Do Generational Differences Matter? - ETI
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August 9, 2019

Do Generational Differences Matter?

As ETI looks back at the Independent Show last week, we were stroke by keynote speaker Jason Dorsey’s analysis of generational differences and how they apply to our industry. There were so many interesting analogies regarding generational differences that we were able to take away from his speech.

In Jason’s definition of generation, he mentioned that “you’ll see differences between urban and rural” people of the same age.  ETI has found this to be true of the issues facing broadband providers serving the needs of rural communities vs. urban communities. Whether we provide the OSS provisioning engine for a greenfield municipality network or remove silos and integrate systems within large urban telcos, we appreciate and help solve the challenges each sector faces.

Generation Z’s, generally speaking, don’t remember 9/11 or a time before the Internet, smartphones or social media.  More importantly, in the next 5 years, they will become the fastest growing generation of employees and consumers.  Which means there will be that much more demand for broadband services in every square mile of our beautiful country.  Hence the need for more ubiquitous broadband deployment in previously underserved or hard to reach communities.  ETI has worked with many service providers in these areas to speed deployment and time to market while protecting quality of service.

One of the most noteworthy comment about the Millennials is their propensity for what Jason called “delayed adulthood”.  This is something that we, as service providers, need to be wary of as well – delayed adulthood.  In our industry, “adulthood” means offering the best of breed services over the fastest networks possible.  He also referred to them as ‘tech dependent’.  And how true is that of our industry.  One of our goals here at ETI is to help alleviate that tech dependence by making complex integrations seamless and robust.

He said the Baby Boomers define work ethic in hours per week.  That they don’t believe you are working unless they can see you.  Our goal at ETI is do the heavy lifting required to offer the services that the younger generations crave – such as TiVo or MobiTV – so that you don’t have to work long hours to get the job done.

And finally, he called Generation X the “glue” generation – the generation that integrates and ties all the others together.  That’s precisely how we think of ourselves here at ETI.  We are the glue that integrates virtually all the service providers, platforms, hardware, access networks, etc. together.

If you’re not familiar with ETI Software, reach out and get to know us.  We bring together all the services you depend on, so that you can provide services to all the generations of subscribers that your business depends on.