When Your Slowest Speed Is a Gig, With Jeff Chrzanowski

HTC has consolidated its broadband speeds to two plans: 1 Gbps and 2 Gbps. How did it get there, and what are the advantages of simplifying its speed packages?

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Host

Andy Johns

Vice President of Marketing

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StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns:
How are broadband providers simplifying their pricing plans?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The
StoryConnect Podcast. My name is Andy Johns,

your host with Pioneer, and I'm joined on this episode by Jeff
Chrzanowski,

who is the product strategist with HTC in South Carolina.

Jeff, thanks so much for joining me.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Andy. Good to see you. Thanks for having me.

Andy Johns:
I appreciate it. Thanks for being on.

I ran across this, the fact that you guys were changing up your
pricing plans.

Of course, HTC being, I believe,
still the biggest telephone cooperative in the country,

folks kind of pay attention to whatever y'all are doing.

And I ran across the fact that y'all were changing up your
pricing plans and thought it was worth the conversation.

I'm glad to have you on because I think folks will be paying
attention.

But let's talk through it. So you guys are shifting to where you
are primarily just be offering a

one gig, and then eventually a two gig product.

And that's it in terms of pricing and speed plans,
right?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Absolutely. So April 1st of this year,
HTC went to a starting at one gig in

and out. Any members coming on,
any new folks signing up automatically,

there's nothing below that. One gig is the starting speed.

If available in their area, two gig is available.

It is not rolled out footprint wide yet.

We should close that gap well before the end of this year.

But there's too much going on and too much new and too much
happening to stay at the lower speeds.

So it was the right time. We've got a fiber network.

We needed to do it.

Andy Johns:
Now, we've been keeping up with,
at Pioneer, we kind of keep up with the broadband provider that

has the most packages. And the clubhouse leader right now is one,

I won't say who, but they had 17 different packages because
they've,

you know, just kept on some of those older plans that were from
the copper days.

And I know that operationally it holds them back.

And you look at something even like the broadband labels,
you know, they had to come up with 17 different labels.

What operationally, you know, marketing,
communications, operationally,

what advantages have there been for y'all to make this move,
to make it so much simpler to just have the two main speed

packages?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Well, there's something to be said about the paradigm of choice,
right?

If you only have one offering, it's a take it or leave it.

Multiple offerings, there's nothing wrong with it.

I don't know that I'd want to have 17 and have to manage 17 and
train my customer service and folks and everything to be able to

answer all those questions. But when it came time to do that,
we were a three tier shop.

And I'm not going to say that someday we won't again be a three
tier shop where we went down the road when 5 or 10 gig becomes

available. But it was time to simplify.

Go ahead and get rid of the 500 for new members.

Everybody that was on our tier two at 750 automatically rose to a
gig.

We did not change their price. We brought that up so that to move
forward,

there's less to maintain. There's,
you know, needs for both

members, customers to folks who are in a cooperative will tell
you what they need,

and then that you've got the product and the solution for them.

Andy Johns:
Now, I've always thought y'all have a really interesting service
territory because you've got the coastal folks kind of in the

Myrtle Beach area, a lot of higher income,
you know, affluent folks there on the coast.

You've also got some inland areas,
quite a bit of folks on more the inland spot with it that,

you know, more spread out. Less dense,
less densely populated.

And then the economy is not quite what it is there on the coast.

So it's an interesting test case that you guys have a couple of
different groups there.

How has the response been? Are folks getting it?

Are they liking it? Are they understanding?

What has the response been from folks as you guys have rolled
this out?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
You bring up a great point, right?

So the beauty of this area, and we're blessed to live here.

You can be from the beach to the farmland within 15 minutes.

Andy Johns:
Sure.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
You know, you go west of the waterway,
and it doesn't take long before you're in farmland.

There's a lot.

Andy Johns:
Unless, unless it's spring break.

I have been through there spring break. You're not getting
anywhere in 15 minutes at spring break near Myrtle Beach.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
You know, you are right. I am talking about season.

Andy Johns:
Okay.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
The folks who have been here generationally,
folks who are west of the waterway,

off the beach, farmland. Look, you've got folks,
families who have been here,

I mean, five generations, 100, 150 years.

They grew up here. Those same folks are going to need it,
if they don't need it today,

are going to need the broadband speeds that the internet we
provide offers.

Farmers are some of the most tech savvy people out there these
days.

Between the weather apps, the sprinkler,
you know, irrigation systems and things like that,

just because they're in the country doesn't mean that they're not
living the tech life that we have become accustomed to.

Andy Johns:
Good point. So you've got both of the audiences,
and it sounds like it's a good fit for the folks inland as well.

Nobody's complaining. Nobody has any issues so far with just
having the two options or not having slower speeds or anything

like that, so far?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
I'll answer that with a question.

When was the last time you had somebody call up and say,
"Hey, I'd rather have a slower speed?

Don't you have anything slower? Come on,
Andy, I don't need all that speed."

Andy Johns:
Not going to happen.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
No, the industry, the life demands that,
you know, everyone's increasing their speed.

It's an education piece, without a doubt.

We've got folks that will say, "Well,
why do I need a gig?" Well,

you may not today in your house,
but you may tomorrow.

And it's priced competitively with the other offerings in the
market.

So why wouldn't you have that? So there's some education that
needs to go on.

No complaints. Having that as a symmetrical offering and
explaining to people why that's important,

absolutely helps. But the reception so far has been very good.

Andy Johns:
Good. Good. Any time that, and you guys are not strangers to kind
of being on the leading edge

of making changes in the industry.

So it may not have been quite as difficult for you all,
but anytime you are kind of doing something out of the ordinary,

and I think at this point, we can still consider this being out
of the ordinary.

I mean, to have the lowest speed.

It's easy for folks to internally to have naysayers or people
that,

you know, are out of alignment. What has it been like,
I guess kind of where,

who was driving the conversation to do this?

And then how have you all gone about getting leadership involved,

and then all the way down to, you know,
customer service, member services folks,

everybody aligned and on the same page for a big change like
this?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Well, I think all the bruises have healed me from the battles
that I took with leadership of.

Andy Johns:
All right.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
The great thing about HTC is we've got some fantastic leaders.

We are a conservative co-op that's forward thinking,
but everybody's got their own idea.

Everybody's got their own vision.

And when we brought this up and,
you know, the challenge of condensing offerings but raising

speeds, it really took some time to get everybody on the same
page.

The great thing again about this co-op is,
it's our conversations,

some of them easier than others.

But we got there and, you know,
it's not only about today, it's about where are we going to be

tomorrow, five years from now. Do you do it now in preparation
for that?

That is one of the benefits of having a network,
that's the vast majority of which is close to 90%

is fiber optic. We are prepared for the future.

You said a moment ago that we've always been kind of forward
thinking.

We were running fiber and laying fiber before,
obviously before fiber was cool.

But this is something we've been doing for some time.

That has set us to the position that making offerings like this
become available.

Andy Johns:
Makes sense, because you've got to have that foundation to be
able to do it. If you know somebody obviously with a lot of

copper, a lot of fixed wireless,
something like that, they're not going to be able to make that

offer to be able to do it.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Especially [inaudible] symmetrical.

Andy Johns:
Sure. Yeah. And that's a big, big piece of it.

We've got you mentioned the education piece earlier,
and it's interesting to me.

I've been been around the industry coming up on 14 years now.

And I can remember when folks were,
when it was educational effort to get people to

understand this word "gig." And I think we're still in some
areas,

we're still working on that. I always remember there was somebody
early on that said they treated a gig like a Hemi,

and nobody knows what a Hemi is.

I mean, it has the shape of the valve is hemispherical instead
of,

whatever. Nobody knows what a Hemi is.

They just know their buddy's truck has it,
and so they want their truck to have it. And that's the way a lot

of folks have treated a gig for a while is that,
you know, it's really fast.

That's all you need to know. What kind of educational effort do
you think?

Are y'all there yet? Does everybody know what a gig is,
or do you think we still have?

I have a ways to go, or do they even need to?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
I think it really depends on the person that we're speaking to,
right?

When we're having a conversation with a prospect,
a prospective member or somebody,

there are folks where we can talk gig,
we can talk symmetrical speeds, we can talk fiber.

And there's other folks that we're going to have to explain what
it is.

So that could be a hundred different conversations.

Look I can remember, I don't want to make myself sound old,
but I can remember explaining to people why you could still be on

the phone and use DSL on your computer at the same time without
disconnecting your internet

connection. It's an evolutionary process,
but folks are

adapting. You know, I spoke to one lady.

I love telling the story. There was a woman that we were talking
to about speeds,

and she looked at me and she said,
"You know, when email first became a thing,

I thought to myself, 'Why would I use email?

I either just send them a letter,
I go down the block and talk to them.' I don't understand why we

would need this." And then she paused for a minute and she looked
at me and she said,

"My litter box is on Wi-Fi today." She said,
"I never thought I'd see that change." That's what we're looking

at. That woman, folks like her. It's evolutionary.

I tell folks who are a little older,
who need the coaxing.

"Look, you've been through it all. You've been through rabbit
ears,

cable box, wires, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray.

You've adapted to it all." You have to understand.

Now, streaming is here. With the streaming,
you need the speeds.

You need the bandwidth that they provide to run your home.

The internet is now the backbone of your home.

Andy Johns:
It's true. And you know, we don't have the litter box,
but I know that I've got a son,

a teenager now here playing Fortnite all the time.

And you know, whether it's gaming,
whether it's all the smart home stuff. You're right. It's

everywhere.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Yes.

Andy Johns:
You were talking about earlier the speeds,
and nobody wants a slower one.

My favorite ever was a North Dakota telco that had their speed
offerings were slow,

and this is what they called the packages:
slow, medium, fast and faster.

And they said that was the way that they were able to get
everybody out from the slow is when everybody called, "I'd like

your cheapest package." "Okay. I'll sign you up for our slow
package." "Oh, no. No, wait. Hold on, I don't want that." It's

the idea that once people understand it,
nobody wants slow internet.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
There's some brilliance to that.

There really, really is.

Andy Johns:
So I guess if we're looking at this,
the time frame of rolling something like this out,

just pull the curtain back for us a little bit.

You said April 1st is when it started,
which is an interesting day to launch a new product being April

Fool's Day. But how far back were you all working?

When did this start? Talk us through a little bit of the time
frame on an organization like HTC.

How long does it take to get to the point where you're rolling
something like this out?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Conversations on this probably started early Q3 the year before,
right?

So we're probably talking maybe July or August of 2024 where we
knew,

okay, it's time. We have to look around.

You know, I've been with the co-op for going on six years now.

When I started, we were at 100 mbps.

Shortly after I arrived.

Andy Johns:
Or for the top, for the low, for the low speed?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Our entry level, it was 100.

Andy Johns:
Okay. 100 mbps.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
I'm sorry. And then in 2020, we went to 300 back.

That 300 mbps was a respectable speed.

It was on the top of the offering in the market.

We've always tried to stay up there or ahead of the competition.

And then, you know, we went to 500 mbps,
which was kind of unheard of in,

I guess it was, late '22. So it's an evolutionary thing with HTC,

but we both know that we're one and two gig now.

I don't know what the timeline is,
but we have to know that with XGS-PON in our network,

5 gig, 10 gig is down the road. I don't know what years those
are.

I don't know what applications will demand that,
but it's something that that we all know is going to happen.

There's an over builder, an ISP that recently conducted in
Charlotte

some successful 50 gig tests. This was just last week.

50 gig tests over fiber. I won't name them,
but a very progressive,

newer company that's doing a lot of good work.

So when you talk about, "Oh, nobody would need a gig,
or why do we need speeds like that?" Well,

to put it in perspective, somebody's testing 50 gig.

Andy Johns:
Yeah, I was going to go to the business plans because we're
mainly talking about residential.

But you brought up competition,
which was somewhere else I was going to hit.

Have y'all seen the competition in the area respond?

I don't know how much you want to get into any of that,
but have you noticed they talk about things different or change

up their packages or anything?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
I've not yet seen a change in their packages.

I've heard a lot of trash talking.

Andy Johns:
Oh, okay.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
So when suddenly somebody comes out with that Hemi that you
referenced a moment ago,

and you're still driving the four cylinder Pinto,
watch the gas tank.

You've got to talk some trash to the Hemi.

Andy Johns:
Makes sense. That makes sense.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Well in that analogy in there, and I'm not comparing the
competitor to a '76 Pinto,

but they're leaking oil. What?

Andy Johns:
(laughs) Well, when you thought trash talk,
we discovered earlier that Jeff is a Mets fan,

and I'm an Atlanta Braves fan, so I was afraid that's where the
trash talk was headed. But I guess we'll save that for another

podcast. So, you know, we mentioned,
most of what we've been talking about so far has been on the

residential side. Have y'all made changes on the business,
the commercial side at all,

or is that still about the same?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
They are coming. By this time next year,
there's probably going to be some changes there as well.

We started on the residential side.

Get this out and businesses close behind.

Andy Johns:
Okay. Got it. Last thing I had for you,
and it's the way that I wrap up a lot of these podcasts.

What advice do you have for folks maybe who are in the shoes
where y'all were?

Maybe it's not the one I talked about earlier with 17 different
plans,

but somebody who's looking at it going,
this sounds like a great idea.

This is the direction we need to go.

What advice would you share with them as to as to how they get
headed in the direction where y'all are?

Jeff Chrzanowski:
I would say talk to your people.

Talk to your member base, your customers.

Talk to your cooperatives. Right?

Your neighbor cooperatives. The one thing about being a co-op
that's great.

I can pick up the phone and call any one of a half a dozen other
co-ops,

and say, "What are you doing? What are you looking at? What are
we?" Now,

they don't all have the network that will allow them to do what
we do.

But at the same time, having conversations with your peers to see
what's going on is always a great thing.

Keep your eye on the industry. I can't overstate that enough.

If you don't know what the industry is doing and what the
competition is doing,

it doesn't matter what you're doing because you're going to be
behind.

So take a look at that. When you've got your major internet
companies,

your Google, your companies like that,
having to build brand new power plants because they need more

power for what's coming, I don't know what's coming.

I can't tell you what's coming. But if they need new power plants
for that and everything that AI will bring,

we've got to be prepared. If you're an ISP,
look, we've all been using the internet for about 30 years now,

but we're still in the infancy of where this is going to be 5,
10,

15 years from now. Heck, the way it changes two years from now,
it may look different than it is today.

Andy Johns:
Yeah. Yep. Especially with as quick as some of that is moving.

Good insights. Thank you Jeff, for sharing all that with us,
and for being willing to pull back the curtain a little bit and

let us know what things are going when you guys are talking about
making a change like this.

I appreciate you sharing those ideas.

And, I guess, go Braves is how I'll wrap it up?

I don't know.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
You know what? I'm going to give you that one. I'm not even,
I'm not even going to respond to that.

Andy Johns:
Take the high road.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
It'll all matter in October.

Andy Johns:
It'll all matter in October.

Jeff Chrzanowski:
Of course, you may be calling me back in October,
but we'll wait to see.

I appreciate you having me on today. I really do.

Andy Johns:
Sure thing. He is Jeff Chrzanowski,
the product strategist with HTC.

I'm your host, Andy Johns with Pioneer.

And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources,
a communications cooperative that is built to share your story.