Western Telecommunications Alliance

Today, RUS Assistant Administrator David Villano posted a letter on the agency’s webpage discussing new requirements for loan applicants for the current fiscal year.

Today, NTCA, WTA and OPASTCO sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who’s also the Chair of the White House Rural Council, regarding the FCC’s Order and FNPRM.  The associations write that the FCC’s actions “threaten the sustainability of current investments in rural broadband, discourage future investment in rural broadband, and portend a new ‘rural-rural divide’ in broadband access. In sum, the actions ultimately undermine the commitment to ‘expanding broadband access and promoting global connectivity in rural America’ as touted by the administration several months ago.”

The document can be found here.

On October 21st, WTA, NTCA and OPASTCO sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing concerns that the FCC may not share his same commitments to “ensure that every American has a broadband connection and can benefit from the economic, job and marketplace opportunities that advanced communications technology provides” and “scale back unnecessary regulations that are burdensome on entrepreneurs and otherwise impair the nation’s economic health.”

On October 20th, WTA, NTCA, and OPASTCO met with FCC Chairman Genachowski and “discussed implementation of USF and ICC reforms consistent with the plan filed by a number of national, regional, and state associations on April 18, 2011, as updated by the ‘Consensus Framework’ joint letter.”  A notice of ex parte was filed.

On October 20th, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein sent a letter to FCC Chairman Genachowski asking the FCC to adopt a waiver process for “those who have prudently, in good faith with government oversight, under current USF rules” when devising it’s USF/ICC reform.  This waiver would “help alleviate concerns that the new USF formulation will not be sufficient for a recipient to avoid defaulting on a government obligation.”

Today, the D.C.-based Hudson Institute released a study entitled The Economic Impact of Rural Telecommunications: The Greater Gains. The report finds:

- Rural telecommunications companies contributed $14.5 billion to the economies of the states in which they operated in 2009

-  Two-thirds (66 percent or $9.57 billion) of economic demand generated by rural telecom companies redounds to the benefit of urban areas

-  Jobs supported by economic activity created by rural telecommunications companies are more concentrated in urban areas: 54.3 percent are in rural areas; 45.7 percent are in urban areas

To read the entire report, go here.

On June 22, the FCC, in consultation with RUS, released Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Update to Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy.

The 2008 Farm Bill required the FCC to submit to Congress a report describing a “comprehensive rural broadband strategy.”  This report was completed in 2009.  The report released yesterday is an update of that report.  The report focuses on actions at the FCC, RUS and NTIA “to meet the demand for affordable, high quality broadband services in rural communities, including historic investments made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”  The report finds that “While significant progress has been made to increase rural broadband deployment and adoption since the publication of the 2009 Rural Broadband Report, and a number of private- and public-sector initiatives are underway, additional efforts and new policies—including major universal service policy reform—are still required to ensure that rural America fully shares in the benefits of the emerging broadband economy.”

The Oklahoma Telephone Association put together a short summary document to assist its membership with alerting their communities to the recent spate of call termination problems.  OTA wanted to make it available for other rural telcos in other states.  Feel free to use it and edit it for your purposes.

USF Policy Document

Intercarrier Compensation Policy Document

About WTA and OPASTCO Document