Broadband may have been the star of the WRAL Techwire Executive Exchange held Friday in Wilson, the first city in North Carolina and among the first in the nationwith a city-owned broadband service, Greenlight. But with only a few days to go before the election, maybe it was inevitable that politics would make a surprise appearance.

The audience of more than 200 at the Edna Boykin Theater broke into applause when keynote speaker Blair Levin, formerly with the FCC, brought up the bill which prohibits other North Carolina towns from following Wilson’s example. “When the new General Assembly returns to Raleigh,” he said, “tell the assembly to tear down the law that prevents faster, cheaper broadband.”

Levin credited Wilson with being the bright city on hill, when 8 years ago it built a broadband infrastructure when private companies weren’t interested in doing it. Wilson’s success inspired other rural areas to want to duplicate their success, but state regulations now prevent that.

Levin complimented the town by crediting them with not accepting the status quo but finding a solution for themselves. The advantages of broadband include improving an area’s quality of life by raising property values and attracting a dynamic workforce. Other speakers would highlight the importance of broadband for advanced manufacturing and agriculture.

The private sector isn’t meeting demand, Levin said, and cited Google’s retrenching from some markets, even as it expands in the Triangle and Charlotte. More than 80 percent of rural areas have no broadband or only one provider. They are trapped between a lack of broadband infrastructure and a way to make that happen.

This dilemma was noted by many in the audience, including Robert Campbell, support engineer with Cisco. “Wilson illustrates that the Internet should be a public utility available to all citizens,” he said after the event. “We saw today how this technology, when applied to a rural setting, yields tremendous benefits.”

Agribusiness demands movement of “mega data”

On the farm of today – and more so for the future – the demand for quality data quickly analyzed is paramount, according to the panelists who spoke about agribusiness innovation. That mega data comes from the Internet of Things, where chip-equipped tools such as a tractor or a drone connect to the buying habits of the shopper in the produce aisle. The day will come when individual plants may be monitored, and at the first sign of disease, can be treated before they spread it to much of the crop, according to Dr .Steve Lommel with NC State University. And farms with sweet potato or tobacco fields miles apart demand real-time communications, noted Dewey Scott with Scott Farms in Lucama, but these farms tend to be in rural, underserved areas.

After this panel, dozens of audience members came down front to exchange business cards and ask questions of panelists.

Education must adjust to skills needed for advanced manufacturing

Technology will continue to bring enormous stress to the workforce and to education. While manufacturing output is better than ever, said Dr. Tim Wright with Wilson Community College, it takes fewer workers to accomplish that, and those workers require specialized training. It’s a trend that will grow exponentially.

“And we’re really not planning for it,” said Dr. Sean Nugent, a consultant who spent most of his career in the pharmaceutical industry. “We know that the manufacturing workforce was affected by technology in the past, but in the future as autonomous transportation grows, for example, what happens to the 6 to 8 million truck drivers or Uber drivers or airline pilots who won’t be necessary?

Greenlight puts Wilson ahead in move to broadband

The event opened with WRAL TechWire Editor Rick Smith talking with Grant Goings, the Wilson city manager who led the deployment of Greenlight. Goings recognized city leaders in the audience because “it took a great deal of courage – political courage – to be in front of this issue.” Now the town stands poised to “be a spoke” on the Triangle broadband hub.

Matt Babaian with IBM was impressed. “It’s wonderful to learn what a small town like Wilson is doing for their citizens,” he said. “I had heard, and now this confirmed how they were able to own their utility.”