I met today with an executive from Ben Lomand Telephone Co-op.  The Village already has high speed DSL, so a minimally tech-familiar executive can easily set up a home office and begin tele-commuting from his Tennessee Mountain paradise.

In an earlier life, overseeing people in over 60 countries, I’ve done just that for about fifteen years now, using the internet for real time video conferencing and desktop sharing in a virtual office environment, so I know it works and I know how to do it.  It was an invaluable tool that helped reduce costs, local commute time and international flights while I worked, sometimes strange hours, in my bathrobe.  It played a valuable role in keeping my communications fresh and current across long distances and time zones.

I chose the location of the Village partially because I knew it had DSL, but more because of its proximity to Nashville, Chattanooga and Huntsville, all about an hour away from major airports.  The combination of high speed internet and good airports makes it possible for most executives to work from paradise if you know how – and I’m happy to coach anybody who is ready to make the leap from insanity.

But TODAY, I was blown away.  We’re looking at getting direct-to-the-house fiber optics.  That’s like plugging directly to the internet trunk line with not only SUPER high band-width internet, but also high def TV and video-on-demand delivered over fiber optics, not cable.  This is state of the art stuff in the middle of the woods.

WOW, pack your bags!