00:08 - Todd Eachus is the president

00:11 - of the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania.

00:15 - What does history tell us about the experience

00:18 - of watching television way back in the 1940?

00:21 - Well, Larry, it's an amazing story.

00:24 - If you think about

00:25 - and it's a Pennsylvania story, believe it or not.

00:28 - As you know, way back when the

00:33 - beginning of television was

00:37 - broadcast stations through the air

00:39 - to an antenna on your roof.

00:41 - Well, due to geography and topography, not everybody

00:45 - could get a signal broadcast from the big cities.

00:49 - People who lived in valleys had no reception.

00:53 - And so there were some enterprising pioneers out there

00:57 - who thought,

00:58 - how can we serve our people, serve our communities?

01:01 - Right.

01:02 - And so they took a took a little antenna and put it

01:06 - on top of the mountain and ran a cable down into town.

01:09 - And lo and behold,

01:11 - the people could receive the broadcast channels

01:12 - from their large, close by cities.

01:15 - Well, Tod, let's back up our conversation

01:17 - just a little bit,

01:17 - because I want to consider the relationship

01:19 - that existed between viewers and their antenna.

01:22 - I mean, sometimes

01:23 - it was a source of frustration in those days, right?

01:25 - Sure was.

01:26 - It sure was. It was,

01:28 - again, driven by geography and topography.

01:30 - Even weather

01:32 - could

01:32 - could determine how your signal was. Hmm.

01:35 - And then different stations would require

01:38 - different adjustments on the antenna. So. Right.

01:40 - I'm sure some families remember adjusting the rabbit ears on

01:43 - top of the TV or the rooftop antenna.

01:47 - I guess sometimes that was on a motor and it could be rotated.

01:50 - It sure could. That's right. That's right.

01:52 - And remember, television itself was a privilege at that time.

01:55 - It was expensive.

01:57 - It was what was considered high technology then.

02:01 - But it was tubes. It was a lot of weight.

02:03 - A small black and white screen

02:05 - where the family gathered in the living room.

02:07 - There was only one screen in the house, if you were lucky.

02:09 - Mm hmm.

02:10 - And let's stay back in the pioneering days of television

02:14 - just for a while, and consider that we're still in the 1940s.

02:17 - So we've talked about the challenges to reception,

02:21 - how many channels were available to the average viewer.

02:24 - Nowadays, it's hundreds.

02:26 - It seems virtually limitless.

02:28 - But in those days,

02:31 - there were only,

02:32 - for example, the major networks were coming through the air.

02:35 - That's exactly.

02:36 - And some came in better than others.

02:38 - Some came in better than others.

02:40 - And again, yes, it was the broadcast networks,

02:43 - the what we think of as ABC, CBS and ABC

02:46 - today were the only channels available in many cases.

02:49 - And then, of course, in the sixties,

02:51 - there were the UHF channels also.

02:53 - Right.

02:54 - And before we get into UHF channels, let's consider

02:58 - then what you mentioned just a minute ago, which was the idea

03:02 - part of the birth of cable television was putting

03:04 - a tower on top of a mountain and then overcoming

03:07 - those topographical challenges and then running a wire.

03:11 - So let's consider that sounds like the birth of cable TV.

03:15 - Or maybe in those days it was considered

03:17 - something called community antenna television.

03:20 - That's what it was called in the very early days. Right.

03:22 - That's exactly right.

03:23 - And as I said earlier, it was a Pennsylvania story

03:26 - where this first started was in Monopoly City.

03:30 - A gentleman

03:31 - named John Walston had a television shop.

03:34 - He wanted to sell televisions.

03:36 - But the towns in the Lehigh Valley sat in the valley there.

03:39 - They couldn't receive

03:40 - the signals well from Philadelphia.

03:44 - And so he took in 1948, some 75 years ago.

03:48 - Think about that.

03:49 - Three quarters of a century,

03:50 - he took that antenna up on top of that mountain,

03:53 - pulled those wires down into the town

03:55 - so that folks in the in

03:57 - the town could buy televisions and have signals.

04:00 - And there was the birth of an industry.

04:02 - Well, he sounds like he's more than a TV salesman.

04:05 - He sounds like an engineering innovator.

04:08 - In other words, what kind of experience did

04:10 - Walston bring to the founding of cable?

04:13 - Well, he was familiar with electric and work on

04:16 - poles, worked for Pennsylvania Power and Light,

04:21 - and so he knew what he was doing.

04:23 - But I have to tell you,

04:24 - the entire history of this industry for the last 75 years

04:28 - is chock full of entrepreneurial,

04:31 - pioneering innovators

04:33 - who have taken the industry from that small gesture

04:37 - 75 years ago to the, as you said, the hundreds of channels

04:41 - that we have today and the technology

04:43 - that we have today and that's just full of people.

04:47 - We stand on the shoulders here of really, really

04:51 - great pioneers who put themselves

04:54 - put their family finances on the line to build this industry.

04:58 - So let's contrast today's technology with TVs

05:01 - that were available back in the 1940s

05:03 - and probably let's try to envision some TVs

05:05 - that were on the floor of John Wilson's appliance shop.

05:08 - Now, today, of course, you can go out

05:10 - and get yourself a fairly cheap TV.

05:12 - It's six feet across, no less than six feet.

05:15 - And of course, it's on a smartphone.

05:16 - You can pull it out of your pocket.

05:18 - Tell me more about the mass produced TVs in those days,

05:21 - how big a screen it was, how much money it costs, was it

05:25 - accessible to average Pennsylvanians?

05:27 - Well, a big screen at that time was about 14 inches,

05:31 - and it was housed in a

05:33 - big giant, thick wooden cabinet that weighed hundreds of pounds

05:37 - because in order to

05:38 - make that technology work, it was filled with vacuum tubes.

05:41 - Today, we have electronics.

05:44 - Everything's printed on the board, right.

05:45 - It's, as you said, in your pocket.

05:48 - We have flat screens. We have big screens.

05:51 - We have high definition.

05:52 - Remember those broadcasts signals,

05:55 - even when they were pulled through the wire,

05:56 - were taken from the air and run down the wire.

05:59 - They weren't the highest definition.

06:01 - They weren't the clearest pictures. Right.

06:03 - And they were subject to things like weather,

06:06 - the topography and geography

06:08 - and other variables in the atmosphere

06:10 - that would affect your reception.

06:12 - So it wasn't crazy, but it was still something

06:15 - that brought the world together in many, in many ways.

06:19 - And that's why it was so important

06:21 - for those people who couldn't

06:22 - see those that lived in the valleys

06:24 - and the various regions that didn't have good reception.

06:27 - It allowed them to

06:29 - enter America's living room and have part of that conversation.

06:32 - When they got the news and various entertainment

06:36 - that it started

06:37 - a national conversation in so many ways

06:39 - and brought so many regions of the country together.

06:42 - So this is an exciting development

06:43 - that took place in Pennsylvania, Mahanoy City.

06:46 - So let's consider the new value or the increased value

06:50 - that came to John Walsh's TV inventory

06:53 - when suddenly he's able

06:54 - to put a relatively clear picture and all those TVs

06:57 - that must have stirred up some excitement.

06:59 - Oh, no doubt about it.

07:00 - It as I said, it was the birth of an industry

07:04 - and it was more than exciting.

07:06 - It was a way for people to connect themselves

07:10 - with the larger cities,

07:11 - no matter where they were across the commonwealth

07:13 - and eventually across the country.

07:15 - When you look at it that way, it could be could be considered

07:18 - a cultural advancement for some communities, all of it

07:20 - connected with the big city.

07:21 - Absolutely right.

07:23 - And as viewers got a clear picture,

07:26 - which was something to get excited about,

07:28 - they also got more channels, didn't they?

07:31 - And how is it decided which channels would be added?

07:35 - Well, that was the secret to the industry is

07:39 - what do you do next?

07:40 - You can get these broadcast channels,

07:43 - but now that there's a cable out there, we can evolve into

07:48 - using microwaves and bringing distant signals,

07:50 - not just from the closest city, but from far flung

07:53 - regions of the state in the country

07:55 - into people's homes so that they could see greater

07:59 - and more varied programing from very geographies

08:02 - and sports from New York wouldn't hurt. Right?

08:04 - Sports from New York's the World Series.

08:07 - The there was no Super Bowl at that time but but you think

08:11 - about the cultural ties that sports brings, that news

08:14 - brings, that education, informational programing brings.

08:17 - And then, of course, the ability eventually to bring movies

08:21 - into one's home was just an amazing, amazing achievement.

08:26 - So we can see the advantages of cable TV.

08:28 - So that was a brand new world back then.

08:31 - In the late forties.

08:32 - So how was the industry of cable

08:34 - accepted by the established broadcasters?

08:37 - Well, the broadcasters certainly saw that as a threat to their

08:42 - their business model based on the distant signals.

08:45 - It was okay and it was great for the local affiliates

08:48 - to be able to grow their their viewership through this.

08:52 - But then when we begin to bring to bring

08:55 - distant signals in,

08:57 - they began to look

08:58 - at their business model and say, wait a minute,

09:00 - things need to change here.

09:01 - And of course, they went to Congress

09:02 - and got some regulation that affected that.

09:04 - Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Congress,

09:06 - because I'm curious as to how the federal government responded

09:09 - to the upstart, the growth of cable TV.

09:13 - Well, like with everything, any nascent business

09:17 - gets its start with some entrepreneurial pioneers

09:20 - and then as they begin to grow,

09:24 - they begin to garner attention from the regulatory

09:27 - and policy folks.

09:28 - So Congress and the Federal Communications

09:30 - Commission took a look at the way

09:32 - this was working and began to put some restrictions on that.

09:36 - And that's why today even you don't get the broadcast

09:40 - affiliate from some far flung place, because geographically

09:45 - those broadcast affiliates own that particular geography.

09:48 - And that was the impetus of that was back in the fifties

09:53 - as as cable began to grow.

09:55 - Let's talk

09:55 - about another cable pioneer, and that would be Bob Tarleton.

09:58 - And I understand

09:59 - he gets credit for accelerating the growth of the industry.

10:03 - How do you do that?

10:04 - He did that again,

10:07 - a great visionary and he saw what Mr.

10:11 - Olson was doing

10:12 - and what was happening around the country in some other places

10:16 - shortly after that. And

10:19 - Bob essentially commercialized the industry.

10:22 - He looked at the ability to bring scale to it

10:26 - and thought, this applies not just in

10:29 - medical city or in Oregon or in Arkansas,

10:33 - but can apply across the country.

10:35 - And he began to grow that and he partnered with

10:38 - some entrepreneur entrepreneurial folks

10:40 - in the engineering space,

10:42 - and they began to mature the electronics

10:45 - and really in 1950 commercialize used

10:49 - what we know as the cable television industry today

10:53 - in a larger scale and it wasn't short

10:56 - wasn't long after he began to do his work

10:59 - in central Pennsylvania and Lansford and Williamsport

11:03 - that there were some 800

11:04 - cable companies operating across the country.

11:07 - Well, let's explore that phrase.

11:08 - You mentioned a minute ago

11:10 - that Tarleton brought scale to this industry.

11:12 - So using equipment is necessary.

11:15 - And as far as a layman like myself is concerned, that

11:18 - involves cable and amplifiers in order to keep that signal

11:23 - fresh and strong throughout the duration of the cable run.

11:26 - What else do you need that?

11:28 - Jerrold Electron I worked on back in those days?

11:30 - If that cable box

11:34 - was the biggest thing, the ability

11:35 - to change channels

11:38 - without using your television,

11:41 - the electronics that could sort those channels out,

11:44 - that was that cable box.

11:45 - People may some people may remember the original cable box.

11:49 - Wasn't that box where you had a remote control?

11:51 - It actually had a wire. You put it on your lap.

11:53 - But if the wire ran back to your television

11:55 - and you could push a button based on the number

11:57 - on whatever

11:58 - channel you wanted to select, I do remember the ubiquitous box,

12:02 - and you had to have that because it it

12:05 - it augmented the electronics and the TV.

12:07 - The TV itself couldn't handle it, right? That's right.

12:09 - That's right.

12:10 - You would you remember you would turn your

12:12 - your TV to Channel three or four

12:13 - and then the cable box would do the rest.

12:16 - Now let's consider another association in that Bob

12:19 - Tarleton had just said

12:20 - that he worked with Walston at some point,

12:22 - or at least he was inspired by his work.

12:24 - Yes, I suppose these two gentlemen knew each other.

12:26 - I'm sure they did.

12:29 - You look back through the

12:30 - history of this industry and there are a handful of folks

12:34 - from its very impetus to today

12:39 - that that really took that entrepreneurial spirit

12:42 - and built a industry that that endures today.

12:46 - And really is is a cultural centerpiece today.

12:48 - And I'm sure we'll talk about that.

12:50 - Bob Tarleton eventually connected

12:52 - with future governor Milton Sapp.

12:55 - What was the relationship there?

12:56 - What could chap

12:57 - bring to the table again years before he was elected governor?

13:00 - So Milton Sharpe was the president and CEO

13:04 - of an electronics company called Jerrold Electronics.

13:07 - And as he began to embrace

13:10 - this phenomena of cable TV,

13:13 - he steered Jerrold Electronics almost exclusively

13:17 - into the building and development

13:18 - of specific electronics, including some of those those

13:22 - set top boxes,

13:24 - solely for the purpose of being able

13:26 - to deliver those cable channels to people across the country.

13:29 - And as you know, Joe Electronics was was an innovator

13:34 - and leader and their president and CEO

13:36 - eventually became the governor of Pennsylvania.

13:38 - So another great Pennsylvania story.

13:40 - Now let's talk let's touch on a milestone

13:42 - that you alluded to a few minutes ago,

13:44 - and that would be the concept of pay television.

13:46 - And in this case, specifically,

13:48 - it would be home box office, better known as HBO.

13:52 - And that got its start in the 1970s.

13:55 - What did they offer viewers back in those days?

13:57 - Well, they offered viewers the idea of being able

14:01 - to take movies,

14:04 - box office movies, and bring them into your home

14:07 - for the first time.

14:08 - Families didn't have to go to the movie theater

14:10 - as much anymore, though.

14:12 - We all still I still love the big screen.

14:15 - But the ability to bring the home box office

14:18 - or bring the box office into the home

14:20 - was the idea for home box office.

14:23 - And again, a Pennsylvania story launched first here in 1972

14:28 - with the Waltons Service Electric Company.

14:30 - And by the way, that company still exists.

14:32 - They're celebrating their 75th anniversary this year.

14:35 - Still strong and operating in the Lehigh Valley

14:39 - and in northeastern Pennsylvania.

14:41 - Now, this strikes me

14:42 - as a revolutionary

14:43 - aspect of HBO, and that was the absence of commercials.

14:47 - And that's got to be a shock to viewers, frankly,

14:49 - when you're used to commercial interruptions

14:51 - on your TV shows all the time and then all of a sudden

14:54 - you have that, that's a revelation.

14:56 - So that's going against the grain of the establishment.

14:58 - Well, you think about it, the way that the broadcast folks

15:02 - made money was selling advertising space.

15:05 - Right.

15:06 - Well, the idea for HBO was to have a full length feature movie

15:11 - without the interruption of advertising.

15:14 - And they did that by having a business model

15:17 - of being a subscription based service,

15:19 - where you as people I'm sure many people well know

15:23 - you could sign up, pay

15:24 - whatever the fee was for the month,

15:25 - and you would get that whole slate of of of

15:30 - commercial free, uninterrupted movies.

15:32 - And by the way, they started also with developing

15:36 - some of their own programing in the first HBO.

15:39 - Oh, they got into programing as well. I didn't know that.

15:41 - They did. They did.

15:42 - They did some of their own homegrown programing.

15:44 - And the first thing that they did

15:46 - was the Pennsylvania Poker Festival.

15:48 - Imagine that.

15:49 - Imagine now if that's going nationwide, that's really having

15:52 - faith in disseminate in the culture of Pennsylvania.

15:55 - That's exactly right.

15:56 - That's exactly right.

15:57 - But again, that started in 1972.

16:01 - I wonder how long that was on.

16:02 - That must have had some intense interest locally.

16:05 - I wonder how they received that nationally.

16:06 - I'd love to know. I would, too.

16:08 - I would, too.

16:09 - Well, what kind of developments

16:10 - have taken place in the cable industry

16:13 - since some of these milestones we've discussed?

16:16 - What's happened, in other words, since the 1970s,

16:18 - that's been significant for the growth or changes

16:21 - within the cable industry. Well, as you well know

16:25 - today, we are

16:26 - not in that era of three or four or ten channels.

16:30 - There are hundreds of hundreds of channels.

16:32 - And so the cable industry itself spawned

16:35 - a business for the growth of cable channels.

16:39 - Everything that you can think of now, these niche channels

16:42 - from history to food to home and garden

16:45 - to minority programing like B.E.T. Etc.

16:49 - are all an outgrowth of the development of cable TV,

16:54 - that place where they could go to place their programing on.

16:57 - And that's thanks to the ability of two things.

17:00 - First, microwave distribution,

17:03 - which was a technological advance,

17:04 - and then eventually satellite distribution.

17:07 - And again, of course, another great Pennsylvania story

17:11 - we talk about

17:12 - the Waltons and the work that they continue to do,

17:15 - not just bringing technology to the communities they serve,

17:19 - but serving their communities as well.

17:21 - And and Bob Tarleton and so many others.

17:25 - But right here in Pennsylvania, proudly

17:28 - headquartered in Philadelphia, is Comcast,

17:31 - which was founded by Ralph Roberts, along with Dan Aaron

17:35 - and Julian Brodsky in 1963 when they bought a cable system.

17:39 - They were always headquartered in Philadelphia,

17:41 - but they bought a cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi,

17:44 - and have grown Comcast into a national Fortune 50

17:50 - multimedia company.

17:52 - That is what we know today is as Xfinity

17:55 - with broadband,

17:55 - with cable and the ownership of NBCUniversal as well.

17:59 - So here we are in 2023.

18:01 - So what does the future hold for this existing coaxial

18:05 - cable network?

18:06 - Well, the existing coaxial cable network changed

18:10 - in the early nineties with the advent of fiber optics.

18:14 - Fiber is that ability to take

18:17 - radio frequency signals, convert them to light

18:20 - with virtually no attenuation or signal loss, and distribute

18:24 - that signal far more efficiently and with greater fidelity.

18:28 - That's hard to grasp.

18:29 - He was opposed to something being

18:31 - transmitted over a copper wire. That's right.

18:33 - That's right.

18:34 - And so virtually all cable companies across the country in

18:38 - in the early and throughout the nineties began to

18:43 - introduce fiber optics into their networks.

18:46 - And today are driving it deeper and deeper

18:50 - into the neighborhoods.

18:51 - There is still a thing called hybrid fiber collects where

18:54 - there's some fiber in the system and still some some copper.

18:57 - And of course, we all know about fiber to the home,

19:00 - which is the latest technological advance, which is

19:03 - pretty much future proof.

19:05 - So there's no limit to fiber optic in the future

19:08 - as far as that.

19:09 - The rate at which data goes through it?

19:12 - That's correct.

19:12 - Because, I mean, is it literally at the speed of light,

19:15 - you don't have to worry about amplifiers

19:16 - like they did in the old days of cable?

19:18 - That's exactly right.

19:19 - That's exactly right.

19:20 - And the ability of computing power

19:24 - and the ability to introduce

19:26 - more and more efficient ways of transmitting that light

19:31 - and and reducing the electronics, making the systems

19:35 - much more reliable and user friendly.

19:39 - And of course, it grew into

19:42 - broadband Internet as well.

19:45 - Let's consider the development of wireless technology

19:48 - of course, we all know about that today.

19:50 - And smartphones are ubiquitous and they're almost on everybody

19:54 - in the country.

19:55 - So how have the consumer expectations changed

19:58 - for the kind of programing they can expect and have access to?

20:02 - And there's a dizzying array

20:03 - of programing out there, by the way.

20:05 - There is a dizzying array of programing.

20:06 - And interestingly enough, we all know about

20:08 - streaming services now, Netflix and so many others

20:13 - that was made possible by the advent of broadband Internet,

20:18 - which was really introduced by the cable industry as well.

20:22 - We all remember

20:23 - the dial up modem in that tone and we talked about board,

20:27 - I have to admit.

20:28 - Yeah, I do remember that

20:30 - we talked about getting a live operator

20:32 - on the other end of the phone.

20:33 - That's right.

20:34 - We talk about board rates and no

20:40 - And again, it's the advent of fiber,

20:42 - the advent of being able to bring those digital signals

20:47 - to those systems, disrupting in many ways

20:52 - the traditional video model of buying a package of channels

20:56 - to the streaming model where you can take,

21:00 - whether it's

21:01 - through a cellular network or through a Wi-Fi network

21:05 - connectivity and put it on any screen

21:08 - just about anywhere at any time.

21:10 - But let me point out to you,

21:12 - something that's really important is

21:15 - we're talking about a great story here

21:17 - that has served millions upon millions of people,

21:21 - millions of Pennsylvanians.

21:24 - But as we've talked about

21:26 - previously, today, there are still people

21:29 - across the country who do not have access

21:33 - to cable TV, more importantly, to broadband.

21:37 - And that's one of the things that is happening.

21:39 - Yeah. Lots of efforts are being undertaken

21:41 - to remedy this problem. Well,

21:45 - again, the words that the

21:46 - telecom companies have to step up, they do.

21:49 - This is a joint effort by government and industry.

21:53 - I think back in the forties and fifties, the rural

21:56 - electrification effort, this is very similar to that.

22:00 - Those wires that we talked about coming down

22:02 - from the top of the mountain didn't reach every nook

22:04 - and cranny of the state or the country

22:08 - just because economics didn't allow that to happen.

22:11 - And most recently, the pandemic shined

22:16 - a very bright light on folks who did not have that access,

22:21 - because when kids couldn't

22:23 - go to school or you had to work from home,

22:26 - or you just wanted to

22:26 - keep connected with your family,

22:28 - if you didn't have that all important

22:30 - broadband connection, you couldn't do those things.

22:34 - And so while the industry has recognized that

22:38 - both the state and federal government has recognized it,

22:40 - now Pennsylvania, for instance, is going to be the recipient

22:44 - of a little more than $1,000,000,000

22:48 - to work with providers to be able to get

22:52 - those networks and that infrastructure deployed

22:55 - to every single person across the Commonwealth

22:58 - and across the nation.

23:00 - Let's talk some more about mobile phones

23:02 - and the programing you're able to see there,

23:04 - and that starts with the discussion,

23:05 - I think of something called 3G and 4G services.

23:10 - Somebody watching

23:10 - this program

23:11 - might be thinking, hey, you too was supposed

23:12 - to be talking about cable TV,

23:15 - but I understand the cable community has some plans

23:18 - for building out what they call a ten G service.

23:21 - That's right.

23:22 - That's right.

23:23 - This is very, very exciting.

23:24 - If you think about 3G and 4G and 5G and let's

23:29 - start with 3G, then exactly what does that mean anyway?

23:32 - I know it has to do with working with a mobile phone.

23:35 - It does. That was the network.

23:37 - And really what it stood for was generation.

23:40 - So so you're able to connect with some third generations

23:43 - or what we know is 3G was limited by its technology

23:47 - to connecting with a tower somewhere.

23:48 - You're connecting with a tower.

23:51 - But again,

23:52 - and this is a great myth, it takes just 1/2 of thought

23:55 - that tower is planted in the ground somewhere.

23:59 - But when that signal hits that tower, it has to go somewhere.

24:03 - And there is fiber

24:03 - optics in that tower, that hall, that data back

24:07 - to a to a central office where where it can be distributed.

24:10 - And and your message

24:13 - or your phone call or your video

24:15 - can get to the place that it needs to get.

24:17 - But those geez, geez, 4G now 5G

24:23 - are all based on technology and

24:26 - they the G stands for generation.

24:29 - And give me a sense of perspective.

24:31 - How much better is 5G than 3G?

24:33 - I mean, they're only two apart.

24:34 - What's the difference?

24:35 - 5G allows very low latency,

24:40 - wireless, high speed, low latency.

24:43 - Meaning a delay.

24:44 - Meaning delays. That's right. Which can be frustrating, too.

24:46 - That's right.

24:47 - Here. Which

24:48 - which brings the user quality in the wireless environment

24:53 - to a very high level

24:54 - and allowing for high definition

24:58 - transmission, allow for efficient gaming

25:01 - for people that are into that kind of thing, etc..

25:03 - Now TNG that you refer to isn't a generation thing.

25:07 - This is the cable industry's

25:11 - effort to bring multiple synchronous

25:15 - gigabit services through their their fiber network.

25:19 - This is different than the other

25:21 - Jesus was in a class of itself.

25:22 - This is in a class of its own.

25:23 - And it is again,

25:25 - we talk about a gigabit world now, where we're talking about

25:29 - gigabit level speeds in the Internet in

25:34 - both directions, allowing for so many new things we talk about

25:40 - using the Internet now, we talk about video services.

25:42 - We talk about

25:45 - you know, video calls or whatever the application may be.

25:49 - But as we look to the future and the opportunities

25:52 - that are there for telemedicine, until eHealth

25:56 - allowing for efficiencies

25:59 - in the in the medical realm

26:03 - and you certainly need ten G in order to make that happen

26:06 - you don't there's multiple gigabit

26:11 - services out there.

26:12 - Now, most cable companies offer at least a gigabit service

26:16 - that allow for these very, very high fidelity

26:19 - and high quality signals to do many, many things.

26:21 - But what we don't know is technology continues to grow

26:25 - and we don't know what that kid sitting in a garage

26:28 - somewhere is coming up with the next application

26:32 - that everybody is going to need or is going to change

26:34 - our culture is going to allow us to communicate or educate

26:38 - or do medicine so, so much better.

26:41 - And so the networks continue to mature and evolve

26:44 - and get better and better and faster and faster.

26:47 - It's just an exciting, exciting opportunity

26:50 - and an exciting time to be in this industry.

26:53 - And Todd, how fast does it have to get?

26:55 - In other words,

26:55 - are we ever going to get to the point where we'll say,

26:57 - we're at a good point, we're fast enough? I don't think so.

27:02 - Some people will always find that level where they've got

27:05 - the services that they want and they need

27:07 - and they're perfectly happy with them.

27:10 - But those entrepreneurs,

27:11 - those innovators

27:12 - are still out there and they're looking

27:15 - for the next best thing.

27:16 - And that's

27:17 - what propels our society and our economy in so many ways.

27:20 - Well, we've covered a lot of history in the last 30 minutes.

27:23 - Todd Eachus,

27:24 - president of the Broadband Communications Association

27:27 - of Pennsylvania, thank you, Larry. Thank you.