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Telecom veteran sees path to rural internet

The Franklin Press - 2/16/2018

Tim Will's first interaction with telecommunications networks happened while serving his country in the military. Will received a top-secret assignment to work on building a network that would allow nuclear missile depots to be connected and share information.

That was in 1972.

Over the past 46 years, Will has seen telecommunications from every angle. From working as a systems analyst for what at the time was the world's largest telecom company, to trying to teach students in a high school class that didn't have internet access.

Now, Will and his business associates at Catalpa Partners are working to bring "social broadband" to the mountains of Western North Carolina. Will recently published a paper in Broadband Communities Magazine outlining many of the problems that rural areas, including Macon County, are facing while trying to get underserved populations the broadband access they need.

"The thought that people in small rural communities can get together and entice telecom companies to build infrastructure and bring broadband to them is not going to work," Will said. "If that model were profitable, someone would already be doing it. In order to move the needle on connectivity we have to think about how we can get people connected to the infrastructure that already exists."

Life in the fast lane

After serving in the military, Will went to work for Nynex ? a company that fell under