Jerry Howe is having too much fun running a
small telephone company in Cape Girardeau, Mo., to worry much about the effect
of regulatory rulings in Washington.
"My belief is, there is nothing stopping this stuff," Howe said, referring to the transformation of telephone service by technology, including phones that send calls over the Internet.
Howe, a former executive with SBC Communications Inc., Brooks Fiber Properties Inc. and NuVox Communications Inc., led a group of investors that three years ago bought a small long-distance company based in Cape Girardeau.
They renamed it Big River Telephone Co., adding local calling and Internet service.
Big River, which has since bought a small Internet service provider, has about 10,000 customers and a staff of 50 people, most of them in Cape Girardeau.
For three years, the company has leased telephone lines and other network elements from SBC. Big River packages local service with long-distance and sells them to rural customers in southeast Missouri, from the fringes of the St. Louis area to the Bootheel. Big River markets phone service in parts of Southern Illinois and western Kentucky.
A recent Federal Communications Commission ruling will phase out SBC's requirements to sell some network elements to competitors at big discounts. The changes could make it more expensive for Big River to operate, but Howe is exploring other ways to keep his customers connected.
"We're always looking at where our customers are and the cheapest way to get there," he said.
Big River is in discussions with cable companies, municipal utilities and other firms about using their lines. Howe has considered putting wireless transmitters atop telephone poles or building a network in areas where customers are clustered.
Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, said the new FCC rules could strangle competition. Also, he's skeptical of the willingness of cable companies to strike bargains with the competitive phone companies, once they no longer have the option of buying discounted network elements from companies like SBC.
Howe believes the telephone companies have much to lose if they decide not to lease network elements to competitors. With revenue from traditional services declining, those companies need to rent their excess capacity.
Eager for change
As a small company operating in a mostly rural area, Big River can pay attention to customers whose communications needs often differ from those in a metropolitan area, Howe said.
Toll charges for calls outside a customer's area are a particular sore spot in rural areas, where local-calling scopes can be tiny.
"We know that people in Perryville deal with people in Cape Girardeau," he said. "We make things easier by setting up the calling scope to include those two cities."
The increasing use of fiber optics in phone systems has boosted capacity and cut maintenance costs, he said. But the changes haven't been reflected in rates or in calling scopes, Howe said.
The company is putting its equipment in SBC switching centers that will link to Big River's servers. It will offer customers the services of voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, packaged with digital subscriber lines.
Howe said rural customers are as eager as city dwellers to reap the benefits of new technology and competition. Some rural businesses are installing Internet protocol systems inside their buildings, and most residential users are aware of IP technology.
"We don't see any confusion," he said. "What we do see is anticipation."
Frank Kinder, president and general manager of Red Letter Communications Inc. in Cape Girardeau, said he switched the advertising agency's business to Big River a couple of years ago. He appreciated dealing with a local company where "human beings answer the phone."
The company gave him the cell-phone number of its president, Kevin Cantwell, soon after signing up, and Kinder knows most of Big River's technicians by name.
Tom Wolfe, city administrator of Cottleville, said the St. Charles County town has saved 45 percent on its phone bills since switching to Big River from SBC. Customer service has been excellent, he said.
New features
Big River is developing features to meet customer expectations. The company has developed voice-mail and conferencing features with a small corps of telecommunications engineers and computer scientists.
An enhanced voice-mail service in development would allow a customer to manage incoming calls without peering at the caller-identification display.
The caller would hear only the ringing tone. A server at Big River's office would read the caller ID information for a customer. The customer could choose to answer the call, send a recorded message asking the caller to leave voice mail or record a custom message that would be played to the caller, who would not know the recipient had picked up the phone.
"This is something I want on my phone," said Howe, who commutes from his home in Des Peres to Big River's headquarters in Cape Girardeau. The company has a small office in west St. Louis County that he and other managers use, too.
Big River has developed a conferencing program that allows customers to set up and run telephone conference calls from their desktops, without using an operator. The technology allows everyone to see who's on the call, be aware of people who drop off or join the call in progress and keep unwanted callers from eavesdropping.
Big River offers the program to its customers and plans to sell it under a venture with an English switch manufacturer.
"We know the network's underlying elements," Howe said. "Now, with Internet protocol, we can cost-effectively come up with all kinds of features. We want to show the marketplace something better."
Big River Telephone Co.
Chief executive: Jerry Howe
Business: Local, long-distance and Internet service for customers in southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and western Kentucky
Employees: 50
Customers: 10,000
Headquarters: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Reporter Jerri Stroud
E-mail: jerristroud@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8384
"My belief is, there is nothing stopping this stuff," Howe said, referring to the transformation of telephone service by technology, including phones that send calls over the Internet.
Howe, a former executive with SBC Communications Inc., Brooks Fiber Properties Inc. and NuVox Communications Inc., led a group of investors that three years ago bought a small long-distance company based in Cape Girardeau.
They renamed it Big River Telephone Co., adding local calling and Internet service.
Big River, which has since bought a small Internet service provider, has about 10,000 customers and a staff of 50 people, most of them in Cape Girardeau.
For three years, the company has leased telephone lines and other network elements from SBC. Big River packages local service with long-distance and sells them to rural customers in southeast Missouri, from the fringes of the St. Louis area to the Bootheel. Big River markets phone service in parts of Southern Illinois and western Kentucky.
A recent Federal Communications Commission ruling will phase out SBC's requirements to sell some network elements to competitors at big discounts. The changes could make it more expensive for Big River to operate, but Howe is exploring other ways to keep his customers connected.
"We're always looking at where our customers are and the cheapest way to get there," he said.
Big River is in discussions with cable companies, municipal utilities and other firms about using their lines. Howe has considered putting wireless transmitters atop telephone poles or building a network in areas where customers are clustered.
Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, said the new FCC rules could strangle competition. Also, he's skeptical of the willingness of cable companies to strike bargains with the competitive phone companies, once they no longer have the option of buying discounted network elements from companies like SBC.
Howe believes the telephone companies have much to lose if they decide not to lease network elements to competitors. With revenue from traditional services declining, those companies need to rent their excess capacity.
Eager for change
As a small company operating in a mostly rural area, Big River can pay attention to customers whose communications needs often differ from those in a metropolitan area, Howe said.
Toll charges for calls outside a customer's area are a particular sore spot in rural areas, where local-calling scopes can be tiny.
"We know that people in Perryville deal with people in Cape Girardeau," he said. "We make things easier by setting up the calling scope to include those two cities."
The increasing use of fiber optics in phone systems has boosted capacity and cut maintenance costs, he said. But the changes haven't been reflected in rates or in calling scopes, Howe said.
The company is putting its equipment in SBC switching centers that will link to Big River's servers. It will offer customers the services of voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, packaged with digital subscriber lines.
Howe said rural customers are as eager as city dwellers to reap the benefits of new technology and competition. Some rural businesses are installing Internet protocol systems inside their buildings, and most residential users are aware of IP technology.
"We don't see any confusion," he said. "What we do see is anticipation."
Frank Kinder, president and general manager of Red Letter Communications Inc. in Cape Girardeau, said he switched the advertising agency's business to Big River a couple of years ago. He appreciated dealing with a local company where "human beings answer the phone."
The company gave him the cell-phone number of its president, Kevin Cantwell, soon after signing up, and Kinder knows most of Big River's technicians by name.
Tom Wolfe, city administrator of Cottleville, said the St. Charles County town has saved 45 percent on its phone bills since switching to Big River from SBC. Customer service has been excellent, he said.
New features
Big River is developing features to meet customer expectations. The company has developed voice-mail and conferencing features with a small corps of telecommunications engineers and computer scientists.
An enhanced voice-mail service in development would allow a customer to manage incoming calls without peering at the caller-identification display.
The caller would hear only the ringing tone. A server at Big River's office would read the caller ID information for a customer. The customer could choose to answer the call, send a recorded message asking the caller to leave voice mail or record a custom message that would be played to the caller, who would not know the recipient had picked up the phone.
"This is something I want on my phone," said Howe, who commutes from his home in Des Peres to Big River's headquarters in Cape Girardeau. The company has a small office in west St. Louis County that he and other managers use, too.
Big River has developed a conferencing program that allows customers to set up and run telephone conference calls from their desktops, without using an operator. The technology allows everyone to see who's on the call, be aware of people who drop off or join the call in progress and keep unwanted callers from eavesdropping.
Big River offers the program to its customers and plans to sell it under a venture with an English switch manufacturer.
"We know the network's underlying elements," Howe said. "Now, with Internet protocol, we can cost-effectively come up with all kinds of features. We want to show the marketplace something better."
Big River Telephone Co.
Chief executive: Jerry Howe
Business: Local, long-distance and Internet service for customers in southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and western Kentucky
Employees: 50
Customers: 10,000
Headquarters: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Reporter Jerri Stroud
E-mail: jerristroud@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8384