. And it was really about companies that had transformed their organizations and gone on to do amazing things. Not really aligned with telco, but man did we learn a lot of stuff. So that was a, a really great opportunity that CX provided to us. Jessica Denson (05:13):
Well, Lin, I know that's a, a, a tough one to follow <laugh> with Christina, it's <laugh>. Let's turn now to you, your president at, uh, river Wave Broadband. Uh, talk about what in your professional background led you to that role and, and how it is leading a company right now? Ellen Stallings (05:31):
Um, so I'm relatively new entrant into the broadband and telecom space. Uh, the majority of my career has been spent in financial management and marketing. Um, I made the transition about four years ago to, uh, specifically create river wave broadband. It was, uh, it was, and still is super exciting to be able to launch a new business, bring new products. Um, I just saw the unique opportunity to break away from what I had been doing. It's also very scary to break around, break away from what you were used to doing. But, um, yeah, Jessica Denson (06:10):
I bet that's a challenge. That that's it. Yeah, that, that's quite a unique challenge is, was what made you wanna go into broadband? Was it the pandemic seeing the need out there? Ellen Stallings (06:21):
Um, you know, Brad had a big influence in seeing, uh, what was capable. And, um, based off of ERC broadband, we saw the opportunity to create a consumer network and service residential and small businesses the same way that ERC had been serving, uh, larger organizations for years. And, uh, Western North Carolina is very rural and having fiber optic available in ways that many of these people and small businesses did not have access to. So, super exciting. And it was all new. Uh, the learning curve is still very steep, but there's something about being 50 and like Christina was saying, being a lifelong learner, there's nothing like learning something technical and new, you know, mid, mid age. So Jessica Denson (07:18):
I think that's awesome. Um, river wave broadband that's interesting. Is, is the area that you cover is there, are there, is it river country I guess you would call it? Are there a lot of rivers today? It's, it's, Ellen Stallings (07:31):
It's very much. We, we are in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains and one of when, because I also got to name the company and create the logo and, um, all of that, uh, mountains are usually the leading, uh, of any business or Mount Pisca or Mount Mitchell. You'll, you'll see lots of businesses named around that. And I wanted to deviate, but also it was very important to me that it showed that we are local. We're a region, we're a regional company for Western North Carolina. And so I focused on our rivers that are plentiful. Jessica Denson (08:05):
Well, you didn't, you, you didn't bite off too much there, did you? <laugh> a whole new company. You're doing the logo, you're coming up with the name. Um, I applaud for that. And, and let's move now to Brad. You mentioned him briefly. Yes. Thank you. Um, last but not least, uh, Brad Kane, who again is the GM and COO of ERC broadband. Share a bit about your professional back background, Brad, and what ERC focuses on. Um, uh, Ellen mentioned a little bit of it, she kind of alluded to it, but if you could expand on it, that would be great. Brad Cain (08:34):
Absolutely. So I've been working in the telecom space since the nineties, initially with I lex bouncing across the country on various restructuring management assignments. And for the past 15 years or so, I've been with ERC broadband based here in Nashville. You know, I've, my experience has, VAN has spanned various customer network and service operations organizations across, uh, various companies. I was in New York for nine 11 working for, uh, Verizon and was there also for the blackout of oh three, which was for, for the telephone company about as devastating and, you know, dealt with wildfires, mudslides out west. Um, effectively, if there is a disaster, <laugh>, I seem to attract it. Jessica Denson (09:26):
Well, you're in Asheville you said right now, or where do I need to avoid? Yes, I'm just kidding. Brad Cain (09:32):
Yeah, but ERC historically really has been focused more on middle mile connectivity in Western North Carolina, supporting community anchor institutions and just general regional connectivity. In today's world, we would probably say that we support carrier transport and enterprise services and overall just tech development in our community. Jessica Denson (09:59):
And, uh, so you've been in broadband, you've been in the telecom broadband space for quite a while, then if you're talking about nine 11 and that thing, you've been, you've been around for decades then in this space. Brad Cain (10:11):
Absolutely. I was a, I I studied engineering as well as corporate finance in, uh, earlier in my career and spent a little bit of time in the capital markets, but I have been in telecom since the mid nineties. Yes. Jessica Denson (10:26):
And you said the black, I just wanna, before we go on, you said the blackout was almost, uh, worse for the telecom for the industry. Explain what you mean by that. Brad Cain (10:34):
Oh, power went out, uh, across a huge chunk of the Northeast and where, where there was not, uh, continued proactive and preventative maintenance procedures in place, there were, uh, there were a number of generators that didn't kick on at central offices, and ultimately that caused some ongoing outage implications, you know, for certain parts of, of just the Northeast. And so it, uh, it caused, it caused some ripples that lasted a while. Jessica Denson (11:15):
And I would, I'd take it, there's some lessons learned from those type of experiences of blackout nine 11, those kinds of things. Of what, how to shore up, um, your lines, I guess, or, uh, however you would refer to your infrastructure. Brad Cain (11:31):
Absolutely, mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, preventative and proactive maintenance, good design was etched into me early in my career. And I have to say, um, having a, having a couple of earlier assignments in the northwest region with GTE truly helped to, uh, to reinforce that when you, when you live in a very wet environment and you are operating a copper network, you have to button it up 24 7, otherwise you have 24 by seven trouble. Jessica Denson (12:09):
Oh, yeah. And nobody wants that. You know what, he woken up in the middle of the night for Brad Cain (12:14):
Absolute. Jessica Denson (12:15):
Well, full transparency for our listeners, Alan, uh, you know, talked about Brad getting her started in Riverway. Well, that's because the two are married, am I correct? <laugh>? <laugh>? Brad Cain (12:24):
Yes. Jessica Denson (12:25):
Yes. <laugh>, I mean, as, as, yes. Okay, great. <laugh>, I didn't wanna get that wrong. How does that work for you, for each of you leading the two companies? How do you balance that? It's okay to just chime in <laugh>, we'll see who the, the leader is. <laugh>. Yeah. Brad Cain (12:42):
I, I have to say that, um, I, I try to stay in my own lane, um, as best as I can. And, and I think we try to leave work at work every once in a while, even though it's not easy. And even though when you're running a network, it, it runs 24 7, Jessica Denson (13:02):
Right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Especially Ellen Stallings (13:04):
Small. And I always, I always joke that it's our sixth and seventh children, so <laugh>. Yeah. Jessica Denson (13:11):
Oh, so you two have, you two have five children as well? We do, Ellen Stallings (13:15):
Yes, we do. Jessica Denson (13:16):
Oh, wow. So, uh, what are their age range? Ellen Stallings (13:20):
14 to 25. And we are two days late on expecting our first grandchild, so. Jessica Denson (13:27):
Oh, wow. Well, congrats early. Congrats on that. Thank you, <laugh>. Thank you. Do you, do you two, uh, bounce off ideas to for each other? Or do you, are you actually competitors? Brad Cain (13:37):
Oh, I, we, we bounce ideas very regularly. Um, Ellen Stallings (13:44):
Yeah, I would say as far as the competitors go, um, it's always what's best for the customer. So every once in a while, one customer will transition from one to the other, but it just makes sense for them. My, um, products are less expensive, but they wouldn't fit the need for some customers. So, Brad Cain (14:07):
Yeah. And, and as far as bouncing ideas, Ellen certainly has superpowers that <laugh> do not register for the engineer in me. So <laugh>, she is very much more marketing and customer service centric. And I am a numbers guy. I am an engineer, and I am focused on the brass tacks of the network. Ellen Stallings (14:32):
<laugh>, we, we say that, um, I make it pretty and he makes it work, <laugh>, Jessica Denson (14:38):
But that's a good combination. That's a good combination. Absolutely. And Christina, we haven't forgotten about you. You don't have any, uh, any, any of your sweethearts or partners that we need to bring on or anything? <laugh> <laugh>? No. No. Not this. Anybody available? Not right now. Uh, anybody you're dating? No, I'm just kidding. Um, so Christina, how do, how does your company, how does ca CX work with River, river Wave and ERC broadband? Christina Wilson (15:03):
Yeah, so we have had the pleasure of working, and I always say partnering, uh, with River Wave for a while now, over several years. And, um, through our software, our Access equipment, CX Cloud platform and subscriber mobile app, um, we've, you know, kind of come alongside each other, uh, help them with best practices. And I have to say, as you can tell, already, it's a pleasure working with them. And one of the, the admirable qualities is how much they truly care about the community and the people that they serve, as you can tell, just by listening to them talk. Jessica Denson (15:39):
Yeah. There's, there's a, there's an affability there that is indeed. Mm-hmm. It's, it's it endearing and I can imagine that that's good. On the customer side, um, Ellen, how did, how has it been working with cx? Uh, pretend like Christina's not listening. <laugh> kidding. Ellen Stallings (15:54):
So, when, uh, when we made the, you know, it was a long discussed decision to, um, add River Waves abilities to, to take rcs fiber and be able to serve, um, the smaller, smaller businesses and, and residential around here. You know, Brad was the one that said, we need to look at Caly. And it did not take long that they were our first partner that we brought as we started it. And they've been with us even before our first customer was launched, um, you know, side by side. And they have, we, we say we're a CX house, all of our equipment is cx. We do not put anything besides CX equipment in our, uh, customers. Um, it allows us to serve them well and serve them efficiently as a small startup. And the, uh, our service team, you know, when you, when you sign on with colleagues, you end up with a group of individuals that are your service team. And I'm in contact with them, if not daily, at least weekly, and they've become our personal friends. Uh, they come to our company Christmas parties. I mean, they are an extension of who River Wave is and, and how we've gotten to where we are in four years. Jessica Denson (17:16):
And Brad, why were you really drawn to cex from your point of view, where you were like, this is the company for us that we really need to look at? Brad Cain (17:23):
Yeah, so I've, I've trialed multiple, uh, consumer access and pawn platforms over the many years, and I've also rolled CX out at a number of networks that I've either managed elsewhere or consulted with over the years. And honestly, at the end of the day, the E seven platform, it's, it's solid. It simply works. And I continue to appreciate all the work that they continue to do to enhance it. So when we were looking to, you know, develop a consumer access network, it was, it was a pretty quick and easy recommendation as far as, uh, you know, mentioning it to Ellen. And it turns out that their cloud platform and some of the enhanced services only only benefits the, the access platform that I had grown to appreciate prior, Jessica Denson (18:23):
Uh, Christina, uh, put E seven access platform into, uh, average person's terms and not Brad's terms. <laugh>, I can understand. Christina Wilson (18:34):
Yeah. So if you, if you think about how the, the, the network is built, the E seven really allows the network to function. You can, uh, direct the, and I'm going to, I am certainly not the, the technologist here in the group. I would, uh, defer to Brad on this, but I'll do my best. But it allows Brad to send data and connectivity to the places in the community that need it at the time, and in this, the, the bandwidth that they need. And you can also layer services onto that, um, whether that's voice or what have you. And so the E seven really does that job of, of getting the internet where it needs to go in the, the size and, and speed that it needs to be there. Brad, did I do an okay job describing that? Brad Cain (19:22):
Absolutely. Jessica Denson (19:24):
<laugh> altogether we could do this. Um, okay. So I'd really, um, wanna leverage, obviously we, you, you all understand what you're doing out in the field and, and how to deal with different things. You have different, it seems like between y'all, excuse my Texas accent, y'all, uh, between all three of you, you each fit an important piece of the puzzle. Um, so especially when we're gonna be talking about disaster preparedness, which is our topic today. So I wanna turn now to what happened last year, September 26th, 2024. I'm just gonna set the stage for our audience. Um, hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a category four, BRI four, bringing with it 140 mile per hour winds. It battered the coast. And according to the National Weather Service, it was the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland US since Hurricane Katrina in 20 20 0 5, all the storm, although the storm surge hit Georgia and Florida, so, and several other states, including North Carolina, um, North Carolina was hit with high winds, historic floodings, and, excuse me, historic flooding and tornadoes that spawn from Helene.
(20:32)
So a lot of people don't understand, sometimes with a hurricane, you'll get, it's the side things that are the real problems. It's the hurricane comes through, but then we also have flooding as a result. Tornadoes that come from that, you know, terrible hill, all kinds of other things. It's not just the actual storm. So, um, I would love to, to talk to each of you about how things were approached after the fact. So Ellen, you get the first crack share your experience for you, not just for you and your family, but for the company. What was it like on the ground, and how did you prepare for something like that that became historic, if you can prepare for something like that. Ellen Stallings (21:12):
Yeah. So as far as Helene is concerned, um, we really didn't foresee the devastation there. There really isn't any way, and for your listeners out there that, that don't have a concept of, of where we are, we're hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean. Um, where Helene hit, it would be an eight hour drive from where we are. So the thought that the devastation from a hurricane, um, would affect us the way that it did. I know people are like, well, why didn't they evacuate? Well, we really, there's just no concept. Um, I've lived here my entire life, and we do have a lot of rivers. We have mountains. There are places. Appalachian mountains are a temperate rainforest. It floods every year, but we know where those flooding areas are. Um, mm-hmm <affirmative>. So this was considered a thousand year flood. It, it flooded higher than any anywhere on record.
(22:12)
Um, rivers hitting 30 feet above their flood stage. Uh, and we had actually, the, the devastation was caused by two storms. We got rain on the 26th unrelated to the hurricane, and then the hurricane that hit in Florida on the 26th made it to us, um, on the 27th, the morning of the 27th. So, uh, what we do have prepared, or the emergency preparedness that you have, um, it was over quickly. It came through fast, uh, but it left, we, we lost thousands of bridges. We had thousands of landslides. Um, hundreds of thousands of acres of timber was lost, uh, in a matter of a few minutes. Uh, the county that are, we're regional, um, and, and in pretty much every county in western North Carolina, but where our offices are in Asheville, we had 70 lives lost that morning. So, um, Jessica Denson (23:11):
That's terrible. Yeah. Ellen Stallings (23:12):
And, and our, our team really no one escaped some sort of damage. We did have people on our team lose their homes, uh, and <laugh> roads closed. There was no way in or out of Western North Carolina for weeks because of, of all the damage. Jessica Denson (23:31):
And how do you even begin to approach that when you've come out of that and it's the other side, and you even have to take a breath? Do you just start one piece at a time or? Ellen Stallings (23:42):
I, I, Brad, um, hit road, actually, I, I won't steal his thunder and let him talk about it, but, um, I made him wait until after the eye passed, uh, that was as long, and he just started driving to see, to see where, where, where the most need was for the damage was what we could connect. And we started there. Jessica Denson (24:08):
And Brett, how do you do that? I mean, I, I imagine you hit the road and it was just devastation, and how do you, it just had to seem overwhelming at times. Brad Cain (24:20):
Yeah. So from my perspective, I had been keeping an eye on network alarms both the night prior during the, what was legitimately an a massively heavy rainstorm that was completely separate from the hurricane. And we, you know, there were a few customer sites that we saw that we lost power at, but we didn't have any real network damage during that. And if I remember correctly, there was about eight and a half inches of rain Jessica Denson (24:56):
Wow. Brad Cain (24:56):
Associated with that storm alone. So all of the soil regionwide was saturated, you know, the, the rivers were already filling up just from that one storm. And then as the eye, you know, as, as, as we started to, to get the real brunt of the tropical storm, that is when, um, that's when we really started to see alarms hit across, you know, at, at various portions of the network. And somehow or another, even after, uh, the flash before dawn of transformers get it down on the, uh, the state highway started blowing, and we could see the glow from the house <laugh>, um, oh my gosh, you know, we still continue to have cell service at our home. And that was that, that provided me with the ability to get a, a glimpse of where I needed to head towards. And Jessica Denson (26:10):
At that point, do you just start patching where you can? Brad Cain (26:14):
Well, realistically, what I needed to do is I needed to visually inspect mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, I, I, I may have many superpowers, but actually doing work <laugh> is, is not one of them. And <laugh>. So, um, I am, I am a, I am a very decent field engineer, but I, I, it's been a long time since I've spliced fiber or pulled Jessica Denson (26:42):
Cable. So they were identifying those spots where teams needed to go Brad Cain (26:48):
Exactly when, when I saw, for example, one location that had four trunk lines connecting it up, and it, it, it was a, it was a site that never should have gone, gone down. Um, I, I knew, I knew that there was something extraordinary going on in, in a couple of counties. So I, I began driving, I went to our primary office, checked to see the status of things, um, and then started heading north and, uh, and east into Yancy and Mitchell Counties. I was one of the first vehicles across the South Tow Bridge. Um, and I could, I could tell that they were hard hit. I, I rode up the network as best as I could to try to summarize what was powered dam, what was powered down versus fiber damage, and was pulling off to the side as on a very regular basis just to scribble notes and keep going, scribble notes and keep going. Jessica Denson (27:56):
So, you know, I think there might be this perception from the public that, um, you know, certain places are, are, are connected first. Is there, how do you approach that? Do you approach it with like, well, we need to make sure this hospital has con connectivity, right? Or first, and then we'll move to this residential area where three people are off, or, or how do you kind of decide the, the priority? Brad Cain (28:23):
Good question. So at ERC, I would say the majority of our customers are hospital systems or government agencies, or downstream telephone companies, cable companies, other fiber networks or cell towers. So, you know, we do have some, uh, high priority circuits or higher priority sort circuits, but most of our customers are of the utmost priority. So we tend to, we, we tend to take care of everyone with a, a, with very careful gloves. Um, so our, our entire team as, as we were beginning to try to communicate with one another, and don't be mistaken, sell cell coverage was out across most of the region. So we had to converge, debrief, and then go back out and attack. And, you know, we were com we were focused on identifying issues and needs, communicating our action plan, our regional customers, which we also tend to call partners. They were great. They were, they were helping us with access. They were acting as an extra set of eyes and helping with isolation of issues when we, when we were able to reach out to them. But across multiple counties, we, we kept emergency services up and running and, you know, through the storm. And, and we were very fortunate with how well somehow we, uh, we did through the storm. Jessica Denson (30:10):
So is that a little bit lucky? A little bit planning? Brad Cain (30:14):
Oh, ab absolutely. Plan. There, there is there, there's luck in a little bit of everything, but I think that hard work and good planning creates luck opportunities. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So, <laugh>, um, Jessica Denson (30:27):
<laugh>, and you mentioned earlier that northwest, that everything was always wet. Is is that kind of something your, your lines or your infrastructure is something that you still take with you now or use with you now that maybe helped? Brad Cain (30:43):
Absolutely. We, um, we, we, our, our technical teams, both our outside plant engineering, our architecture, our network engineering teams, they work hand in hand to develop a very resilient architecture through rings and then rings within rings to help mitigate downtime or outages as a result of a, uh, a fiber cut. So our architect actually likes to call it, uh, designing for fire prevention, but being prepared to firefight Jessica Denson (31:19):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Brad Cain (31:19):
So, uh, over the years, you know, we've been made fun of by some of our competitors, um, for over designing and over-engineering. But in cases like this, um, I, I think I, I think we were, we were grateful for the, Jessica Denson (31:37):
And paid Brad Cain (31:37):
Off for the practice. Yeah. Jessica Denson (31:39):
Yeah. Um, I can imagine that, um, other than perhaps during heat or or cold having power, that having connectivity so you can get information is so critical during a disaster. Uh, Christina, let, let's, let's turn to you now for a moment. I, I was actually approached by your team about Kali's role in helping with disaster preparedness and working with your, your part, your customers or your partners as you called them in the field. Talk about where Kali's role is in something like this and prepping for the storms, having a plan, that kind of thing. Christina Wilson (32:12):
Yeah, absolutely. So we always kind of huddle up when we know that there's a, a weather event that's gonna happen internally first, and, um, establish who's gonna start kind of reaching out to customers in the areas that we know where the storm's gonna hit. And I think, so we didn't really anticipate that this storm was going to be as severe as it ended up being, but traditionally what we'll do, our sales, our success team will start kind of reaching out to our customers or our partners and say, you know, we're gonna be here for you. Please let us know if there's anything that you need. Um, and then even one of the best practices that we've learned from this experience working with Ellen and Brad and with other providers in the region, is we are now as a success team, reminding our customers, Hey, have you upgraded your systems?
(33:07)
Have you, um, gone into the cloud and made sure that all of, um, the latest firmware has been updated so that when you come back, power's restored, should you lose that, you will be ready to rock and roll once it's back up. And then, um, we had our sales engineer, Ellen was sharing a story. He came down in a car with, uh, with gear ready to turn up some mobile wifi hotspots, and then smart town after the storm. Um, but kind of back to the proactive, leveraging our, our cloud platform and looking end to end in the network, trying to do exactly what Brad was talking about. Anticipate those low areas, um, kind of plan on the map where you think you potentially might have medical facilities, emergency responders, and then prioritize. Those are the places we're gonna restore first, uh, in advance. So having that plan's essential.
(34:03)
And then from a residential perspective, well, and even with business customers, but residential subscribers expect a different experience. I, I believe today they wanna know should the network go down? Where do we go to get connectivity? Um, where, you know, how will you let us know when, when services restored and even notifying customers, uh, ahead of time through push notifications, you can actually do that through C'S Engagement Cloud. You can push out messages to the app to say, we anticipate a storm's coming. We are going to do everything to keep service up and restore it as quickly as possible. We're here for you. Um, and I think just being that community provider and letting people know we are going to be, uh, a safe and secure network as soon as as we can get it restored, should it go down, just reinforces that you're there for the community. So all of those things, it's, it's using the power of the, the cloud, looking at the network, it's communicating with customers, um, and then knowing where you're gonna go first, uh, should the disaster strike it. It's just essential. Jessica Denson (35:11):
So I, I was talking to a, um, smaller ISP out of Texas called Next Link, um, um, A CEO for that Bill Baker. And I was talking about, Hey, how's your comms team? Can I get something from them? And he laughed at me for, 'cause it's such a small organization, a small icep, it's like what we do our own comms. Um, anyway, my point being is that I can imagine that when you have a big disaster or any kind of challenging thing, like a time like this for a larger ISP that a lot of people know, such as your Verizons or T-Mobile's or at t's, things like that, they have a larger workforce that they can then call in from different states even to help. But for smaller or regional mid-sized ISPs, internet service providers, it's gotta be a challenge. Is that really where CEX can come in and help Christina with that is kind of extend their workforce? Christina Wilson (36:06):
Yeah, we absolutely can. And, you know, disaster planning had not been on our bucket list prior to the last couple of years, I wanna say. And the success team, that's, that's really where we kind of get energized and think, okay, if we were a smaller provider, and, and by the way, some of our smaller providers are a team of five, um, and, and then it goes all up into the tier ones, right? And so, um, most of them are out in the field doing installs every day and, and working directly with customers. Many of them are not communications directors, to your point, <laugh>. And so <laugh>, you know, we have an electronic content builder and then also the CX community where our service providers can go and get best practice articles, they can get scripting. Um, and we've sat side by side with our customers to say, especially since this event, Hey, do you have a business continuity plan?
(37:00)
Would you like for us to review it with you and maybe give you some recommendations for things to think about, uh, so that you can really be a little bit more proactive to communicate to your customers, even down to reviewing, Hey, let us, uh, if you want second set of eyes, we'll review your communication just to ensure that they, you know, don't scare, uh, their customers that they're sending out the communications too. So I know that, uh, during Hurricane and Helene, uh, during Hurricane Helene, we were reaching out to the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, all across that, that southern part of the, the States just making sure that, um, you know, customers were okay and that they were following their plan and, um, kind of checking in to see how we could help. And then lastly, I think any of them that have, uh, purchased CX Cloud and have Engagement Cloud, that really opens up an avenue where they can push out those no notifications to their customers directly, uh, prior to the storm hitting. And then even once, you know, once the network is restored, start pushing it back up. You know, no need to call in, you're good to connect. Or even if they're working in tandem with the city or the community, uh, where to go for resources and those types of things, if they're, you know, partnering and, and many of them do, Jessica Denson (38:24):
Uh, I think it's fantastic what CX done. I've been to the conference that you guys have out in Las, uh, Vegas about two years ago and saw, got to see firsthand some of the really cool things you guys are doing from lighting up football fields to connecting people to just, you just have a lot of really interesting things that you guys do. Just a side note, <laugh>. Thank you, Ellen. Let's get back to, um, you know, what River Wave Broadband was doing in those days and weeks that passed. I was told that River, river Wave, I have a hard time saying that River Wave Broadband didn't just work on its own needs. Correct. You talk about what you did to help in general, the, the community and why that was important. Ellen Stallings (39:04):
Yeah. So it, our area was without power. Um, some people, for most people for at least a week, uh, up to a month or more for some people, and if, if you don't have electricity, your router isn't working, even in the case that maybe you, you actually had broadband connectivity, it, it's not worth much without a, without a router when you're at home in business. Um, so the CX team, um, my service team that I worked closely with, of course, they were reaching out to me immediately making sure we, uh, we were okay and our team was okay. Um, and then they proactively called me and said, Hey, they've got, um, a really nice hardened unit, hardened being an outdoor router that can reach up to a mile. Um, wow. They said, we're sending you four. Jessica Denson (40:00):
Wow. Can Ellen Stallings (40:01):
You, can you deploy them? And we went, we have never done this, but yes, we will figure this. Um, this. And the one who bear, who is, uh, our sales engineer said, listen, I live in Charlotte. I'm going to drive there. And he came up, I think he stayed in some friend of his camper, you know, we did not have running water, we did not have power. Um, and then worked with my team for over two days, and we got, um, our network team said, where, where's the best place that we can deploy these, that we can reach the most people? You know, you're looking at places that the roads were open that had a parking lot, we identified them, and within 24 hours of him coming, we opened up free public wifi in four different communities in western North Carolina, um, with the help of cx, you know, no charge to anyone, of course, and left those open as long as they needed. Um, people could come in, connect, actually reach out to their family. You know, most of our cell towers went down. So we, we were really struggling, um, to even get news or to reach out and get help or to let family know that you, you were okay. So Jessica Denson (41:18):
Did you really hear from people that were like, well, we, we needed this. Thank you. This means a lot to us, uh, just are, are, are these people that, you know, because it is a small company and a, an ar a smaller area that you serve. Ellen Stallings (41:34):
A, a lot of the people that where we deployed it were not familiar with who we were, and we, we really did not promote who we were, <laugh> why we were doing it. But, um, the towns where we deployed it were so grateful, but they were doing, you know, sort of public announcements that, you know, now there was free wifi and, uh, they were highly utilized for the first couple of months. Um, and it, it was, it was just one more thing that, you know, felt good. It felt good to, to have a sense of normalcy to at least be able to connect. Um, and we did, we did get a lot of grateful, grateful, thank yous, and know Brad walked into a coffee shop and someone pointed at him and was like, that's who you need to thank that. We can connect here <laugh>. So, so Jessica Denson (42:27):
Brad, from your point of view Go ahead, go ahead. I was about to ask you about Brad Cain (42:30):
It, so, no, I was just gonna say that the neat thing was, is there were probably 200 people inside and huddled in masses outside of this coffee shop, because it was one of the few public places that people could go in this community, uh, in, in the community that they're in to, to just get on wifi. So Ellen, Ellen had already increased them from, I can't remember whether it was 200 megabits per second up to a gig just to, just to help provide as much connectivity as, as they could consume. Jessica Denson (43:07):
And from, for you, Brad, how are things going at this point when you get out from the storm after the storm? Few days? Yeah, few weeks, few months. I can imagine there's probably still places that need help now. But as in being connected, when did we really start to see regular service restored? Brad Cain (43:25):
Well, it, it really, we were in an incredibly good place relative to some of some of the other networks in the region, but we, we had a devastating amount of, of trouble. Fortunately, we didn't lose any of our head ends or distribution sites, so we were better off than some others. But we, our focus from day one really was about getting our outside plant fiber back up and running continuous, and connecting up every single hub, every single distribution site, and every single customer one by one. And simply put, if it hadn't been for our partnership with Mc Communications, who's our master fiber contractor, I don't know if we would be here today. Um, we've been working with them for over 20 years and, and we do treat them like members of our team, very similar to how Ellen said CEX comes to, uh, Christmas, Christmas dinners, <laugh>. Um, and, and when you have longstanding partners like that, like mc to ERC and CX to River Wave, that you know, that they know you and that you trust, you can move mountains and, Jessica Denson (44:48):
And what was their role? What do, what did they do for you guys? Brad Cain (44:51):
They, they are our outside plant construction contractor, and they do the majority of our splicing on our network. So they know our network as well as our, as well as our outside plant engineering team. Um, and they have built probably 90% of our network over the past 20 some odd years. And they are, they're an integral part of our ongoing success. Jessica Denson (45:26):
And they're called mc, Brad Cain (45:28):
Mc Communications. Yeah. Jessica Denson (45:30):
I will add them to the, uh, description of this podcast. I, I'll put everybody's, all the companies that we're talking to, all three of yours, um, in the description of this podcast, and I'll include them as well. Uh, Christie, make them smile. <laugh>. That's good. I, I like making people smile <laugh>, um, Christina River Wave and other local providers, my understanding is that they've leveraged smart town to restore connectivity. Can you talk about what Smart Town is? I think it's really fascinating. I mentioned the Las Vegas conference I was at a few years ago, and that was kind of rolling out and it was in Waves. So talk about what Smart Town is and why that's unique. Christina Wilson (46:08):
Yeah, it's really been transformative, and I think that, uh, Cly Smart Town is a community-wide wifi solution that enables broadband service providers to extend secure, managed internet access far beyond the home. So blanketing key areas like parks, libraries, shelters, town halls, and schools with, uh, with internet so that you can get connected. It's fully integrated with the CX platform, so it makes it really, really easy to deploy, manage, and scale. And so why it's essential in times of crisis or recovery, um, whether it's a hurricane, wildfire, tornado flood, power outage, um, it really becomes that digital lifetime, uh, lifeline, excuse me. And, um, it gives rapid connectivity, uh, restoration. So providers like River Wave View, smart Town to quickly reestablish internet access in central community locations while resident social networks are still kind of coming back up and online. It also supports first responders and critical services.
(47:14)
So emergency teams and essential workers can access reliable wifi immediately enabling coordination and response. Imagine all of those folks trying to, to get around, communicate with one another. Where do we need to go? Who needs our help? It really, uh, demonstrates that ability. It also keeps communities connected so residents can get online to contact loved ones. And I think in this instance it was, it was massively critical that they just let everybody know, Hey, we're okay. We, we meet it through the storm and then access. Think about now where do I turn? What do I do after this flood? What do I do after this hurricane? It gives them access to emergency resources, re receive realtime updates. Imagine if you didn't have cellular connection and this was your only connection to the outside world, and that's what Smart Town does. Um, and then last but not least, and this is the, the inner marketer, uh, in me <laugh>, it really, it, it builds trust and goodwill.
(48:12)
Uh, when you're offering that public wifi during a crisis, it reinforces the broadband service provider's role as a trusted community partner, not just a utility provider. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it goes that extra step, that extra mile. And so in times of crisis, being connected equals safety, access and peace of mind. And so Smart Town really enables the broadband service to provider to deliver all three proactively, securely in that scale. And it's really not just a nice to have it's community critical, uh, and when, and it really helps our, our broadband service provider evolve or transform into that broadband experience provider when it matters the most. Jessica Denson (48:59):
So, uh, I know we're talking about hurricanes here, but has it been really utilized in other types of disasters, wildfires, or following tornadoes? Is, is it all kinds of things? Christina Wilson (49:11):
Yeah, we had, um, I know that several of our companies that we partner with used it. Uh, there were some wildfires in Oklahoma last year, uh, I think maybe even early on this year. Um, and then we've had a couple of others after Hurricane Helene, um, French Broadband, EMC quickly restored their power to Western North Carolina. So it was, it was still kind of the same situation. But then in tornadoes, even, uh, I know you, you've seen the storms rolling through the Midwest. I'm from Joplin, Missouri, and mm-hmm <affirmative>. We're right in the path. And, uh, St. Louis and I think London, Kentucky got hit recently pretty badly in those situations. We absolutely can take those, um, mobile units out, uh, the Harden units and get 'em turned up really quickly. Um, you know, Ellen demonstrated really quickly, we haven't done it before, but we'll figure it out. And it really is that easy, uh, to get them up and going. Jessica Denson (50:09):
Okay. Let's talk about some lessons learned that maybe others can take with them. Um, obviously a lot of great insight here already, but was there anything that surprised you all about the hurricane and the resulting damage or maybe things you would've done differently before in and Christina, since you had the floor? We'll, let you start with that. Is, are there things that maybe you learn each time that there is a disaster? Christina Wilson (50:35):
Yeah, so the success team knows it's important as we're consulting with customers Now, we've actually begun asking, uh, is your BCP your business continuity planning, your disaster planning up to date? We develop, uh, and innovate Calex does every 91 days, we've got a release coming out and there are new features, new functionality, whether it's for Smart town or for Gigas buyers. And so we want them also to be thinking about keeping, um, their networks upgraded, keeping their firmware upgraded, and so we're checking that box as well. We're also informing customers, um, about Smart Town and how other companies like River Wave French Broadband, um, and even Clearwave Fiber down in, uh, Georgia utilized, um, smart Town as the disaster recovery, um, piece in their BCP. And so we're kind of demonstrating those best practices to our customers and just making sure that they're thinking through end to end what they might need to do during a disaster to stay up and running to support their community. Jessica Denson (51:44):
What about you, Ellen? Were there anything that you've learned through this? I, I mean, you just started a broadband company and, and then you're hit with this. Were there some lessons learned that you think, okay, I'm carrying that with me from now on? I Ellen Stallings (51:56):
Do. I I think that, uh, we all of Western North Carolina, we're, we're, we're in that once, you know, you know, mode mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, I know that we will keep, uh, the hardened units on hand. Um, we will know which communities they can get deployed in very quickly. Like we already have the switch available. Um, and those are are pieces of information that we will keep on file. But beyond that, um, an interesting piece that I really had not considered was, you know, we communicate with our customers through, um, email and, and, but when you run into an issue with, uh, broadband and, you know, some spotty cellular, we had some issues. It's like having that multiple ways to communicate with your customers. So like Christina was saying, um, the Calex Cloud platform and the Experience Cloud, um, will let us post a notification on the app.
(53:02)
It will let us text them SNXS text. Um, so we can call, we can email, we can use all of these ways. So whichever way they're first able to get connection, we can tell them where these free wifi spots are. If they only have a cell phone, um, and maybe the cellular service isn't great, but you're getting for, for weeks, we were getting sent an intermittent self service, so you'd be able to, to download. And it's, it's making sure that we have that multiple points of communication. Um, and beyond that, just, you know, really making sure that, uh, business leaders, you're, you're, you're staying on top of that communication plan, and that's assuming with your team that there's a point that you're meeting that you know, which customers have to be up first. You know, that, that, that first responders emergency responses, it's, it's not having that one conversation and, and putting it in a file. It's, it's revisiting it because like with this hurricane, we didn't know it was going to be this bad. There, there wasn't any concept. And when it happens, it happens fast. Jessica Denson (54:18):
Yeah, I can imagine. It feels almost like a blur at, at the time. And let's turn to something positive. Um, I know that it's, it's probably, you're still probably not to a hundred percent normal, but probably the community in general is slowly, is back to some normalcy. So what are some things that each of your companies are looking forward to? Any big projects or ideas or things on the horizon that you're excited about? Ellen Stallings (54:42):
Yeah, we had, um, several exciting projects that were really rolling out kind of fourth quarter of last year. And they all, uh, took a backseat, uh, to, of course the rebuild and, um, enhancement of the network and, uh, delays on the, the side of constructions. Um, so we've seen most of those start to come back this spring, and we're finishing out things that we expected to be working on last October. Uh, so that feels great. It feels like we, we have recovered enough that we're, we're back to the projects, um, that we were working on. And, and with that has come several other ones. We, we've got a busy last half of this year, uh, and it just feels great. It, it, it feels like we've, we've returned and, and we're stronger than we were. Jessica Denson (55:39):
And Christina, what about for you? Any great offerings ahead, new tech? I know there's a lot of talk about ai, anything that, uh, calx is, uh, revving up for? Yeah, Christina Wilson (55:50):
Well, with, uh, innovate, simplify, and grow as our tagline. Yes. <laugh>, uh, yes, yes. And more, I wanna say just a little bit about the success team. We've, uh, we've been building the organization over the last seven years, and it, over the last two, we've completely transformed it to really focus in on, um, each of our partners goals and help them to go faster, grow bigger, whatever it is that they're trying to do, and achieve those business outcomes. But from a, a technology standpoint, we're, um, looking to, uh, and I, I know Michael Weaning just posted maybe a day or two ago about our third gen platform that will be coming out. So super proud about that. Um, and like I said earlier, every 91 days we're always launching new features to our outdoor wifi systems. Our Smart biz offering. Smart MDU is coming up online, and yes, there's a, a little teaser or a tickler that AI will be coming, uh, to our platform and to our customers very, very soon. So, um, it will help, uh, our customers prepare their networks and be ready for anything in the future. Jessica Denson (56:59):
What's, what is the key with the every 91 days? Christina Wilson (57:04):
It is just this relentless focus on, um, okay, learning, knowing what our customers need, developing it, and getting it out as fast as we possibly can, and expanding the, the, um, platform to be able to better serve, be more proactive to help Ellen grow her subscriber base more, whatever it is that we're, you know, from a business perspective, if you think about a broadband service provider starting with, um, marketing and sales all the way out to their installers, what does it take from a technology standpoint, uh, from a data standpoint even more? Because that's really what the cloud does, is it, it aggregates all of the data across the network, the telemetry, all of that, and then helps Ellen and Brad make business decisions being informed and know where to go next, where to deploy next, what they need to fix to, to make sure that they don't see churn, um, how to reduce their service times and deliver at the very best, the best subscriber experience possible. And it really is what makes, um, it possible for some of our customers, besides all of their hard work and due diligence. We've got customers out in the field, by the way, that are achieving, uh, 93 NPS in this industry, which is unheard of. And so when we say we are focused, um, on that innovation and helping our our customers go further faster, we certainly mean it. Jessica Denson (58:37):
And that's amazing, and I think that's a wonderful answer. But what is the 91 about <laugh>? Is that 91 days, it's just an unusual instead of three months, every three months or 91 days. Is is that a significant number? Christina Wilson (58:50):
Well, it just is every quarter. Jessica Denson (58:52):
Oh. And it just Christina Wilson (58:52):
So happens it lands on the 91st day every quarter. Jessica Denson (58:56):
Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Um, okay, before we wrap, I, and I could talk to you three all day, so if you wanna call me later, feel free <laugh>. But before we wrap today's conversation, um, you know, at this recording, uh, it is May 21st, and so we're just less than two weeks from hurricane season. Uh, I'd love to hear from each of you, one takeaway you hope other ISPs can take the discussion that can really help them deal with these types of things, whether it's before, during, or after. And we'll let Ellen start, Brad, we'll pick it up. And Christina, you can have our last word. How does that sound? So Ellen, what, how, what one piece, one thing that you think people should, that another ISP should take from today? Ellen Stallings (59:41):
It, I think that they should know and have the ability multiple ways to, to contact their customers, um, and sit down with your team and ask the what if questions, because the unthinkable, um, can happen and you being prepared for it will help you fulfill your role in your community and ultimately in a disaster, it takes everyone in the community doing their part. Jessica Denson (01:00:11):
And Christina following those two is gonna be tough, but you got the final work. I know. It's tough, Christina Wilson (01:00:16):
Right? Um, first and foremost, I'm truly thankful, uh, Jessica to be on the podcast today and just share it is a critical message, right? The first takeaway is to have a plan and be ready. Um, and then also thankful for Ellen and Brad, who have been great partners with cx. And it's quite obvious from listening to them. Um, they're, they're awesome. But the, the two te two takeaways is to choose great partners in business that you can rely on and make sure that you are prepared for the worst. No one wants to find themself in this situation, and nature's unpredictable, and you need to be ready to support your community. And, um, there's no better time to start planning than now. Jessica Denson (01:01:00):
Okay. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate all of your insights from each one of you. Thank you for joining me today, Ellen Stallings (01:01:07):
Jessica. Thank you. This is so great. Jessica Denson (01:01:19):
On Thursday, May 22nd, the day after I spoke with Brad Ellen and Christina Noah, which stands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, released its official forecast for hurricane season. The agency is forecasting 13 to 19 total named storms, meaning they have winds of 39 miles per hour or higher. Of those six to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes. That includes three to five major hurricanes. Those largest storms would be categories three, four, and five, with winds of 111 miles per hour or higher. The agency says there's a 60% chance that overall the storm season will produce the above normal number of hurricanes. The good news here that national officials say those living along the coast will have more warning than ever before. Noah's National Weather Service Director Ken Graham, said, quote, in my 30 years, the National Weather Service, we've never had more advanced models and warning systems in place to monitor the weather. This outlook is a call to action. Be prepared. Take proactive steps now to make a plan and gather supplies to ensure you're ready before a storm threatens another reminder that our guests were correct today. ISPs need to have a plan and prepare now rather than later. I'm Jessica Sen. Thanks for listening. To Connected Nation. If you like our show and wanna know more about us, head to connected nation.org or look for the latest episodes on all major podcast platforms, including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, Pandora, and Spotify.
