Advocacy Issue

Consumer Concerns & Broadband Reliability

The online ecosystem is ever evolving, and Americans today rely on communications networks more than ever for fundamental daily tasks like working from home, shopping, health care, and education. As community-based providers, NTCA members have a clear incentive to make sure that their customers (who are also their neighbors) can purchase and make effective use of trusted communications services.

Why It Matters

Affordability

The prices of consumer goods and services are on the rise, and the cost of everyday essentials like food and gas are making American families think differently about their budgets. As more of our lives move online, it’s vital that broadband subscriptions stay affordable—which is especially challenging in rural areas where the costs of deploying and operating networks are higher than in more densely populated urban markets. NTCA advocates for the long-term sustainability and affordability of rural broadband through the FCC's Universal Service Fund, Affordable Connectivity Program, and other programs, while seeking to ensure that smaller broadband providers who in many cases may only have a few dozen employees are not unreasonably burdened by participation in these initiatives. 

Consumer Privacy and Data Security

NTCA members have a strong incentive to protect their networks and deploy them in a manner that will keep them up and running in the face of both natural and human threats. It is important that rules and regulations intended to protect consumers are tailored to address risks without unreasonably burdening service providers or creating regulatory uncertainty. NTCA advocates for clear rules that protect consumers and communications networks while also giving providers reasonable flexibility to best address the specific and unique risks in their operations.  Any framework for consumer privacy and data security should rest upon three principles: 

  1. Notice—Providing clear, conspicuous explanation of privacy practices
  2. Choice—Giving consumers options to decide which entities can access various levels of sensitive data
  3. Security—Protecting data in accordance with best practices

Net Neutrality

NTCA members are committed to making certain customers receive what they are expecting when they sign up for broadband services and to protecting the privacy of consumers using those services. In addition, NTCA has long advocated for common-sense rules to ensure that the networks that underpin those services interconnect seamlessly in fulfilling such consumer demands and expectations. We agree that operators should not block data and that consumers are entitled to clear disclosures regarding their terms of service. Similarly, we believe that there should be no unjust or unreasonable discrimination with respect to data or content as it travels across various communications networks. But the broadband marketplace is hindered, rather than helped, by onerous regulations that target (or favor) certain segments of the broadband ecosystem or otherwise frustrate the ability to develop and deploy innovative offerings for consumers.
 

Featured Issues

Cybersecurity

Cyber threats are evolving, becoming more sophisticated and proliferating throughout the online ecosystem. In response to members’ needs, NTCA created CyberShare: The Small Broadband Provider ISAC. CyberShare promotes the resiliency and continuity of operation of small network operators across the United States. CyberShare collects and disseminates threat information, indicators and mitigation strategies from a variety of public and private sources and facilitates communications among participants. 

NTCA also is an active participant in public-private information sharing venues, including the Communications ISAC, which enables network operators and government agencies to exchange cyber-threat information; and the CSCC, which coordinates with policymakers and other government agencies on planning and policy. To help small broadband providers in their cybersecurity efforts, NTCA also provides comprehensive guides designed to help telco executives, board officers and operational staff develop a risk-management approach to cybersecurity and hosts the annual CyberShare Summit with CyberShare each fall.

 

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Robocalls

NTCA’s hometown providers are committed to combating spoofing and reducing unwanted calls and are working to adopt STIR/SHAKEN, a caller-ID spoofing-mitigation technology, and other technologies to reduce the number of unwanted calls their subscribers receive. FCC initiatives can help address unwanted robocalls and combat “spoofing,” but these efforts must ensure that community-based rural broadband providers are not saddled with unreasonable costs that hinder delivery of affordable and high-quality voice service.

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