Sevier Awarded Dr. Charles Kao Award for His Lifelong Commitment to Advancing Connectivity in Rural America

WASHINGTON, D.C.—(November 4, 2024)—The Fiber Broadband Association awarded the 2024 Dr. Charles Kao Award to Larry Sevier, former CEO and General Manager of Nex-Tech, in recognition of his pioneering work in bringing fiber broadband to rural America. The award celebrates individuals, organizations, and companies that harness innovation to connect communities through broadband. Sevier is being honored for his early and lasting contributions to expanding rural fiber networks and for his ongoing legacy in broadband leadership.

The Dr. Charles Kao Award is presented annually on Gimme Fiber Day, an international event celebrated on November 4th, which commemorates the birthday of the inventor of fiber optics. Established in 2013 by the FTTH Council Global Alliance (FCGA), Gimme Fiber Day highlights the transformative benefits that fiber broadband brings to society and the economy.

Sevier began his career at Nex-Tech in 1986, where he spearheaded the company’s move into fiber broadband, making Nex-Tech the first U.S. service provider to connect a rural community with fiber in 1996. This achievement set a new standard, inspiring rural providers nationwide to pursue fiber connectivity. Under Sevier’s 28-year leadership, Nex-Tech prioritized expanding fiber access across rural Kansas, connecting homes, businesses, and institutions in areas previously underserved. Today, Sevier remains an influential figure in Nex-Tech’s ongoing mission to deliver robust fiber connectivity.

“I am truly honored to receive this award,” said Sevier. “When we first employed fiber, many viewed it as overly ambitious, especially in rural areas. But seeing its transformative impact on communities has been very rewarding. I am grateful to the Fiber Broadband Association for their continued work to make high-quality broadband a reality for all.”

“Larry’s contributions have had a long-lasting influence on the fiber industry, particularly in rural areas,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. “As a visionary leader, Larry paved the way for rural fiber broadband, helping countless communities gain access to the economic and social benefits of fiber. His work continues to guide and inspire us as we work to close the digital divide.”

About the Fiber Broadband Association

The Fiber Broadband Association is the largest and only trade association that represents the complete fiber ecosystem of service providers, manufacturers, industry experts, and deployment specialists dedicated to the advancement of fiber broadband deployment and the pursuit of a world where communications are limitless, advancing quality of life and digital equity anywhere and everywhere. The Fiber Broadband Association helps providers, communities, and policy makers make informed decisions about how, where, and why to build better fiber broadband networks. Since 2001, these companies, organizations, and members have worked with communities and consumers in mind to build the critical infrastructure that provides the economic and societal benefits that only fiber can deliver. The Fiber Broadband Association is part of the Fibre Council Global Alliance, which is a platform of six global FTTH Councils in North America, LATAM, Europe, MEA, APAC, and South Africa. Learn more at fiberbroadband.org.

While some question the necessity of fiber in rural areas, current FBA Board Chair Jimmy Todd refutes that position from long-held, real-world experience. As CEO and General Manager of Nex-Tech, a communications service provider in northwest Kansas, he’s seen the essential need for fiber to deliver education, health care, and economic progress in America’s heartland over the past decade. 

“Nex-Tech was the first to bring fiber to a rural community,” said Todd. “At the time, people didn’t like the fact we wanted to deploy fiber because that was perceived to be ‘Gold plating.’ But looking at the future and asking where are we going, where we needed to be, fiber made sense. We knew that fiber was the future, we can’t look backwards.” 

Policy makers often are focused on the “right now,” rather than where we need to be in a few years, leading to policy, regulation, and decision-making that’s delayed, said Todd, but “technology doesn’t wait” and rural communities need the benefits that fiber delivers to schools, public safety, healthcare, and businesses. 

“A small business in rural Kansas can have customers all over the world, not just in their small town,” Todd said. “It used to be the only way [a small business] could survive was by the local residents. Now you have an online presence, you have connectivity, and can provide your services or your product all over the world. It really makes a difference when you have that available in our rural areas.” 

Fiber provides reliable, high-speed, low-latency broadband to the local hospital, enabling it to provide specialist care, while the schools can connect into the state broadband network to access universities and other educational resources. For one local dairy, Nex-Tech extended fiber so it could do business with Danone North America, the producer of Dannon Yogurt. The payoff was significant. 

“They had an opportunity to provide their product to Dannon,” said Todd. “They needed fiber connectivity, to have that connection with Dannon and to monitor what was going on with the operation with the milk product, help with how they fed [the cows], all these different things that are hugely important for the quality that they have to maintain. That business has significantly grown in the past decade. They’ve started another location, they’ve more than doubled the size of their operation, and they would have never been able to do that without fiber.” 

To learn more about fiber and its impact upon rural communities and how it unlocks the productivity of precision agriculture, listen to the latest Fiber For Breakfast podcast.