The introduction of advanced telecommunications throughout rural Alaska will provide unparalleled technical assistance delivery to rural Alaska. This technology created a life saving program called Telemedicine. Using the same technology Bill Stokes (NTEC Staff) has developed a new technical assistance and training program called Tela-Operator. This program allows rural operators to have unparalleled access to village based operator certification training and one on one, issue specific, water plant operation technical assistance.
The Tela-Operator concept was introduced at the Alaska Water, Wastewater Management Association Annual 
Conference in Anchorage on May the 6th, 2009. This particular session had 18 participants and the introduction was well received. During May Bill Stokes tested the Skype based Tela-Operator program with the rural Alaska village of Sand Point and the test proved acceptable as the bandwidth of the webcam did not exceed the ability of the village communication system.