Built for rural broadband providers that need practical execution.
Rural Fiber Broadband Strategies, LLC exists to help electric cooperatives, rural ISPs, municipal broadband efforts, and broadband startups make better technical and operational decisions.
About Chris McKenzie
Practical broadband consulting backed by real-world experience building, operating, and scaling rural fiber networks.
Broadband leadership built from the ground up
Chris McKenzie is a broadband and network operations executive with deep experience building, operating, and scaling rural fiber networks. His background combines hands-on technical network design, executive leadership, ISP operations, vendor management, customer-facing service strategy, and large-scale fiber deployment oversight.
Most recently, Chris served in senior leadership as Vice President of Network Operations / CTO for a rural fiber internet provider, where he helped take a startup fiber business from its earliest stages into a fully operating broadband company serving thousands of customers. His work included building the network operations structure, guiding technical architecture, managing deployment standards, supporting customer growth, and helping develop the internal systems required to operate a modern fiber ISP.
Chris founded Rural Fiber Broadband Strategies, LLC to help rural broadband providers, electric cooperatives, and fiber startups make better technical and operational decisions. His consulting approach is practical, field-tested, and focused on helping providers avoid costly mistakes while building networks that are reliable, scalable, and manageable.
Relevant experience
Chris has led and supported projects involving FTTH network design, Calix access platforms, Juniper routing, IPv4 and IPv6 strategy, CGNAT implementation, OSS/BSS integrations, outage management, public Wi-Fi access control, VoIP, business services, and operational reporting.
He has also worked closely with electric cooperatives, fiber construction teams, engineering vendors, software providers, and executive leadership to align technology decisions with real-world business needs.
- Rural FTTH network planning and operations
- Broadband startup strategy and launch support
- IPv4 exhaustion planning, CGNAT, and IPv6 deployment
- OSS/BSS integration and operational workflow design
- Outage management and storm restoration planning
- Vendor evaluation, technology selection, and executive planning
Helping rural broadband providers move from concept to execution
A major part of Chris’s experience has been helping rural broadband providers develop the standards, procedures, network designs, customer service workflows, vendor relationships, KPI tracking, and long-term operational strategies required to scale. He understands the unique challenges rural providers face, including limited staffing, large service territories, storm recovery, capital planning, vendor coordination, subscriber growth, and the need to build sustainable systems from the ground up.
Operating philosophy
Broadband consulting should be grounded in real operations. A strong fiber strategy has to survive field conditions, storms, customer escalations, budget pressure, vendor limitations, staffing constraints, and executive scrutiny.
The focus is not just designing a network. The focus is building the operating structure around the network so the business can scale.
Core perspective
- Translate complex network decisions into clear business strategy
- Improve coordination between engineering, operations, customer service, and leadership
- Strengthen standards, SOWs, processes, and accountability
- Support operators through growth, migrations, outages, and technology change
Relevant operating experience.
Experience areas reflected in the practice.