For Immediate Release
Contact: Hillary Crowder, 703-351-2086, [email protected]
Arlington, Va. (January 29, 2015)—NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association today issued the following statement from Senior Vice President of Policy Michael Romano regarding the FCC’s vote to increase the broadband speed benchmarks:
“With today’s vote, the FCC has set a new yardstick for broadband—25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association supports efforts to increase broadband speeds for all Americans, but federal universal service mandates also then require reasonably comparable services at reasonably comparable rates in rural and urban areas.
“While small rural carriers have been incredibly resourceful to date and have long led the charge on delivering high-quality broadband in rural America, it is a tall task indeed to ask them to deliver materially higher speeds over time on the basis of a universal service program that is the same size as it was 4 years ago—when the target speed was 4/1 Mbps—and with intercarrier compensation revenues continuing to decline.
“Small rural carriers are fully committed to doing the best job they can for the communities in which they live and serve, but it is unrealistic and insufficient to keep expecting carriers to do more and more with less and less. Today’s finding only underscores the need for a thoughtful conversation about the universal service resources really needed to achieve and sustain reasonable comparability between rural and urban areas as required by law and public policy. Absent such a serious conversation, we will just keep kicking the can down the country road and sentence rural areas to second-class broadband over time.”
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NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association is the premier association representing nearly 900 independent, community-based telecommunications companies that are leading innovation in rural and small-town America. NTCA advocates on behalf of its members in the legislative and regulatory arenas, and it provides training and development; publications and industry events; and an array of employee benefit programs. In an era of exploding technology, deregulation and marketplace competition, NTCA’s members are leading the IP evolution for rural consumers, delivering technologies that make rural communities vibrant places in which to live and do business. Because of their efforts, rural America is fertile ground for innovation in economic development and commerce, education, health care, government services, security and smart energy use. Visit us at www.ntca.org.