 Welcome to JSA TV, where we're covering the latest stories, trends, and innovations from leaders in global connectivity, digital infrastructure, and the networks within. I'm Allison Whelan, coming to you live from Metro Connect USA 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And joining me today is Rod Hansen and Jonathan Restivo, co-founders at Cityside Fiber. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Allison. Appreciate it. Of course. So, Jonathan, you presented on a panel this morning. So for those who can't make it, can you tell us a little bit about that panel and some key takeaways? Yeah, absolutely. It was a really interesting conversation with some other industry leaders from other areas throughout the U.S., a little bit further along in some of their developments. So it's interesting to hear some of their stories about some of the challenges that they're having compared to us, to, you know, it's relatively new to the space and where the industry is going in particular around Fiber to the home and Fiber to the prem out in those communities. I think kind of the consensus is that there's a shift right now from a bit of a Wild West, everyone trying to figure out who's going where and who the developers were going to be into more settling into some established companies. And now it goes from, you know, staking your claim or anything like that to now being able to execute and optimize through some of your efficiencies. One of the points that I really tried to hit on, and that is a focus for us at CitySide, is as we look at some of those, you know, how to operate within that environment, the keys for us are going to be taking advantage and leveraging our operational efficiencies, being local to Orange County, having that presence, you know, is a good OPEX driver there, marketing and brand efficiencies, so being able to speak to the community and hit more people at once as opposed to being spread out across different franchises. And at the end of the day, the focus on the customer experience, that's our driver as a differentiator within the market, you know, from the cable companies, from the legacy providers. And so I think across the board, what you're seeing for us and other industry developers is a focus on that and making sure that we're getting that right. And it's hard. I think that was a big part of that conversation. Sounds like the overall theme were efficiency. We're driving towards efficiency in all facets. Performance, right? Executing on all these business models that we've had out there and we've talked about and, you know, looking at the numbers, right? At the end of the day, you have to hit those numbers, right? And so that will be a big focus for us and the industry on the whole to see who can, you know, perform the way that we said we could. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's really become now a, prove it, right? Yeah. You know, the people have been funded, we're out, we're building, we're doing all those things. And it's gone from show me you can build to tell me how many passings you have. And now it's okay. What's your penetration rate really going to look like? And are these models going to work? Yeah. And so I think it's really comes down to execution. You know, we feel very confident that we're on the right path. We've made the right decisions. We're seeing really great signs, but we're still really early. So it's really now a matter of, you know, executing on what we said we were going to do. We'll get updates on all those stats, I'm sure, in the Metro Connects future, correct? Yes. Yes. Well, we talked to you and Honolulu, we got to catch up there and you guys had talked about tested and data point. Do we have any updates there? Good. No. Yeah, no, we continue to develop more neighborhoods and bring more neighborhoods online and bring more customers within those neighborhoods online, which is exciting. You know, going through the, you know, the expected growing pains, how to get up to our full operating speed as we talked about. So that's all part of expected challenges. Right. You know, some on the build side as well. Someone asked if, you know, if there was a surprise, you know, if building in California was a surprise and, you know, the response is no, we knew that it was going to be slow. We knew that it was going to be challenging and things like that. So we're just, we're powering through. We learned from our growing pains, right? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, more cities in the works throughout Orange County, as we talked about, and then steadfast in our focus is on finding underserved people throughout Orange County and communities and being able to bring fiber to those communities. And so our target for 2024 is to be out there and, you know, about 10 cities by the end of the year. And so we're on track and moving forward with that. Very exciting growth, growth, growth. Yeah, I think one of the things that we've seen is the city, it's not just us going through a learning curve, but the cities are going through a learning curve as well. It's been 50 years since somebody's gone into a city and built at the scale we're building. And so pretty much city staff hasn't had, hasn't really gone through this before. So they're learning with us. And the good news is, I think the city of Tustin is a great example where we started slower, but as the city gets more comfortable with what we're doing, permits are starting to flow faster. Right. They're starting to be more comfortable how they support, you know, us in the field to make sure that they've got the right inspectors and that they know what to look for. So it's really, I think, a real positive sign for us as we get into the same things now happening within a point. So that's a good sign. And as we get into new cities, I think we'll continue to learn along with the city on how to work together and hopefully start to accelerate that build. Yeah, just getting in the groove of things, right? Yep, yep, exactly. And you touched on a minute ago, the customer experience. Can you tell us a little bit more about the customer experience that you guys are providing and the great work that you're doing in those communities through that? Yeah, I think Jonathan's team actually is focused in that area. He pretty much owns that part of the business, but I think we are completely aligned that that is, in our opinion, the single biggest thing that we have to keep our eye on and focus on. And Jonathan, you can speak to it. Yeah, it's, you know, just adding a level of communication and engagement that I think is lacking from some of the legacy providers. Being able to have direct communications with folks that are higher level, even in the company, right? We had someone show up in our office, I don't know if you told that story last time, but, you know, someone showed up in our office and had, you know, some questions or whatever. And Rod was the one that dealt with them and kind of walked them through a couple of things and he left happy, right? You know, when's the last time you were able to have access to the Cox CEO, right? Right. And that level of engagement. So, yeah, for us, it's, you know, being local, having, putting ourselves out there in the community in a number of different ways, exposing ourselves to that feedback and interaction is really what drives that. And then we're also working on some cool things actually with JSA to continue to enhance that customer experience and provide additional benefits that go beyond just a higher quality internet service and internet experience. And so we're excited to bring those on over the next couple quarters. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you guys have so much to look forward to for the rest of 2024 and beyond. So for our viewers who want to go to learn more, where can they go to connect with you guys or to reach out to you? Yeah. CitySideFiber.com. If you're in the market, go ahead and sign up. But yeah, industry-wide where we have pretty active presence on our socials and LinkedIn in particular. So, yeah, we're always available. All right. Give them a follow on LinkedIn. Thank you guys for joining me. It was great catching up. And thank you to our viewers for tuning in. Until next time, happy networking. Thank you, Allison.