There’s a growing risk facing rural broadband providers and telecom companies across the United States that rarely makes headlines. It’s not a new fiber overbuilder entering your market. It’s not a BEAD-funded competitor. It’s not even the latest disruptive technology.
It’s the person sitting in the office next to you who’s been there for 20 years and might retire next month.
What the Data Is Telling Us About Leadership Transitions in the Telecom Industry
The numbers paints a sobering picture:
- Only 30% of small businesses successfully transition when their leaders retire.
- Nearly 46% of organizations don’t have a formal succession plan in place.
- An estimated 75 million Baby Boomers are expected to retire by 2030.
In rural broadband and rural telecommunications networks across the U.S.—whether you’re a cooperative, a family-owned business, or an independent operator—critical, specialized knowledge is often concentrated in just a handful of people. That concentration makes the risk far more acute. In fact, utilities and telecommunications are already facing anticipated workforce retirements of 16.7%—the highest of any sector.
Think about it for a moment: When that field tech who’s the only one who knows your legacy equipment retires, or when your GM who has relationships with every tower owner in three counties moves on, that knowledge walks out the door.
The Three Levels Where Succession Planning Matters Most in Rural Telecom
Succession planning really plays out across three key areas of an organization:
- Board members – Whether elected or appointed, they’re providing governance and strategic oversight.
- CEO/GM/Owner – The executive navigating federal funding, big telecom negotiations, and setting strategic vision.
- Critical team members – Those irreplaceable people who keep operations running.
In this newsletter, I’m going to focus primarily on the latter two. These are the succession challenges I see rural broadband providers wrestling with nearly every day.
Challenges Across Different Rural Broadband Business Models
Succession pressures look different depending on how your organization is structured.
- Cooperatives are balancing member interests with long-term sustainability while managing board governance, capital planning, and regulatory oversight common in U.S. telecom cooperatives.
- Family businesses are navigating generational transitions and the statistics are tough: only about 30% make it to the second generation (though a hat tip to the multigenerational companies in our industry who have beaten those odds).
- Independent operators often struggle to attract and retain talent willing to live and work in rural markets, especially in highly competitive U.S. broadband expansion environments.
Despite these differences, the common threads are strikingly similar: communities that depend on you, specialized knowledge concentrated in a few key people, and a retirement wave that’s hitting all of you at once.
The good news is that the framework I’m about to share works regardless of your organizational structure.
Start Simple: Document Roles, Responsibilities, and Institutional Knowledge
Before you can plan for succession, you need clarity on what your critical people actually do day to day.
Here’s a simple place to start: give them a notebook (or a shared document) and ask them to write down their activities each week.
I know what you might be thinking—this can feel like monitoring. That’s why transparency is essential. Be clear: this isn’t about performance management. It’s about preparation. When someone eventually moves on, you need to understand what gaps you’ll be responsible for filling.
Once you have that list, step back and evaluate it:
- What can be automated?
- What could be outsourced?
- What probably shouldn’t be on their plate at all?
What remains is the work you truly need someone to do—and that’s the foundation of effective executive succession planning and workforce transition planning in rural broadband organizations.
The STAR Framework for Executive Succession Planning in Rural Broadband
For CEO, GM, and owner transitions, I rely on what I call the STAR framework. It’s straightforward, but many organizations skip at least one step, and that’s usually where things start to unravel.
S – Strategic Context: What Do We Actually Need?
Here’s where most organizations jump the gun. They go straight to “Who can replace this person?” without first asking, “What do we really need next?”
Start by grounding the conversation in strategy and long-term broadband infrastructure investment priorities:
- What does our organization need over the next 5-10 years?
- Where are we in our lifecycle?
- What challenges are most critical right now?
- Given all of that, what leadership profile actually fits?
Here’s the insight I see boards and owners miss most often: the leader who got you here may not be the leader you need for the next decade.
A mature provider focused on operational excellence requires a very different skill set than an aggressive broadband builder competing with cable overbuilders, fixed wireless operators, satellite providers, and companies like SpaceX’s Starlink. Being honest about that distinction is essential.
T – Talent Assessment: Who We Have vs. Who We Need
Once you’re clear on the role, you can evaluate your options—both internal and external.
Start by looking at your internal bench. Top-performing organizations hire internally 79% of the time for planned successions. The reason is simple: internal candidates already understand your culture, your customers, and the specific challenges of operating in rural markets.
A structured scoring approach helps here. If a candidate meets 70–80% of your requirements and you have time to develop them, an internal promotion often makes sense.
If the gap is larger—or if time is not on your side—external candidates may be necessary. Just be sure to factor in the learning curve that comes with your specific regulatory, operational, and community environment.
A – Acceleration Plan: Closing the Gap
If you’re developing an internal candidate, you need to map out the journey:
- What specific experiences do they need?
- What training or mentoring will help them grow?
- What timeline makes sense, and where are the checkpoints?
If you’re going external, my advice is simple: get professional help. Running an executive search through an internal committee can work, but results are mixed. A search firm that understands telecom and rural markets costs money, but hiring the wrong leader and starting over 18 months later costs far more.
Don’t overlook industry resources either. Organizations like NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, WTA – Advocates for Rural Broadband, and state broadband associations, and state broadband associations can often point you toward experienced firms or other helpful connections.
R – Risk Mitigation: What If Something Happens Tomorrow?
This is the uncomfortable question every organization needs to answer: for each critical role, what’s the interim plan if someone is suddenly unavailable?
I’ve seen far too many providers where only one person knows key vendor relationships or has access to essential systems. That’s a risk no organization can afford.
Beyond emergency planning, focus on these areas:
- Document everything: processes, relationships, institutional knowledge
- Capturing insights through debriefs while people are still in their roles
- Planning for board and ownership continuity
- Consider advisory roles for retiring executives. Their knowledge is incredibly valuable
- Start succession conversations 2-3 years before expected retirement, not after someone gives notice
Knowledge that exists only in one person’s head is your biggest vulnerability—particularly in small and mid-sized rural telecom organizations.
Why Succession Planning in Rural Broadband Truly Matters
Let’s be clear about what’s at stake here. This isn’t just about business continuity or job titles.
When rural broadband providers fail to plan for succession, the impact extends far beyond the organization itself. Schools, hospitals, farms, and local businesses all rely on the networks you operate every single day.
Your community is counting on you to get this right.
Action Steps for Rural Broadband Leaders and Boards
If you want to go deeper, I’ll be hosting a workshop at NTCA RTime on Sunday, February 22, where we’ll work through these issues in detail and hear directly from providers who have successfully navigated leadership transitions.
But you don’t need to wait until February to get started. Here’s what you can do right now:
- If you’re on a board or you’re an owner: Schedule a strategic session on executive succession. Even if your leader isn’t retiring soon, start the conversation. Talk about what skills and experience you’ll need in the next decade.
- If you’re a GM or executive: Make a list of your critical team members and their retirement timelines. Start that notebook exercise with at least one person. And have an honest conversation with your board or ownership about your own timeline.
- Everyone: Identify the knowledge that exists only in one person’s head in your organization. That’s where you need to start documenting.
The succession crisis in rural broadband and rural telecommunications is real, and it’s unfolding across the United States right now. The only real question is whether your transition will be intentional and strategic, or chaotic and costly.
The best time to plan for succession was five years ago. The second-best time is today.
What succession challenges are you facing? I’d genuinely like to hear what’s keeping you up at night—reply and share.
At Sunstone Associates, we work with rural broadband providers, telecom cooperatives, and independent operators across the U.S. to design practical, strategic succession plans that protect both organizational continuity and community impact. If succession planning is on your radar—even if retirement feels years away—it’s time to start the conversation.