Okay, this should have been published a month ago. But I imagine you’ll forgive me for feeling like January just sort of slid past me, just like the past, oh, say, 10 months!
The fact is, winter is planning season at SonicNet. We’re planning new tower builds for the upcoming year by gathering data about where services are most needed, talking with community reps about gaps in coverage and whether existing services meet the needs of the residents.
Gaps in coverage and quality of service are key data sets for this past year, the year of COVID. Little did we know a year ago how upended our lives would be, and how much into overdrive we would need to fill those coverage gaps and increase bandwidth capacity for our customers. WFH became common (both the acronym and the action). A relatively non-standard way of learning online became standard very quickly. Schools, businesses, students, teachers and employees pivoted so quickly that I think we even amazed ourselves.
Was it a perfect pivot? No. Did we get better as the months went by? Yes. Do we ever want to do it again? Of course not! But we did learn some really important lessons: mainly that we can adjust and we can work together. Here’s an example:
We knew we needed a new tower on South Twin Lake in Conover/Phelps, Wisconsin. We’ve known this for years, and yet we had not found a location for a tower. But in summer 2020, conversations led to connecting us with a wonderful landowner who had just the right property in just the right location. Plans went smoothly. A grant became available for just the right amount to cover most of the expenses. The tower build went very smoothly.
Sometimes it goes just that easily. And then other times…not so much. We’re putting together a plan for 2021 that will hinge on some things working perfectly: the right location at the right price at the right time for a new operations center to provide scalability of our network, interested landowners for towers or access points, and community support to share with neighbors when new service is available.
At SonicNet, we’re a pretty optimistic bunch. We think 2021 is going to be an amazing year, and we can’t wait to get new service into your neighborhood. More details to come…
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