Dossier: Rice Belt Telephone's Robert C. Pierson

YEAR FOUNDED: 1953

NUMBER OF LINES: 790

EMPLOYEES: 10

OWNER SINCE: 2001. “I worked for an accounting firm that specialized in telecom, and Rice Belt was one of my accounts. The original owner, Roy Wiles Jr., had nobody to take over the company, and one day he said, ‘Why don't you buy the company? You probably know more about it than anybody.’ It's family-owned now. My son Derek is vice president; he's in the IT department. My wife, Barbara, is on the board.”

ABOUT THE COMMUNITY: This rice-growing region is sparsely populated, but new housing is in demand. Pierson has a separate business that is developing about 15 acres in Weiner. Rice Belt is constructing a fiber-to-the-home network to serve the new community.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE SERVING THIS COMMUNITY: “We have our own school. It's pretty small but we try to keep the level above the student requirement. We want to keep families in there. We try to keep modernizing so everyone has what they need.”

BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY USED: DSL

MAX BROADBAND RATE OFFERED: 1 Mb/s

PERCENTAGE OF SERVING AREA WHERE BROADBAND IS AVAILABLE: Nearly 100%. “We have a lot of long loops. Some are 9 miles long, and all they can get is dial-up. But some we can push DSL service out to where they can get at least 128 or 256 kilobits.”

BROADBAND TAKE RATE: About 30%

BROADBAND AVAILABLE SINCE: 2005. “Broadband has just exploded. In three years, we already increased our pipe size two times.”

INDY-STYLE CUSTOMER SERVICE: “Our network administrator is very computer-savvy. Whenever there's a problem, he's out there taking care of it. It's great having someone that can take care of things and get rid of viruses. He's always bringing a tower in and cleaning it up for the customer. We hardly ever charge for that.”

CURRENT INVESTMENT FOCUS: “We're starting to do a lot of fiber. One of our business customers in Weiner changed hands, and when they did that they needed more telephone service. The current plant we had buried wasn't going to be adequate, so we decided to bury fiber to them.”

USF FUNDING: Yes, in all three exchanges. High-cost and schools and libraries.

THOUGHTS ON USF UNCERTAINTY: “Everyone is concerned about that, and I am as well. One reason the fund has gotten too large is because of the wireless companies. They share money based upon an incumbent's costs, and that's really inappropriate.”

CELLULAR STRATEGY: Limited partner with Alltel Cellular.

COMMUNITIES SERVED: Arkansas towns of Fisher, Waldenburg and Weiner.