By: Ryan Duey

Twin Valley CEO Ben Foster was recently elected as Vice Chair of the NTCA-Rural Broadband Association Board for 2025. NTCA is a National Association that represents nearly 850 rural broadband companies across the U.S. Their mission is to advocate to legislators and regulators to help close the digital divide, while also providing things such as educational programs, events, and more.

As the Vice Chair Foster joins other officers in working with the incoming legislation, making sure rural voices are heard. Foster spoke about his new role.

“By moving up to Vice Chair, technically, I don’t think it has any more power than I had before. It’s kind of like the Vice President, if the Chair’s not there then I’ll perform those duties.”

“But, it does give me an opportunity as part of the Executive Committee, to work with the CEOs and staff members on things that would still need to have some Board input, but don’t necessarily need formal Board action.”

Foster said there will be some unique challenges with the new administration coming in, and their perspectives on rural broadband. He said there will also be a lot of other moving parts in the next two to four years.

“In the next two to four years, there are just a ton of moving parts that are out there. We have the Infrastructure Bill where, literally just today as a matter of fact, we submitted applications to build out fiber optic and next-generation fixed wireless to about 1000 locations in and around our service area to upgrade them. As well as ongoing telecommunications policy stuff.”

“The NTCA is there for us to at least have a vehicle to get our voices heard and we’re not going to be bashful if we think it’s detrimental to rural areas.”

Foster and the rest of the elected Board Officers will continue to work hard to advocate for rural communities to help close the digital divide in the years to come.