​February 11, 2014

This in-depth web conference facilitated by NRECA’s Cooperative Research Network, discussed opportunities and pitfalls co-ops can face when creating a fiber optic network that carries cooperative data and provides broadband to members. Leaders from Co-Mo Electric Cooperative in Central Missouri shared their successes with using a fiber optic broadband network to offer its members reliable, cost-effective, and easy access to Internet, local and long-distance telephone, and TV services.

This web conference also explored the fully deployed next-generation power grid and requirements for a new level of communications networks to carry significantly more data than today's systems (estimate range from 10,000 to 100,000 times the data).