NCTA Chief Hails Senate Farm Bill
Bill Would Ensure Broadband Loans Directs Funding at Unserved Areas
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 11/2/2007 6:15:00 AM
Washington – National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow is endorsing a Senate farm bill that would help ensure that a federal broadband loan program directs funding at truly unserved areas of the country.
“We commend you for restoring the program to its original intent of helping to promote broadband deployment in unserved rural areas,” McSlarrow said Nov. 1 in a short letter to Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and the panel’s most senior Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.
For several years, NCTA and small cable firms represented by the American Cable Association have complained that the U.S. Agriculture Department has been providing loans to broadband providers in rural markets where cable and possibly phone companies already offer high-speed Internet access, undermining competition and the intent of the loan law.
Evidently, the Senate bill would impose new loan criteria to ensure that USDA money flowed into areas that do not have broadband access.
In his letter, McSlarrow said he understood that the bill would insist that at least 25% of the households involved in a loan project do not have access to broadband.
“By requiring applicants to specifically target these unserved areas, the Senate Farm Bill will improve the program and help to increase broadband deployment throughout rural America,” McSlarrow’s letter said.
The five-year, $288 billion farm bill passed Harkin’s panel two weeks ago. It is expected to reach the Senate floor next week.
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