RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas - Patrick McDonnell, CEO of VTX1, says the Rio Grande Valley can learn a lot from the way Chattanooga, Tennessee, embraced broadband.
McDonnell was a panelist at an event hosted by Starr County Industrial Foundation that explored the potential of public-private partnerships to bridge the digital divide.
McDonnell said Chattanooga leaders got the private sector to subsidize the internet service fees charged to poorer families.
“The City of Chattanooga is always the poster child of the right thing to do with the internet. They were the first one gigabyte city and now they're the first 10 gigabyte city,” McDonnell said.
“But the other thing they realized is that they built this huge network, but they had a lower take rate than they expected. And what they found out was that the people that most needed the services couldn't afford it. So they got all the local business leaders together and said, we need to raise money that will hold us for 10 years so that the lowest income people can pay for this. They don't have to worry about that. We take that off the plate.”
During the Q&A section of the program, Rio Grande Guardian International News Service asked McDonnell if the Valley would have to adopt the same approach.
“Absolutely,” said McDonnell. “I think all of us play a part. We've looked hard at our own rates and said what do we really need to provide good quality service at a reasonable cost.”
McDonnell said if VTX1 can get some additional government funding it would make things easier to provide a service and maintain that service. He said that as VTX1 is a non-profit and a cooperative it is not driven by the need to make a profit.
“Our goal is to say that least if we get some of the cost covered by somebody else, we can then drive our rates a little bit lower.”
McDonnell said Connect Humanity is trying to raise philanthropic money to be able to come in, not just with digital literacy, but also on the payments side. And, he said VTX1 has approached Texas A&M University for help.
“You know, we're just one company. But when I look around the room, there's a lot of… even though we have some impoverished areas in the Valley, we also have a lot of companies that are very wealthy and very well funded,” McDonnell said. “Everybody can step up and I think jointly we can agree to do this.”
McDonnell pointed out that he is a board member of the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce.
“One of the things we are pushing is One Region, One Voice, because we think that if we all band together, we can accomplish more. We can also drive economies of scale.”
McDonnell added: “We have to make sure that all the companies step up. We feel that it's our obligation to put back a certain amount of money in the community. You can see one of the large checks back there. Today, while we're here in Starr County, we've given away three decent sized checks, putting money back into the community. We feel like we have to step up. Somebody's got to step up and say we’ll go first.”
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