Too often, our day-to-day focus on "doing our jobs" causes us to lose perspective on what really matters, and why we got into the business in the first place.
Sacred Wind Communications, a phone company set up to serve the Navajo people in New Mexico, reminds us that telecom is all about connecting people and enriching communities. And their example has been recognized by the MSNBC Shine A Light program. Sponsored by American Express, the program ran a competition to find the nation's most inspiring small business.
Read that again: Not the 'most inspiring telephone company'. The most inspiring small business in the entire United States.
Here's the clip:
Clearly, Sacred Wind's efforts to bring phone and internet service to an underserved people touched the thousands of people who participated in the poll. And rightly so. For there is nothing more powerful for these remote, isolated communities than becoming connected with all the opportunities we take for granted in urban areas.
Sacred Wind is not the only Metaswitch customer to be using our technology for social good in Indian Country. Mescalero Apache Telecom Inc (MATI), also in New Mexico, deployed Metaswitch and now has 98% coverage among its customers - up from barely one in ten when the phone company was founded in 2001. In 2003, it was honored as Tribal Enterprise of the Year.
Sacred Wind and MATI remind us that we are not about creating technology, or making money, for its own sake. We are in the business of changing lives.
If you have a story about how your Metaswitch deployment is positively impacting your community, please
let me know!
