Archive for April, 2012

Suddenlink’s Dave Rozzelle testified today on the issue of rural broadband funding, before the House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture.

Last fall, a unanimous FCC approved long-overdue reform to modernize the universal service fund (USF) and related intercarrier compensation (ICC) payments, crafting new mechanisms better suited to today’s competitive realities and furthering our national goal of extending broadband to all Americans.  The FCC’s gradual transition plan and new framework promotes greater efficiency, instills needed fiscal discipline and refocuses the program toward the needs of rural consumers, not rural companies.

On Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “The Emergence of Online Video: Is It The Future?” It will provide a glimpse of the many new ways that consumers are accessing video content and allowing us to reflect on the transformative changes that have taken place over the last two decades.

Yesterday, NCTA hosted an event at our offices to help educate about the impact of the March 2011 earthquake on the telecommunications infrastructure of Japan. Representatives from the Japanese Embassy here in Washington and executives from NTT East, a leading Japanese telecom provider, described the damage of both the quake and the ensuing damage of the massive tsunami that followed, efforts to repair and replace equipment and facilities and the lessons they learned that can be used to prepare for future incidents.