The Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG) held its Annual Meeting in Las Vegas on November 18, 2010. Board members re-elected to the Board of Directors for three-year terms include:

• John Nettles, President of Pine Belt Wireless (Pine Belt Telephone Company)
• Bill Wade, General Manager of Mid-Rivers Cellular (Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative, Inc.)
• Patti Dominach, Director of Marketing of Pario Solutions

In a subsequent meeting, the Board of Directors elected 2011 board officers who serve one-year terms. RTG’s new officers are:

• David Dengel, President (Copper Valley Wireless)
• Carl A. Turnley, Vice President (KTC PACE (PACE Cellular Communications))
• Rick Vergin, Secretary (Mosaic Mobile)
• George Woodward, Treasurer (GetLisa Information Services Inc.)

The RTG Annual Meeting, which was co-located with the RICA/RTG Fall Forum (Rural Independent Competitive Alliance), featured presentations by Vantage Point Solutions and Verizon Wireless. Doug Eidhal of Vantage Point reviewed the status of broadband stimulus deployments through the Recovery Act (BIP and BTOP programs) as well as 4G deployments throughout the country. Philip Junker of Verizon Wireless reviewed and updated RTG’s membership on Verizon’s LTE in Rural America Program.

“We had a great Annual Meeting and the member turnout as well as the issues we covered all point to the increasingly important role RTG plays as the advocate for the truly rural and small wireless carriers,” said RTG’s outgoing President, Mike Higgins, Jr., General Manager of West Central Wireless. “It has been an honor to serve as RTG’s President over the past few years and I believe RTG is well positioned to continue promoting wireless opportunities for rural carriers.” Mr. Higgins continues to serve on the RTG Board of Directors.

“Mike Higgins has done an excellent job leading RTG over the past three years. I’m very excited about my new role and look forward to working with RTG’s growing membership as we tackle vital issues including mandated data roaming, the auctioning of the D-Block, the use of TV white spaces for backhaul and handset availability,” said RTG’s new President, Dave Dengel, of Copper Valley Wireless. “The National Broadband Plan and reforming universal service are, of course, areas where RTG continues to educate its members and advocate on their behalf.”

About RTG – Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Rural Telecommunications Group is a trade association representing rural wireless carriers who serve less than 100,000 subscribers. RTG’s members have joined together to speed delivery of new, efficient and innovative telecommunications technologies to remote and underserved communities. www.ruraltelecomgroup.org @RTGwireless

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