Bruce Mottern Retires from TDS

Bruce Mottern retired in December from TDS Telecom in Knoxville.

His 42-year telecommunications career began with Contel, a large telecom provider now part of Verizon. After that, he worked at consulting firm JSI serving small rural telecom companies throughout the United States.

Bruce joined TDS in August 1991. Over the course of his career, he has seen major legislative and regulatory policy changes, like the breakup of the Bell system, implementation of local competition with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, expansion of wireless services and the creation of broadband grant programs. These changes were driven by significant advancements in technology.

“It’s hard to narrow what I enjoyed most down to one area,” Bruce says. “What comes to mind is working with and learning from a committed group of individuals, collaborative teamwork, focused on a common goal of advocating policies that provide for expanded and improved services and service for the betterment of their customers, communities and company.”

During his 33-year TDS career, Bruce served in several positions: director of state regulatory affairs for the Southeast region, director of revenue and earnings, director of carrier relations and senior manager of state government affairs. He has served on the TNBA board since 1992, including three terms as chairman.

On an industry level, he says he enjoyed being involved in public policy debates driven by advancement in technology, most recently the expansion of broadband and offered service speeds.

On his decision to retire, Bruce says, “While I certainly enjoyed the challenges of the legislative and regulatory arena, I wanted to spend more time with my family and have more time to enjoy my grandkids.”

As he looks forward into retirement, he says, he anticipates spending time with his family, traveling and not having meetings and conference calls.