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Industry Events | Career Transition | BDC Filing Discussion
64 Plays2 months ago
In Episode 4 of Beyond the Bandwidth, hosts Spencer Pous and Liz Creekmore kick off conference season with a preview of upcoming industry events and a look at what ISPs can gain from attending.
The episode opens with a discussion about ISP America in Atlanta, where Spencer is already on-site ahead of the event, and a recap of FISPA Live. The hosts explore the value of industry gatherings for strengthening relationships, discovering new vendors, and staying current on emerging technologies — including AI-driven tools designed to optimize and manage modern networks. They also preview the upcoming TCEI Expo and what makes it one of the largest telecom equipment showcases in the country.
Spencer shares a major personal update, announcing his transition into a new role as Director of Technical Operations at Nexstream. He discusses what the move means for his career and how he’ll be focusing on network deployment, system integrations, and operational strategy.
The episode also features a deep dive into Broadband Data Collection (BDC) filings with Cameron Crum of Regulatory Solutions. Cameron explains the shift from Form 477 to BDC, common compliance challenges, FCC enforcement risks, and how accurate coverage data can support better network planning, competitive analysis, and smarter growth decisions.
From conference season insights and leadership transitions to regulatory compliance, Episode 4 provides practical perspective for ISPs navigating growth and change in today’s broadband landscape.
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, everyone. I'm Liz Creekmore and I have Spencer Pose. And thank you for joining us again for another episode of Beyond the Bandwidth. Spencer, it's good to see you.
00:00:12
Speaker
um i guess... Good seeing you, Liz. Tomorrow as well. Yeah, it's always good to catch up with you and and see what's going on. um But tomorrow, but yeah, I guess we're... Well, you're actually there already.
ISP America Trade Show Update
00:00:27
Speaker
You're in Atlanta. Yeah.
00:00:29
Speaker
Yes, so I'm actually at the Waverly Renaissance as we speak. Okay. I was gonna say, every time I dial in with you, I think I see a different background.
00:00:40
Speaker
So it's not a cruise ship. Always moving somewhere. Right. Yeah. Um, it's exciting. Yeah. So I guess, uh, um, yeah, it's ISP America trade show season in general right now, but, um, ISP America starts next week. I myself fly in tomorrow.
00:01:02
Speaker
Um, you're running into a lot of people. Is it starting to get crowded already? No, I haven't actually seen anybody yet. Um, I came in a little bit early cause I have family here in Atlanta. So I came in to to visit with family. um And so I have seen a few people are flying in based on Facebook posts already. So by this evening, there'll be a little party going on.
00:01:30
Speaker
Right. little Yeah, no, definitely. forty Yeah. No, I like, ah I obviously, you know, I like reconnecting with, um you know, it almost becomes like a ah family reunion, reconnecting with a lot of fresh new faces and certainly um a lot of opportunities to socialize after the general sessions.
Experiences at FISPA Live
00:01:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Speaking of socializing, i just came back a couple weeks ago from FISPA Live. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's always a fun party.
00:02:06
Speaker
lots of Lots of small room training and and big discussions from a real think tank and a bigger party at night.
00:02:19
Speaker
So we always love going to FISPA Live. And in fact, if if you want, we can cut to some video of FISPA Live. Yeah, I'd love to see it.
Technological Diversity at FISPA
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, that was awesome. um You know, I myself have, ah I've never attended a FISPA show. um Certainly my world is, is, is, is wireless. um But yeah um would you encourage, I mean, do you think it's, is it um technology diverse or would you encourage someone? It is pretty technology diverse. I mean, Toronto, Toronto,
00:04:03
Speaker
is there every year um and is a vendor a lot. It's not, there's obviously an emphasis on fiber, but it's not a fiber only group solution group.
00:04:18
Speaker
um You know, the the people in that room use the best tool for the job, just like WSPA members do. Yeah, that's pretty wise. um So ah yeah, heading into ISP America, are there any particular sessions um that you're looking forward to?
00:04:37
Speaker
or anything that you're anticipating that might be, you know, ah something for people to keep it and i are their eyes open? Yeah, well, I would say take an eye out at some of the AI solutions. Layer 9, QC, they all do different things, but they'll all optimize your network really well. Um, I'm speaking in a disaster recovery preparedness session, Wednesday morning. Uh, so it's always fun to watch me speak. And then every year we're bringing in new
Upcoming TCEI Texas Show
00:05:16
Speaker
vendors. So think a lot of, a lot of the benefit is socializing with the vendors and socializing with your peers.
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, I know that was something that i that was noticeable for me when I went to the last Wispapalooza show in Vegas. Just the the number of of vendors increased a lot and a very diverse group.
00:05:41
Speaker
um So it's good to go just to see you know to keep up with all the different technology that we have out there. Yeah. yeah um And then um after after ah ISP America, we're both going to TCEI Texas. So we've got that.
00:06:02
Speaker
this I believe it's both of ours first year going to that show, yeah which is pretty exciting. I hear that it is... ah a very valuable show. I mean, it's supposedly the biggest telecom exhibit hall you can get to in the country.
00:06:23
Speaker
They have um like the exhibit space at this, at this fairgrounds. And then they overflow exhibit space into the actual, uh,
00:06:39
Speaker
ah dirt floor arena. Yeah, that's what I've heard. They actually have veneer and ditch witch out there actually digging in the ground and demonstrating the products as well as you know a lot of the wireless vendors. I mean, I think there's upwards of a thousand vendors.
00:07:03
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, that's that's a lot. It's very different than your WISPA, Palooza, or ISP America because there aren't really training sessions and all of that. It is a big emphasis on you know vendor interaction. it's It's like your home show. you know When your county does a home show for for the weekend and it's just a giant exhibit hall full of everything you need for your home.
00:07:33
Speaker
Mm hmm. OK, got it. It'll be fun. You'll definitely want to check out our well, that it's at the end of March, so it's not going to be in our March episode. It'll probably be in the April episode. But check out in a couple of episodes and we'll be doing some live coverage straight from Belton, Texas.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, no, i'm I'm definitely looking forward to that. um And then I think I want to say, I i saw it when I saw, i was just going through like the um the attendee list for ISP America, I noticed a little something different.
Spencer's New Position Announcement
00:08:10
Speaker
with your profile. I mean, obviously you're you've been a board member for for a very long time and and you still are. um But I noticed ah the company name has has changed from Blue Broadband um to a new company. So maybe, I don't know, is there something that you want to share with us or?
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah sometime in December, I started the exit from from my IT company and my ISP in Florida. And I have joined an ISP in Texas, Next Stream, as their director of technical operations.
00:08:51
Speaker
Um, so I'm leading their tech ops, working on network deployment, uh, integrations, our overall policies as far as, you know, how the CSRs operate, how the NOC operates, um,
00:09:09
Speaker
so very excited to have joined the team there uh patrick and hillary are good friends of mine um you know we we meet and and uh time every isp show whether it's fispo wisp fiber connect um and so you know we all saw that this was a good fit and um I made the necessary changes to make it happen.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds exciting. I've been there since end of January. So we're coming up on a month. Yeah, well, that's exciting. And um they're very lucky to have you as well. Yeah, anything else that we that's kind of I'm trying to think um at the forefront of of the news um on the the bead side of things?
Debate on BEED Fund Utilization
00:10:03
Speaker
So, yeah, there's, you know, I keep reading about what is the NTIA going to do with the $21 billion in BEED non-deployment savings? So there's $21 billion, not million, billion dollars that is left over from the bargain, ah rat you know, the bargain round of BEED.
00:10:33
Speaker
And so the big question is, what do you do with it? You know, a lot of states wanted to go to education and workforce, forced employment. Right. um I read just this week.
00:10:48
Speaker
Vernon Berg Group, which we work we've we WISPA has done a study with and has worked closely with um kind of showing state broadband offices what the BED money can do.
00:11:03
Speaker
um They're saying that the NTIA needs to put put aside $7.6 billion dollars rainy fund rainy day fund because they don't think that what has been applied for is gonna make it to the finish line.
00:11:21
Speaker
And the Vrnberg group is saying that $7.6 billion dollars is has not been allocated that will end up being allocated based on deployment shortfalls, expense equipment expense going up, cost of employment going up.
00:11:43
Speaker
um whatever whatever it may be, they're saying that if we hand the non-deployment money out all to education and workforce deployment and development and everything else, that we are going to not finish the job with BEED.
00:12:03
Speaker
So that' that's very interesting. The states were asked in a have been asked to do kind like ah public comments on what they feel like the money should be going towards.
00:12:18
Speaker
Um, so this is all to be determined still. Right. And I think, um, I, you, you, yeah you and I were chatting about this earlier. I think that there isn't, uh, necessarily, uh, a deadline posted for the decision. So everything's kind of. Yeah. So everything I've seen, there's not really a deadline. Um,
00:12:43
Speaker
You know, a big, i think a big aspect on the rainy day fund is will Starlink actually commit to the locations that they're asking exemptions for, or as we discussed in our last episode, are they just going to pull the plug on all of their,
00:13:02
Speaker
ah awards and say, no, we're done, which then legally does Amazon have an opportunity to come in and take those slots?
Broadband Deployment Challenges
00:13:13
Speaker
Or is that more Americans that just will not get get ah internet? And then the i think the other concern is that although all the states asked RDOF participants, are you planning on defaulting? and tried to add those addresses on the map as providers participated, there's still a concern of RDOF providers defaulting in their areas before BEAT is complete, which would then leave those addresses that were previously marked as served based on previous awards unserved.
00:14:01
Speaker
So there's still still quite a bit of unknown in the bead camp. There's still a handful of states, Florida included, that have not complete their last stage to receive the money.
00:14:18
Speaker
So time will tell. We'll be following it and you know giving updates as we know.
Introduction to Cameron Crum
00:14:26
Speaker
um well and Another thing that we've been following lately and we had the opportunity to speak with one of the industry experts is just the ah the the BDC filings. We had an opportunity to chat with Cameron Crum at Regulatory Solutions. But Spencer, we've known him for for years and he hasn't always been with regular Regulatory Solutions.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yes. But he's certain, yeah. Yeah, um you know, I met Cameron back when I first started in the industry when he ran Wismat and I actually used the platform. um And then he ended up offloaded to Sonar when they bought it.
00:15:09
Speaker
And then he worked at Ubiquiti for a little bit. And then he started his own project, Regulatory Solutions. yeah um And I believe in in the mix there, he worked for VISP for a little bit as well. So he's bounced around the industry a bunch. But one thing that has been in common through all of his bounces is that he's always filed FCC 477s and BDC filings for individuals in our industry.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He's ah he's a great resource um to have for that. So yeah, we had an opportunity to to chat with him and um yeah, maybe we can share that information with you. Yeah, let's let's cut over to Cameron.
00:15:56
Speaker
Hi everyone, um we're back. And today we have Cameron Crum from regulatory Regulatory Solutions here to discuss with us the BDC filings. Cameron, thanks for coming on our show.
00:16:10
Speaker
course. Yeah, it's good to be here, guys. Yeah. So I think for a while, maybe about 10 years, you've been doing the Form 477 filings. Can you tell us about, you know, kind of how you got into all of this and how it grew into what it is today? Sure,
Formation of Regulatory Solutions
00:16:27
Speaker
yeah. So as you know, ah or may or may not know, i used to have a a product called Wismon, which was kind of a a billing system, OSS system, I guess they're calling them these days. So similar to- Bill, my favorite billing system. to gas Spencer, I know you, we started with you long time ago, but yeah, but but anyway, part of that program, we we had a lot of ah pretty cool mapping features and things like that in there. And because the 477 stuff required people to produce, you know, some some basic kind of maps or, you know, coverage areas, I guess, you know, they were they were pretty, pretty loose back then with the you know, what they what they required. But We could do that straight from the program since we had everybody's data. And then we used to we used to offer that as part of the service of the program is so just go ahead and file for people.
00:17:19
Speaker
So I sold that product to Sonar back in 2017. And um a lot of my customers came back and said, hey, can can you just keep doing this for us? Can you just keep filing? So so I did. and then when BDC rolled around, um you know, I.
00:17:36
Speaker
It was a lot more complex, of course, the requirements for BDC. And I'd been working with Brian Webster on some other you know kind of external projects for a while. And I knew he was doing some 477 work as well. And so we just teamed up. i i called him and I said, hey, instead of you know fighting for customers on this, why don't we team up and we'll create you know an ah RF propagation program that can really do all this analysis. And and we'll just start a little company and and get this get this done for people. So Brian and I ah started Regulatory Solutions.
00:18:12
Speaker
And then I brought in Robert Olive, who was my partner you know from the Wismondes. And you know he he takes care of a lot of the kind of back-end business side stuff for us. and Although he's been getting much more involved on the technical side recently. So so it's a good team and and we've expanded. We've got a a few contractors that work with us. We've got an admin person now. And so so it's ah is a growing it's a growing enterprise.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, maybe you can touch on, so what are some of the complexities that that people are going to come across that maybe your software
Complexities of BDC Filings
00:18:49
Speaker
addresses? Yeah, so you know previously 477, you kind of just created these coverage you know kind of areas um and and you really didn't have to get detailed. you know The BDC, of course, requires you know every address, which you know you get the broadband fabric from you know CostQuest, of course, for your area. And then you have to tell them every single address that you can possibly cover and then what speeds you can cover that, right? So the maximum speed you can deliver there. And that's just not something that I think a lot of people um know how to do or have done before in their businesses. You know, as as as entrepreneurial as this industry is, you know, a lot of guys who run these businesses don't have a lot of the, you know, I guess the engineering expertise to be able to to get that information. Right. And so we wanted to make it easy for people to come in, put their network data in,
00:19:46
Speaker
And then we what we do is we look at every every access point to see you know if it will cover a given point, every address on the map. And then we know based on like either the MCS rates or we allow people to give us yeah know more real world information because let's face it, the MCS rates aren't always you know right from the manufacturers. um you know There's lots of environmental factors. I mean, they they do a pretty good job, but but a lot of times you know there's real world situations that that people know, you know, so that they can put in information in our system like, um you know, what what the maximum speed they can deliver at a given threshold is. Right. So I know i can deliver, you know, 50 by 10 if I get make 75, for instance. Right. So so knowing that and allowing people to put in
00:20:37
Speaker
that kind of data, you know, once we determine a signal strength, you know, from the the the data they put in for their access points, we can then determine a ah maximum speed. And so we try to automate as much of that as possible. Obviously, everybody has to get that data into us. But um those those are the things that are hard to do, i think, for the average you know person who's not really used to using an RF propagation program or Maybe have never done one. Right. I mean, I would say probably ah more than 60 percent of our customers probably never put their network into an ah RF propagation program. So they had really no idea, you know, of what what they were really covering. You know, a lot of it is just, hey, let's let's put another tower up because we have people over here. Right. And so um ah we've surprised a lot of people with how many points they can actually cover, which is which is pretty interesting. um We've surprised people with you know telling them which AP is actually the best, you know, when they they looked at their results because they can go in and review any any point they want. That's you know one of the benefits of our
00:21:49
Speaker
Software is that we give it to them as an ah RF tool to use for the rest of the year once they file with us. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. So they can they can go in and they can add to their network. They can put in kind of what if scenarios. We have proposed APs where they can go yeah look to see if a given area can be covered with a new AP and how many addresses and things like that. yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
So it just, you know, back to your question originally, it's just a lot more complex, right? the The data that you have to provide to the FCC, and we try to make that easy for people.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, and um I guess that brings me to another question.
Defending BDC Filing Challenges
00:22:30
Speaker
but How does your system check for inaccuracies? Yeah. Well, what kind of inaccuracy? I mean um more i think more so ah like fs like when the FCC says that's not possible or um you know like FCC issues.
00:22:49
Speaker
so So if there's challenges for instance? Challenges, so yeah. Yeah, and that's something we do is we defend our challenges. So we were yeah when we started, there was this PE requirement, right? Everything had to be PE certified. And of course, that got waived and then it got waived again. and then now they've just removed it. We still we still PE certify everything, which is really good guy because the FCC puts some weight behind that. and And our engineer is very well known, or actually both of our engineers that we use our PEs are very well known at the FCC. But ah we also do make it easier to defend your challenges because the FCC has an API built into their filing system. and Initially, you know the first round was really terrible for challenges. um Some states challenged every location. and we were Because we built into their API, we were able to successfully defend
00:23:44
Speaker
I remember in Virginia, we had one customer in particular had 25,000 challenges. And there's no way because I think they had like a couple of weeks, if I remember right, to respond to all of those. And there's just no way. There's no way you'd be able to do that manually. Right. hmm.
00:24:01
Speaker
ah so So we took the um yeah the the API and we built a program around that. And then what we do is we inundate them with data. so So we show all the ah the profiles that we run, yeah know the path profiles, all the all the calculations. So when we send data back, you know, they're getting, so if you had nine APs or something that would potentially cover, know, point, which I know sounds like a lot, but believe it or not, that happens quite often. We would send all nine profiles back with all the data. So, so for 25,000 challenges, we sent, you know, somewhere close to, I think it was six or 700,000 pages of documentation back.
00:24:42
Speaker
to them through their API. So and then Virginia gave They gave up. Because they then have to go and review that and and either say yes or no. And they there's no way they can review that data. So they gave up.
00:24:56
Speaker
And so now today, do you and when someone files with a PE, are they less scrutinized than an ISP that's self-filing?
00:25:09
Speaker
you You know, I can't ah can't say that definitively, although we have had conversations. can say there was a a panel that I was on with the FCC last year and with some other members from WSPA where we talked with the you know the BDC guys at at the FCC. And, you know, everybody else on the panel had filed, you know, whatever it was at that point, seven times, I think. And, you know, I said, you know, I said, well, these guys have done seven total. I've i've done seven today, right? seventy yeah five yeah so So, you know, we've done thousands and thousands of these. So, um in fact, this year, ah Brian was telling me, i don't i don't really answer the phones or anything over here. So, but yeah brian Brian was telling me that he got a call directly from the FCC. Instead of contacting our customers now, they just call us and say, hey, can you
00:26:05
Speaker
Can you adjust this or can you do this? So that's a nice benefit. I mean, they still are notifying the customers, of course, but, but I think they do give a little more weight when it is, you know, PE e certified. We don't, we don't see the level of scrutiny. Now, some of the errors are, i think are automated there. You know, they, they have a program that probably looks for things like discrepancies between number of subscribers, or if your network grew a bunch or it shrank a bunch. Yeah, I know it yeah when I've self-filed, I've gotten those errors where it's like, you're covering, you know, you have 10% subscribers of your coverage area.
00:26:42
Speaker
Right. Please explain why. or between last filing and this filing, your network expanded less than 1%. Please explain why. Right. ums
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah, and that's just in the system. And that was some of the stuff we were talking to them about on the call that we had last year with them. You know, when I was on this WISPA panel, um you know, they really wanted to know how the the panel was really asking about how well their software was performing, if there were issues we were having, if there were things that could be improved. And, you know, I think we've probably filed more than anybody else in the country. And so we had some pretty good feedback. And and that was one of them. We're like, look, these are wireless networks. You know, they they cover a big area, but not necessarily well enough to
00:27:33
Speaker
you know, provide service to everybody. So yeah you're going to run into these cases where, yeah, okay, I, i so you know, there are this many ah locations that I can cover, but, you know, I do i either I don't have the marketing or um You know, I don't have the capacity. There's there's a lot of reasons, right? Yeah, yeah yeah those spenc it's hard to do marketing when you're covering one house in every street in so in like 10 mile radius. That's right. um You can't do, ah you know, address level USPS marketing. um it becomes a challenge. And they don't take into account you competition, right? and And that's one of the things that we would respond with. So one of the other things that we built into the program was a way to look at the data from the previous filings. So we actually consume all that data. Every time they publish it, we consume it all. And then we build a whole bunch of stats around that data. And so for any given customer,
00:28:37
Speaker
um when they get something like that, we can go in and say, okay, well, of these locations, here's how many are served by fiber, here's how many are served by cable, here's how many are served by other wireless providers, here's how many are serviced by you know Starlink or whatever. So, you know because we have this percentage doesn't mean that, you know we're gonna have that many customers in here. There's a lot of competition. Some of it is, you know, obviously like fiber or cable. It's hard to compete as a wireless guy, you know, if they have a good network.
00:29:08
Speaker
um it is You know, you're just not gonna get the throughput, right? and And that's what people are buying, so. Yeah. And ah I mean, assuming so once someone submits their BDC filing, may i assume that it's now public
Penalties for Inaccurate BDC Filings
00:29:21
Speaker
information? um So some of it can be kept private. There's some checkboxes in there. So you're like your subscriber base, you know. Now, of course, when you say you can cover something at at a given speed, that goes into the broadband map. Mm Now that doesn't mean you do cover them, but yes, there you can request to keep your, for instance, your subscription data private.
00:29:46
Speaker
um I don't know that that really helps you know people too much because they're claiming they can service an address. You know you you kind of have to anticipate that that they do you know if they're if they're telling the truth. know Now, I mean, as far as accuracy, know, kind of back to what you were saying earlier, Liz, the accuracy, you know, is in filing from from other people. I can't vouch for, um you know, that obviously people fudge numbers. I mean, I think right um if I remember it was Ryan Gruhl who, who ah got a cable company up in Ohio scrutinized pretty well. And they, yeah I think they ended up getting fined because they were. oh okay. Yeah. That was like, yeah. Yeah, that was going to be another question of mine. um yeah What are the fines if you don't submit entirely and if you submit inaccurate data, what's the fine structure look like? Well, as far as inaccurate, I mean, they kind of have to prove that or somebody has to challenge it, right? And then you can either give up the challenges or or you can fight it.
00:30:54
Speaker
So, I think you know that one was pretty big because they really kind of went overboard, I think, on what they said they could cover and their network didn't extend into some of those areas. The other fines that we've seen, some of them have been for non-filing. Typically, they will work with you on that. because They give a lot of notices, right? A lot. I mean, and they will even try to call you and stuff like that before they you start issuing fines.
00:31:20
Speaker
So um it's pretty rare. The ones that have gotten fines for not filing, um I think the ones that worked with us, we they were able to work work that out as long as they got their back filings in and we were able to help. So we had a couple of customers who filed a few times and then they were just like, i'm i'm not doing this anymore. you know i don't want to pay for it. I don't want to have to deal with it. and and those you know they came back and we were able to get them caught up. And so the fines went away. There were some And actually they were all in Texas and they, and they all had one thing in common and that was, um, they,
00:32:01
Speaker
they all had license links. So, you know, Liz, this is your wheelhouse, right? They all had licensed microwave links. And I think a part of that, you know, when you get that license, part of that license is I'm going to comply with all the FCC rules and regulations, right? They have to sign something that says that. And so when they didn't file their BDC, they were in violation of that other license as well. And I think that's what made these guys get fined and the fines stuck. And they were high. I mean, I think one, ah they were all like $35,000. And then, you know, if they didn't get their stuff corrected in a certain amount of time, it was going to be a daily amount added onto that. So, oh, wow. Yeah. So, so if you, if you got a licensed link, you know, maybe, you know, Liz, you got to tell all your customers, make sure you get your BBC stuff in. Right. Right. Because, because they, I think they look at that with a,
00:32:59
Speaker
you know, a much higher level of scrutiny, you know, to say, hey, you know, if you're, you've got licensed links, we know you're running networks, you know, you're not complying with the rest of our regulations. So um now once someone engages your firm, um what's the timeframe in terms of, ah you know, gathering their information and um from start to finish and submitting the the filing for
BDC Filing Process and Timeline
00:33:25
Speaker
them? Yeah, so that's that's completely up to the customer, right? So if they have their data ready, i mean, literally, if they have it done that day, we can typically turn it around. If it's a brand new customer, it might take a couple days. you know We have to get some stuff set up and then obviously running that many points through our system can take a little time.
00:33:46
Speaker
but But yeah, we have templates that people can download for the access points and we have to get their subscribers, of course. you know If they have fiber or cable, we allow them to upload you know polygons or they can go on our map and draw polygons or they can draw fiber routes on our map and then we we create a buffer around those, things like that. So it's really ah kind of up to the end user.
00:34:11
Speaker
you know, if they if they're data if they have that data and and that's another thing i will I will say is that a lot of people don't have that data, which is yeah quite surprising to me. I mean, i came from the cellular world where, you know, you had to do a design, everything was documented, you know you verified design. you you know ah in the In the WISP world, it's not so rigid. Of course, people yeah don't know you even know where their towers are sometimes, which is crazy to me. But um we've helped a lot of people get their network data together, which is good. you know Even if you're just using it as kind of a network documentation, it it probably has some benefit, right?
00:34:51
Speaker
yeah but But yeah, it really is kind of dependent on the end user. um It can be anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. and And then, of course, you know, people wait to the last minute and then they're in a rush. So, you know, we encourage everybody, if you're going to use it, our system or anybody's system, really get your stuff in so that they can help you with that.
00:35:13
Speaker
And then also, I mean, so BEAD has really affected everything that we we do in our industry. um you know once then you know, once the BEAD funding is released and we've kind of gone through that, um do you say how do you see um this impacting the BDC filing?
Future of BDC Filing Requirements
00:35:32
Speaker
Do you think that will still be required to, you know, five years from now, still be required to submit these filings?
00:35:38
Speaker
Well, right now it's, it's law, right? It's, it's legislated and the, you know, the rule is part of that. The FCC has to collect this data. So unless the legislation changes again, which, you know, it's certainly possible.
00:35:54
Speaker
I don't think we're going to see this go away. Okay. oh and And government loves to spend money. Right. i mean, how many times have we seen these auctions come up, you know, RDOF, CAF, CAF2, right? Whatever you want. yeah Everybody thought those were going to be the last ones. And then now there's b and, um You know, it just depends, you know, new administrations, new Congresses, you know, they, they'd like to give out money. So you never know what's coming down the pipe. But, uh, but for now I think it's here to stay. And, um, I don't, I don't know what their enforcement level will continue to be, you know, um but I'd hate to be the guy that has to find out.
00:36:37
Speaker
So, you know, if you don't, if you decide you're you're done with it, you know, you don't want to spend the money or you don't, you know, I totally get
BDC Filings for Marketing and Sales
00:36:45
Speaker
that. I really understand. It's not, it's not super cheap to do this.
00:36:50
Speaker
So, ah you know, it is, it is a burden, I think, on people. And i I do understand that we try to, you know, we try to help people out where we can, you know, we, we do work with people sometimes if they're really,
00:37:04
Speaker
you know struggling or they they just don't have a very big network and things like that. So, yeah you know we're not we're not a hard, rigid, you know yeah, either do it or see you later kind of company. so I know for me, when I started doing BDC, I mean, at first I thought it was a super burden, but then once I started doing it, it opened my eyes to how we can manipulate the data for sales, for marketing, for automation.
00:37:31
Speaker
um do you know Are you seeing other customers that are using this to actually ah increase their sales? Are people using the BDC as a positive as well?
00:37:46
Speaker
I think so. you know i I told you earlier that you know we surprised quite a few of our customers with how many locations they could actually service. And i i know we've had a couple of guys that have compared our data with several of the other tools out there and with real world, you know, data from their radios and things and have said, yeah, it's, it's very, very close, you know, to what we're seeing real world. So, we have quite a few customers who use it as a, you know kind of qualification tool.
00:38:17
Speaker
Um, now, as far as the BDC data goes, you do have to be careful. I will caution you on that. Um, obviously you can look at it for internal purposes and, and kind of make decisions, you know, based on,
00:38:30
Speaker
on that, you cannot use your CostQuest license, the the free one to market.
Legal Restrictions on BDC Data Usage
00:38:36
Speaker
And so yeah I would i would you know caution people. it It is very valuable data, right? And it's great. It's it's a great marketing tool if you know that was available for you. But ah you cannot do that you know based on the license. So now you can buy an upgraded license and then be able to use that data. Okay.
00:39:00
Speaker
but but you know But for internal things, I would say, hey, you know that's it's you know if you if you're just using it to say, wow, okay, look, I can cover over here. Maybe I better increase my marketing activities or I'm i'm a little light in this area. you know There's a lot of addresses up here that i that I'd like to cover. um I think that's perfectly acceptable. you just can't You just can't use the address data to go you know send out flyers or mailers or you know door knockers or whatever, right?
00:39:32
Speaker
Yeah. to just To specific addresses. So they they do keep that you know pretty close. Awesome. So and and, you know, to to further expand on that, Spencer, there we do, you know, you can consume the data like we do. um You know, we we sell that data to people if they want it, you know, or we can, you know, work with you on on using it for other purposes. But the broadband data from the broadband map is is pretty cool. And when you start looking at it and actually um you're looking at it, you know, statistically and and seeing what's out there, what's in your area, who's covering what um it it can help you to really make some good decisions on like where you want to go or where you don't want to go. I mean, if you've got a few neighborhoods, you're like, well, I could cover those. But look, there's two other fiber providers in there. I mean, what's my right. you know, what's my ah ROI on that? Am I ever ever going to get any customers in there at all? Maybe I just ought to leave that one alone and target somewhere else. Right.
00:40:37
Speaker
So looking at that competitive data can really, I think, provide an advantage to, and, you know, that, that data is available. I'm not going to say we're the only ones that can do that. You know, we, we do make some, you know, do some pretty good analysis on it, but um you know, obviously you can download that from the broadband map and do whatever you want with it yourself as well. Have you seen um in some cases where someone's filed, but they weren't included on the next version of the BDC map?
00:41:09
Speaker
i've I've heard a few complaints about that. um And I think they just need to, if people have that, they'd probably just need to talk with the FCC. I don't think they're going to go back and update, you know so if they, if for some reason you got left off,
00:41:21
Speaker
um or you know your data is old or you know new stuff that you filed is not in there, i would i would certainly reach out and and make them aware of it.
00:41:34
Speaker
I don't think they're going to go back and republish it, but they probably will get it into the next one for The next one. Yeah. Well, great. Well, thank you, Cameron, for all this great information.
00:41:45
Speaker
think very helpful for our users for our viewers. It was pleasure to to be here and talk to you guys about it. Yeah. So are we going to see you in Atlanta in a couple of weeks? You will. Yes. i'm I'm going. I think it's Brian and I are going to the show. So. oh nice All right.
00:42:02
Speaker
Well, I'm looking forward to it guys. Yeah. All right. Well, right thank you, Cameron. course.
00:42:13
Speaker
ah Okay. I'll get some for my laptop. Awesome. Well, that, um, that wraps up our episode. Uh, thank you for joining us. And, and as always, um, if you're interested on being a guest on our show, or if you have any topics that you'd you would like for us to investigate and cover, um, feel free to reach out.
00:42:37
Speaker
um And if you like our show, like. and more subscribe Like We'll see you at the next one. Thanks. Thanks for watching. See y'all later. Bye.