Western Telecommunications Alliance

On April 30th, the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA) announced the winners of the 2012 Communicators Awards, which include the Save Rural Broadband campaign.  The SRB campaign won three awards for the video it produced featuring Valley Telephone Cooperative in Texas.  The campaign won the following awards:

Activism – Award of Excellence

Documentary – Award of Distinction

Viral – Award of Distinction

The videos were produced by Double R Productions, based in Washington, D.C.  IAVA is a 550+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts.

Over the past month, Senators and Representatives have sent the following letters to the FCC regarding the USF/ICC Order and FNPRM:

April 3rd – Letter sent by Senators Mark Begich (AK) and John Thune (SD) and 17 other Senators

April 4th – Letter sent by Congressman Luetkemeyer (MO) and 53 other Representatives

April 16th – Letter sent by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken of Minnesota

April 18th – Letter sent by Congressman Cory Gardner and Scott Tipton of Colorado

April 19th – Letter sent by Senators Mark Pryor and John Boozman of Arkansas

April 20th – Letter sent by Senators John Thune, Tim Johnson and Congresswoman Kristi Noem of South Dakota

Today, the FCC issued a Declaratory Ruling seeking to address the problems rural carrier have had with call completion.

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.