Western Telecommunications Alliance

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

WTA and the other rural associations sent a letter to their members regarding three recent data requests.  Below are two templates and a draft of a nondisclosure agreement you may find helpful.

Nondisclosure Agreement Draft

FCC Data Template

Joint Board Data Template

USDA Rural Development invites people with interest in applying for the Rural Broadband Access Loan Program and the Community Connect Grant Program to attend a free informational workshop regarding the application process. The workshop will be held in Denver, CO April 20th-April 21st, 2011.

Workshop Agenda

Workshop Registration Form

Today, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced RUS is issuing a Notice of Solicitations of Applications and regulations implementing the new rules for the Broadband Loan Program.  More information can be found on the Loan Program webpage.  In addition, you can view the press release here and listen to the audio of Secretary Vilsack’s announcement here.  RUS will be explaining the new rules in more detail at WTA’s Spring Annual Meeting in Napa.

Notice of Solicitation of Applications

Text of proposed rules.

On March 22nd from 2-4pm Eastern, RUS will host a webinar workshop on applying for Community Connect grants.  If you’d like to participate, more information can be found here.

Today, RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein announced that USDA is accepting applications for grants to provide broadband access in rural communities currently without broadband service.  Information on available funding and application requirements are published on page 12017 of the March 4, 2011 Federal Register.

Go to the NTIA website for more information.

Today, USDA announced it is accepting applications for loans and grants to create jobs and spur economic development.  More information can be found here.