. >> guest: we remit the tornado - telephone companies in the united states from at and t to the shallest, and we put together ideas to take care of our consumers in a better way. >> host: how many are there here in the united states now? >> guest: there's thousands of telephone companies in the u.s. still. there's been consolidation, but there's a lot of small telephone companies. we have from verizon to small companies that are co-ops involved in the united states telephone association today. still, many different business issues as a part of that. we all try to work together to refuel solve common issues. that's what the whole purpose of the association is. >> host: we want to get into the policy issues in a minute, but first of all, what is windstream p >> guest: it's a wonderful company. i may be biased in that review, but we're mainly focused in rural america providing local tfn service, triple play, if you will, voice, broadband, very rural stretching from new mexico to upstate new york serving 3 million customers. we're in very rural markets. some in the state of texas, the averag