Posts Tagged ‘RUS’

When Congress created the USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Broadband Loan Program in the Farm Bill, the goal was to connect to the Internet those Americans living in small towns and hard-to-reach rural areas with insufficient access.

As part of the Farm Bill reauthorization process, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has scheduled a hearing tomorrow on “Broadband Loans and Grants” that are included in the bill under rural development issues.  Availability of broadband to rural communities is an important issue that NCTA and our member companies have been focused on for years, as evidenced by cable’s $185 billion investment to build broadband networks that are accessible to 93% of U.S.

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.

For years, the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service’s (RUS) broadband loan program has been repeatedly criticized by independent auditors, members of Congress and others for providing funding to areas where broadband services already existed, or weren’t exactly rural (like suburban golf course communities).

Yesterday, NCTA released a new economic analysis [see news release and full study] of a few broadband stimulus projects funded by Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS).  The study’s key finding: the program’s funding of duplicative broadband networks has resulted in an extremely high cost to reach a small number of unserved households and is not a cost-effective means of achieving universal broadband availability (a goal that NCTA strongly supports).

Since this has been a busy week, it seemed like a good time to provide an update on the broadband stimulus implementation process. I’ll refer you back to this earlier video from NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow and our White Paper; we think a strong broadband infrastructure is a good thing and we think the use of grants to promote broadband is a good thing, but we also think the funds ought to be used efficiently and we think the process ought to be fair & transparent.