Now or never: How one industry veteran is building a people-first future in broadband

On this episode on Connected Nation, we continue our coverage from Calix ConneXions 2025, taking place in Las Vegas Nevada. 

We talk with one man who just struck out on his own in the telecom and broadband industry. Find out how he's planning to leverage his 25 years in the business to help others and why he believes it was "now or never."

Editor's note: The host, Jessica Denson, misspoke and said Mr. Rene had 35 years in the business. It is actually 25. 

Recommended links: 

Calix ConneXions 2025

Waypoint 33 website

Randall Rene LinkedIn

Chapters

• 1:56 Randall Rene's background in the broadband industry
• 6:54 How Waypoint 33 got its name
• 10:34 Randall Rene background
• 13:47 Where is Randall going to be 5 years from now
• 17:41 Why Randall decided to start his own company
• 20:58 Randalls past on the reservation

Transcript

Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (00:00):
This is Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband from closing the digital divide to improving your internet speeds. We talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our neighborhoods. It's no secret that we live in a time of uncertainty when it comes to jobs in America, especially when you consider things like ai. On today's podcast, we talk with one man who just struck out on his own in the telecom and broadband industry, despite some of those uncertainties. Find out how he's planning to leverage his 35 years in the business to help others, and why he believes it was now or never. I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation. I am at KX Connections 2025. This is the second day I've been at the conference, and one of my favorite things just happened. Uh, someone walked up to me and asked if about the podcast, asked, asked if they could, if I'd be interested in talking to them, and I, my answer is always yes to that. So let that be a lesson to everyone out there, <laugh>. Um, and so my guest now is Randall Renee. Yeah. He is with way point 33, although that's kind of noon. We're gonna get into that. Um, welcome, Randall. 

Randall Rene, Waypoint 33 (01:14):
Thank you. You know, it was a little nerve wracking walking over here, intimidating saying, uh, 

Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (01:21):
All the podcasters, 

Randall Rene, Waypoint 33 (01:21):
What's it take to do a podcast? Yeah. 

Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (01:22):
<laugh>. Yeah. What's it take to do a podcast? I didn't know either. Eight, uh, six seasons ago, but now six seasons in, I'm a, I'm a pro at it, 

Randall Rene, Waypoint 33 (01:30):
<laugh>. Well, you look happy, and it sounds like you're having a lot of fun. 

Jessica Denson (01:33):
I do. I enjoy this, this is my favorite part of my job, so, um, I enjoy talking to people and being out of these things. 

Randall Rene (01:38):
Wonderful. 

Jessica Denson (01:38):
So, again, thank you Randall, for Ha being brave and coming up to me and Yeah. And chatting, because I'm excited to talk to you. And just even just chatting for a few minutes, it's clear that you have a deep background in the broadband industry in the, in the data analysis industry. So talk a little bit about that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And then we're gonna dive into what you're doing 

Randall Rene (01:56):
Now. Sure. You know, when I, right outta high school, I went in the military, you know, and I thought I wanted to be a police officer when I got older, or like a couple of uncles, um, when I got out, you know, it was, it was tough transitioning outta the military. You're so used to being a certain way. 

Jessica Denson (02:11):
Oh, thank you for service. What, what branch were you in? 

Randall Rene (02:12):
My, uh, army. Army. I, I, I love to, uh, jump outta planes and, uh, do some really neat stuff, so, 

Jessica Denson (02:18):
Uh, oh, <laugh>. Yeah. Were you at Fort 

Randall Rene (02:19):
Campbell? No, I was at Fort Bragg.

(02:22)
Oh, Fort Bragg. Uh, Fort Liberty now, I guess so, um, yeah, I spent a lot of time out there doing that, and that was really my first, um, time getting to use maps and communications equipment to, to do a job, you know? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I realized how important then it was. Um, so when I got out, wanted to be an officer, but it was tough, you know, transitioning. So I got into telecom, like a brother-in-law of mine, and I tell you, it's been the best thing I've ever done. Um, I've been a technician. I've, I've worked in central offices for Comcast 

Jessica Denson (02:51):
Mm-hmm 

Randall Rene (02:51):
<affirmative>. In the past, uh, as a head end technician, and then a head end supervisor that took me to become a planning and design manager, planning HFC networks and fiber networks, outdoor wifi. Um, 

Jessica Denson (03:03):
So you've seen it grow up from a, from the early beginnings on, 

Randall Rene (03:07):
Right? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Not that 

Jessica Denson (03:08):
You're that 

Randall Rene (03:08):
Old. No, no. Like, just a few years watching, um, the evolution of a couple of things, like high definition video, I remember when that first launched mm-hmm <affirmative>. To date myself a little bit, but to, to see that launch and then broadband, holy cow. This evolution of speed, um, to meet consumer demand. And at first I thought, oh, geez, here we go. Another upgrade or something, uhhuh.

(03:31)
But then I realized through some of the volunteer efforts that I do that holy cow, I'm connecting people to what is important in their lives. And that kinda really changed how I looked at what I did. Mm-hmm. Um, later in my career as I, uh, discovered GIS tools, ESRI based GIS tools, um, we did a lot of application development and things around, um, push button automation or decision making, trying to put tools in the hands of people so they could just take care of their job easy. So that took me to the corporate office, uh, spent some time there, uh, which was 

Jessica Denson (04:05):
Awesome. Esri, Esri is really the standard bearer when it comes to that, wouldn't you say? 

Randall Rene (04:08):
Sure is. Yeah. Uh, I always had such a love for the company and the team that work there, very, uh, uh, kind-hearted people that are all about people and planet <laugh>. That's cool. You know, the, the logo, uh, mascot is glo, it's an earth with arms and legs, 

Jessica Denson (04:23):
Because it's Glo, 

Randall Rene (04:24):
<laugh> Glo. Yeah. Oh, there's people take 'em all over the place, diving to the top of mountains, all this 

Jessica Denson (04:28):
Stuff. Oh, wow. That's great. 

Randall Rene (04:29):
Um, so yeah, I spent the last five years there as industry director over telecommunications. Oh. So my role was about teaching the industry globally, how location intelligence can be used, um, how isri products and their partners and their resources can be used to, you know, affect, um, people, planet, productivity, profitability, really any kind of thing that somebody's working 

Jessica Denson (04:51):
On. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And then that brought you to 

Randall Rene (04:54):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (04:54):
Where we are now with way point 33. Yes. So talk about that. 

Randall Rene (04:58):
Uh, I was ready for that next step in my career. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I missed getting to be involved in the hands-on, um, of a business. I really loved puzzles when I was at Comcast. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And creating, um, workflows and process improvements and standards, stuff like that. Younger me might not have thought that was super cool, <laugh>, but, um, but it is now because I realize how much I don't like wasting my wasting time. I don't like wasting other people's time, and no one really likes it. They just want to be empowered, get something done, move to the next thing. 

Jessica Denson (05:28):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Randall Rene (05:29):
I realized GIS was that thing 

Jessica Denson (05:30):
For me the same way. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Randall Rene (05:31):
Yeah. So I had some great coaches and mentors, um, from the industry. My, my personal board of directors, if you will, that said, Randall, it's about time for you to, uh, go do your own thing, man. You, you, you've got the chops, you got the love for people, just go and do it. 

Jessica Denson (05:48):
Uhhuh. 

Randall Rene (05:48):
So I'm two months in. Um, I've done some really hard things in the beginning. Like, I don't know if anybody listening has ever tried to get their government certifications, those contracts, you know, Sam's and, and maybe it's the, uh, cybersecurity ratings through the DOD Uhhuh. I went after the hard stuff first. 

Jessica Denson (06:07):
Oh, wow. Because 

Randall Rene (06:08):
I knew I wouldn't have time later. So that's all done. But now we're gonna be helping, um, really people under gain that understanding or that direction that they're looking for, um, in how to transform the business regardless of what area they're looking at. I specialize, obviously, in mapping and workflows of that plan, build and operate Uhhuh 

Jessica Denson (06:28):
Model. So is it all with telecom, 

Randall Rene (06:30):
Telecommunications networks in general? Yes. Uhhuh. <affirmative>. Yeah. So that's, that's across just about every industry 

Jessica Denson (06:35):
These days. 

Randall Rene (06:36):
Yes. <laugh>, I don't think I, there's no more like telecom network separate from broadband network. It's one big, massive thing that connects people and equipment to what's important mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so that's how I look at it, and that's what we 

Jessica Denson (06:50):
Work on. So what's behind the, uh, the name? The name is Cool. Uh, way point 33. What, what does that 

Randall Rene (06:55):
Mean? Okay. Um, my best friend of 38 years, he says, is that a, it is like a username, right? Like way 0.1 through 32 was taken. So you, I said, yeah, Shane, you got me. Um, no, honestly, the name is, is comprised of a couple things. Way point, because we all need way points in our lives to get us to, you know, to where we want to go and back again, and those guides. And I want our company to be that trusted guide to help somebody on their journey, whatever they're trying to work on. The 33 is in homage to my best friend in my, in my relationship. We've been best friends for 38 years, straight outta uh, you know, through school, et cetera, through the thick and thin of life. And he lives right on the 33rd latitude. 

Jessica Denson (07:38):
Oh, wow. 

Randall Rene (07:39):
Uh, uh, of, and, uh, I thought, okay, that, that works 

Jessica Denson (07:44):
For me. You honor him. That's cool. Yeah. That's very cool. 

Randall Rene (07:47):
So, so that's his, um, I made him, I, I got him all choked up when he said that, you know, 'cause uh, he goes, wait, that's us. And I said, yeah, absolutely. I said, I want relationships, which are often, I think, missing in our business these days as we're trying to do so much with maybe not as many people as we should have. Um, and we're using a lot of disconnected processes in, in kind of cold things, you know? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Like a text or an email, or you're working from home. So I want the relationship to be what we're known for. So I wanted that in the 

Jessica Denson (08:18):
Name. That's interesting that you say that for multiple reasons. One, at Connected Nation we're a national nonprofit, and my CEO's always saying that we need to, partnerships is what defines us. That there's no way we could do this alone. There's no way any, there's too many. We need all of us to be working on this issue of connecting people and helping people. And also, I've been hearing over and over again at this conference, that the reason people are here is 'cause they want to connect and network. 

Jessica Denson (08:43):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Jessica Denson (08:43):
They don't want that. They, they would prefer that they get more done in two days because they're one-on-one than they do over several months. Yeah. So I think you're onto something, just so to say. Just to piggyback on that. Um, so you'll essentially be using your years of the, in the industry and in Esri to help other businesses grow and understand Yeah. Or even get established. 

Randall Rene (09:06):
Yeah, exactly. Uh, um, there's a lot of people that they know, they've gotta transform what they're doing. They gotta make a change in order to not just keep up. I love some of the analogies that were set on stage, even like, you're running fast, but you're, you have to run fast just to stay caught up to get ahead. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. You've gotta sprint, you've gotta really get ahead these days. It takes companies like what I'm doing that can come in and look from the outside. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Not as just simply a consultant. And, and I don't have nothing against just a consultant model. Part of our model is 

Jessica Denson (09:35):
That 

Randall Rene (09:36):
Uhhuh, but it's that change management. It's, and the biggest part of that is long-term relationships. Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (09:42):
So you're in there guiding for the long-term, not just get you started and see you later. 

Randall Rene (09:47):
Yeah. Just not transactional. I think that the biggest thing that a company like mine can do is come in and sit down and, and listen, you know, observe and listen mm-hmm <affirmative>. And feel what it's like to do business at that location. And while the, the workflow is the same, and, you know, across a big company, a little company, it varies so much depending on who's there, what's there, how many people the texts used. So you gotta learn that. 

Jessica Denson (10:13):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Randall Rene (10:14):
Um, and then only then can you best support their mission. 

Jessica Denson (10:18):
So what is gonna be, uh, what is your target footprint at least of the first year 

Randall Rene (10:22):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (10:22):
Where you wanna see it five years down the road. 

Randall Rene (10:25):
Yeah. You know, go after the hard stuff first. <laugh>, uh, you know, is what I was doing. I want a, a good stable foundation. And there's a few areas that are really important to me. 

Jessica Denson (10:34):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Randall Rene (10:34):
All my life. Um, I've, I've worked with nonprofits, volunteer organizations to help connect the community or give people a hand up. Um, looking back at my career in my life, I had that as a kid. Look, I lived in a car with my mom and my two sisters when I was in high school. And it was organizations in and around the community that helped give us opportunity. I see broadband and connectivity as that incredible opportunity to uplift people. I'm on the board for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Southern California. What we do there is we provide opportunity to kids and show them what's out there. So teach 'em about the telecom industry and say, Hey, did you ever know how the internet works? So right now, um, those, I think about those two things. So I, year one is about connecting, um, that technical consortium of people and companies that can purposely help people, right? 

(11:30)
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So not just technology, but have a genuine vested interest in a cause to, to help improve the lives of others. Um, tell you another story really quickly. I, I've done disaster response with an organization called Team Rubicon. Like, I, I have people tell me, Randall, you do too much <laugh>. And I feel like I never do enough. Um, I got to go to the Navajo Nation twice, uh, and during COVID and we ran some field hospitals out there, I was amazed, um, at this day and age that there was no connectivity of any kind for cellular service. You could drive for an hour, almost an hour and a half sometimes, depending on where you're going. And nobody had connectivity. 

Jessica Denson (12:09):
Mm-hmm 

Randall Rene (12:09):
<affirmative>. That was something that I knew existed, but I didn't understand it until I felt it. And it helped explain why that like COVID spread so quickly within a nation like that 

Jessica Denson (12:21):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Because they didn't have access to the 

Randall Rene (12:23):
Information. Right. So you had to go, you didn't have access to information. And then because of the infrastructure of, of a location like that, you had to go to hospital, had to go someplace. Oh, God. 

Jessica Denson (12:31):
Yeah. Yeah. I'm following you now. <laugh>. 

Randall Rene (12:33):
Yeah. So, so when you think about, um, connecting people and connecting communities to be able to, um, year one build that list of relationships mm-hmm <affirmative>. Is, is where we're at now, building a consortium model. There's a lot of people that, um, are out of work right now. Uh, some of my friends at Comcast just got laid off. It's, it's an evolution of business. These things happen, but there's great people that need a, a, a role and they just need a, a stop gap, if you will. So I'm gonna bring those people in as, as a depth of bench, if you will, 

Jessica Denson (13:06):
Uhhuh <affirmative>. 

Randall Rene (13:07):
And depending on the game that it that is, is being called to be played, you'll, I'll have that list of resources available. Um, to jump in the other side of it is the companies like cx such an amazing group, um, here being able to work with, with you guys as well, or to get a list of equipment vendors and software providers, et cetera, really know them. That adds, again, depth of knowledge and capability to the company. So year one, it's, it's fostering relationships. It's leveraging, leveraging experience and relationships I've gained over, um, 25 plus years. I hate to say it, but it's, it can't believe it's been that fast. 

Jessica Denson (13:43):
Yeah. You have a deep history. Yeah. 

Randall Rene (13:44):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (13:45):
There's something to be said for that 

Randall Rene (13:46):
Five years from now. Um, I would say I'm gonna have, definitely have gonna need, uh, to have quite a few people, um, in, in a variety of areas. Um, I am a distributor for, uh, a company called Cellular Expert. Uhhuh. <affirmative> does wireless propagation modeling. Um, so think cellular, wifi, indoor stuff. I need sales team to do that. Well, there's a tremendous amount of transitioning veterans coming out of the military. So we're gonna be tapping into veterans and first responders as they're changing careers and teaching 'em about the industry as well as going to high schools and doing the same. 

Jessica Denson (14:22):
That is something that we've done, um, some work with at Connect Nation, where we've done some skills training online. So veterans or, uh, people in the active military, especially military families who have to move a lot, can still work online. Um, or maybe they don't want to go to a traditional office. 'cause it's not Yeah. It's not conducive to their, their, um, their background or it doesn't feel comfortable or feel right to them. Sure. Um, which, you know, we should do all we can for the, for veterans. And so I would think that something in the telecom industry would indeed fit that model for sure. For those coming out of that the military. And the fact that you have a background in it is you understand the language Yeah. More so than I would <laugh>. Yeah. 

Randall Rene (15:02):
There's a, an organization that I'm paired up with called TAVs. I give them a shout out, uh, TAVS. They have an incredible mission of bringing veterans, um, into the telecom industry, specifically into sales. 

Jessica Denson (15:15):
Uhhuh, 

Randall Rene (15:15):
<affirmative>. You might think, well, why sales? Funny story. When I was getting outta the military, my first sergeant said, all right, Randall, you want to be a cop, huh? And I said, yeah, yeah. He goes, go sell cars. I said, I said, no, no, for Sergeant. I think you misunderstood. I I want to, I wanna work, you know, as a police officer. And he goes, yeah, go sell cars. And I go, you gotta gimme some context. Why? 

Jessica Denson (15:39):
That's interesting. Yeah. Why? 

Randall Rene (15:40):
And he goes, uh, I was a new, he says I was a New York police officer before I joined the military. Did that 10 years. He goes talking to people and identifying with what they're looking for, what they need. And, you know, building a relationship is key if you're gonna be a police officer, so go sell cars, get good at selling cars, and then go be a police officer. And it always stuck with me. Uhhuh <affirmative>. Um, and I did that. <laugh> <laugh>, I did not like, uh, I was not for me. Um, I was too honest and too, uh, 

Jessica Denson (16:07):
With the cars. 

Randall Rene (16:08):
Yeah. Everybody come in there 

Jessica Denson (16:10):
And I don't know if you want this one 

Randall Rene (16:11):
<laugh>. Yeah. I say, don't buy this one. It, it's really bad. Uh, 

Jessica Denson (16:15):
You're paid too much <laugh>. 

Randall Rene (16:16):
And people would, you know, 'cause they're so used to the way people were back then. Yeah. But, but it's that kind of thing. It's teaching people to be able to sell themselves and feel comfortable with talking to people again. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (16:26):
Yeah. So, um, what, are you making a lot of connections here at C Cly? Are you feeling good about where you're at with things?

Randall Rene (16:34):
Yeah. I've, um, have some amazing relationships here. Um, also have some former colleagues that, uh, that, you know, like Pete and Dan that, uh, used to work at Comcast back in the day. Uhhuh <affirmative>, we worked up in the Pacific Northwest. They're now in leadership positions here. And I think that's an important thing to remember in the telecom industry is, well, there's a ton of people that said, ah, this is gonna be my summer job, you know, I'm gonna go do something else. And then 30 years later, here they are, they're a VP or leading a, uh, leading something 

Jessica Denson (17:01):
And they know the deep 

Randall Rene (17:02):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (17:02):
Side of, deep part of, I mean, that history, there's, we have members of our team that have been in it like you, like you 30, 35 years. Yeah. And I'm amazed at the things that they tell me sometimes <laugh>, that I would never know. Yeah. It's a, it's a history that is so important 

Jessica Denson (17:17):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (17:17):
To what we do next. 'cause they have such an understanding of things that have gone wrong 

Jessica Denson (17:21):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Jessica Denson (17:22):
And things that went well. Things that were unexpected. Yeah. So I would imagine you do as well. So is it a little nerve wracking starting going out on your own? It's is a little scary. It's 

Randall Rene (17:31):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. It is. Um, you know, I think <laugh>, I was told, uh, look, Randall, it's just like having a, a child or something. There's no right time. Mm-hmm 

Jessica Denson (17:40):
<affirmative>.

Randall Rene (17:40):
You just need to do it. Right. If it feels right, if you feel prepared, do it. And it was in this, in this, in the economy that we're in and the world that we're in, um, that's terrifying. I mean, there's people being laid off. You think, okay, with AI and machine learning and all of these tools that are out there, why would you go and do something that is, uh, almost competing with AI tools that are empowering people? Uhhuh.

(18:03)
It's how you approach it. You know, if you're, you're, if you're purely doing the same kind of thing that an AI tool is gonna go and research in seconds and it's gonna take you months to do, you're going to go out of business, of course Uhhuh <affirmative>. But if you're coming in and you're focused on the people, um, which is where I really love to be, that is something that's always going to be needed and important. Um, it's not as terrifying as I thought it would be. It's actually been fairly liberating, um, in that I get, I'm a very creative person, so I get to work on what I want, when I want, and how I want <laugh>, you know? Yeah. That's cool. That kind of thing. So there's been some fun there. 

Jessica Denson (18:36):
Yeah. 

Randall Rene (18:36):
But, um, quickly realized the support that I had from people, um, people in companies that I've worked with a long while. And it reminded me of a quote that, you know, somebody says where it's like, you know, it's not who you know, it's who knows you. 

Jessica Denson (18:51):
Mm-hmm 

Randall Rene (18:51):
<affirmative>. You never know in this business who's watching you. Right. And I've had some amazing partnerships come out that I had no idea people were watching. And it's like, Randall, now that you're doing your your thing, I'd love to be able to talk with you more. So my advice for people in the industry is always, um, hey, this is an industry. You can absolutely achieve your goals if you're willing to go and work for it. Um, but lift your head up and build relationships with people. 

Jessica Denson (19:20):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And to me, I'm surprised at how small it kind of is. Yeah. Like, just, I was at lunch yesterday and um, I, I got in at the tail, barely got the last little bit, but I sat down at this table and one of the people at the table knew my former c the CEO at our place. So it was really just, it's a small industry. I'm surprised. So yeah. You always gotta know who's watching and be good. Yeah. But what you do. Yeah. 

Randall Rene (19:45):Yeah. You know, I think if you, if you're always doing the right thing for the right reason, every day 

Jessica Denson (19:50):
You're good, 

Randall Rene (19:50):
You're good. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. You know, um, and it varies for person to person, job to job, but just, just do your best, you know. Um, 

Jessica Denson (19:58):
So does Waypoint 33 have a website? 

Randall Rene (20:00):
Does wave waypoint 30 three.com? 

Jessica Denson (20:03):
I'll put that in a description of this podcast so people can find it easily. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, 

Randall Rene (20:07):
We're definitely looking to, we're looking to be a resource to people. Um, the, we want relationships and we're, we are fine being behind the scenes. We want to be the force multiplier that helps others be successful. Um, I dunno if you know this, have you or ever thought about this, have you ever met anybody that wants to do a bad job or wants to not like their job? 

Jessica Denson (20:29):
Oh, no. <laugh>, 

Randall Rene (20:29):
I've never, never in all my time. So what we want to do is, um, really focus on how we can just support people do a little bit better job or even a completely transform what they're doing into something amazing. 

Jessica Denson (20:42):
Well, that's wonderful. Randall. Randall, sorry, Randall. Randall. Renee. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate you coming up to me. I'm so glad we got to talk. Yes. This has been nice. Thank you. There's such a deep, cool history. We didn't even get into the fact that you were a reservation police officer for a while there. Right. 

Randall Rene (20:57):
A reserve police officer. Oh, reserve. Yeah. 14 years. You know, I did get to work on some, on a few reservations. Yes. And, uh, in New Mexico, one of my first gigs out of the military was a security guard on one of the nations. And I got to watch, um, a lot of films and work in the, in the museum for the nation. And I learned so much that spurred a lot of, uh, training and classes in Native American history and culture. Oh, that's very cool. Um, and so this, to this day, uh, I would love to be able to work with tribal nations and help them understand how they can turn maybe broadband into a commodity. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Such as dark fiber or create their own networks, et cetera, and take care of their own nations, um, and become their own providers. 

Jessica Denson (21:40):
Yeah. The fir, the first person I talk to at this conference was a gentleman who worked for flash fiber, I hope I have that right. Um, within, out of Alabama. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And he, his teams had gone and helped the Navajo 

Jessica Denson (21:52):
Nation Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (21:53):
Um, put up, put fiber in part of their, um, territory. 

Jessica Denson (21:57):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (21:57):
Um, or their reservation. And, um, he's like, it's been, um, not fiber, excuse me, electric. Okay. Because they're a co-op and they do electric and they do fiber. And so he's like, can you believe they're just now getting electric? 

Jessica Denson (22:10):
Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (22:11):
And, um, this is where we're gonna be if we don't do something about this for everybody, that everybody needs to be connected. Nobody should be getting connectivity 80 years later, like the Navajo Nation was getting electricity. So it was really interesting. 

Randall Rene (22:23):
You got to do last story for you Uhhuh I to do. Um, one of the last stories I wrote at Esri was on Reliance Geo, they're out of India. 

Jessica Denson (22:32):
Uhhuh, <affirmative>, 

Randall Rene (22:32):
Reliance Geo had a mission to bring broadband to the entire nation of India, or that's massive. 

Jessica Denson (22:40):
Yeah. 

Randall Rene (22:40):
Uh, reliance Geo has 485 million customers that is more than the US population. 

Jessica Denson (22:47):
That's insane. Wild. 

Randall Rene (22:48):
They told me about this small project. They said, we got a small project, we brought in 31 million buildings into our GIS and I said, hold on. Did you just say 31 million buildings? They said, well, yeah, that's not a lot. I'm like that it's massive. <laugh> <laugh>. But their whole mission was to bring that, that opportunity to people Uhhuh <affirmative>. And so I asked their CEO, um, I said, what was, um, the most memorable part of this project? He goes, I heard about, um, countless stories of these small villages that don't have a lot of opportunity or income, but now these people are able to be influencers and have their own channels. And there are some amazing like 

Jessica Denson (23:28):
Transformations. 

Randall Rene (23:28):
Oh my gosh. People being able to have fun, the youth of, of today in those areas, being able to connect to the world, to what's important in their lives, and also bring some revenue back to their community and, and transform people's lives. So, uh, I got goosebumps thinking about that one because it's, it's super cool. And that's the kind of thing that we can do here in the US with our nation, with our tribal nations and some of the rural, um, communities throughout our, our 

Jessica Denson (23:51):
Country. That's interesting. 31 million that, not that many <laugh>. It's 

Randall Rene (23:55):
Wild. I couldn't believe it. I mean they do Yeah. Nation that site. It's, it's hundreds of millions of buildings Of course. But they did service ability analysis on a floor by floor balcony to balcony level. So that like if you or I called in and said, I want this air fiber service, they knew exactly, yes, you can get it. And then it'd show up. Hook it up, it works.

Jessica Denson (24:15):
Wow. 

Randall Rene (24:15):
So that's, um, with my work with Cellular Expert and some others, that's exactly what we can do here in the us. Yeah. 

Jessica Denson (24:21):
Well, uh, it's my <laugh> Randall. 

Randall Rene (24:25):
I'll talk your off if you let me. So, 

Jessica Denson (24:26):
But I love it. It's fantastic. I really appreciate you coming up to me, Randall Renee, with way point 33. I'll include a link to the, um, to the company and the description of this website as well as any link, any information I have for you so people appreciate it, can get in contact with you. And I appreciate your time. 

Randall Rene (24:41):
Yeah, you as well. Thanks so much for having me. 

Jessica Denson (24:43):
Yeah, thank you. Still ahead this year we'll continue our coverage from CX Connections 2025 and talk with leadership from CX as well as other high profile speakers and those with broadband companies from across the country. Until then, I'm Jessica Denson and this is Connected Nation.