Star Communications, a member-owned telecommunications company operating in the counties of Bladen, Sampson, Cumberland, Duplin, and Columbus, is bringing its staff together at their new facility in the city of Clinton. 

Star CEO Donna Bullard said the company has been resilient through the pandemic and staff displacements that occurred years ago due to the impacts of natural disasters. Now, the company is hoping to bring their staff back under one roof in Sampson County this fall. 

“Our headquarters office flooded twice; once from Hurricane Matthew, and then once more a year later when Hurricane Florence came through and flooded our corporate office a second time,” Bullard said. “Since then we have had roughly 65 employees spread out over five temporary locations. That has now turned into five years.” 

Bullard called her staff resilient, noting the company is elated to be able to bring everyone back at Star’s new headquarters. 

“It's a beautiful, very modern, corporate office that 84 employees will be proud to call home,” she noted. “We were very resilient in the face of a disaster and a pandemic. The best parts are that we can bring everyone together and we can be more efficient.” 

While the pandemic, and the resulting business shutdowns, affected many business operations directly, Star continued its work at a time when internet connection and other network services became most vital. 

“With us being a utility company, we never really had the opportunity, per se, to be down,” Bullard said. “Members always expect us to be on. We actually work through it all. Our employees are very resilient.” 

Bullard also praised the company for keeping its commitments to customers and upholding the company’s values through 63 years of service. 

“It's a great feeling,” she said. “Our motto is neighbors serving neighbors. That’s exactly who we are and what we do.” 

The depth of the company’s roots in the area is an edge against larger service providers, Bullard said. 

“If a member has a problem, most of the time you're going to be able to call and speak with someone locally that more than likely is their neighbor,” she said. “Our employees go to church in the area, we go to the local grocery stores, our kids are in local schools the same as our customer base. That is what sets us apart as a cooperative.” 

Bullard added that having local headquarters is also a plus.

“You can drive into a local office and speak to someone face to face,” she said. “That means a lot.” On the business side, Bullard noted that those local ties also allow Star to better serve the customer. “The advantage we have is knowing our customers’ needs almost simultaneously as they recognize them.” 

One of the company’s largest undertakings in the last 20 years is expanding fiber internet connections across North Carolina, with Bullard noting the “great strides” being made in fiber deployment. 

Star was one of the companies who received a Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grant as part of Gov. Roy Cooper’s announcement in early July. The latest round of grants, totaling $80 million, will add high-speed internet to 25,825 households and 862 businesses in 33 counties. Star received a GREAT grant to expand its services in Bladen County. 

Star currently has roughly 65 percent fiber access to serviceable addresses, which total around 1,458 miles, with more progress expected. “We've come a long way,” Bullard said.

The company’s mission will be to ultimately reach 100 percent fiber service across the board. 

“Star is doing as much as we can, as quickly as we can, to deliver broadband to all,” Bullard said. “That is the nationwide initiative. We would love for every member that we serve to have fiber today, immediately, but it does take time and resources.” 

One of the challenges Star has faced delivering fiber is being able to source the cable necessary to connect their customers. 

“Over the past two years, and this is not an excuse, there have been supply chain issues,” Bullard said. “Even with the funding that has been available, there was a shortage of fiber cable. We do see the supply chain getting better in 2023. It has gotten better, but we're not back where we were pre pandemic.” 

During the pandemic, she added, the lead time on fiber orders had companies like Star waiting for about 52 weeks.

Some of those delays in material sourcing have been alleviated by the recent arrival of Corning in North Carolina. The New York state-based company recently opened a new optical cable manufacturing campus in Hickory that can help accelerate U.S. build outs of high-speed fiber broadband networks and connect rural areas. 

The advanced manufacturing facility adds hundreds of jobs to Corning’s existing North Carolina workforce of more than 5,000. The new campus is part of a series of investments by Corning totaling more than $500 million since 2020, helping to meet growing fiber and cable demand and strong customer commitments, a press release issued by Corning states. 

“High-speed internet is critical for North Carolinians to work, learn, get health care online, and connect with one another,” Gov. Cooper said in a statement. “Manufacturers like Corning know our strong workforce and economy make North Carolina the best place to do business, and we’re glad to partner with them to create more good paying jobs in Hickory.”

Lead times on sourcing fiber cable were reduced by about 60 percent for Star with the recent Corning plant opening, Bullard said. 

“We were able to get truckloads of fiber most recently and that's been a big help in the mission of deploying fiber locally,” she noted. 

Bullard assured consumers that the company is working hard to expand fiber coverage. 

“We are coming,” she said. “It’s just a matter of time and resources.”