WTA Praises House Energy and Commerce Committee for Passing H.R. 2566
WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 21, 2016) – WTA–Advocates for Rural Broadband praises the House Energy and Commerce Committee for passing H.R. 2566, the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act, introduced by Rep. David Young (R-IA) and cosponsored by Communications and Technology members Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND).
“The small, rural telecommunications companies WTA represents are grateful that the leadership of the Energy and Commerce Committee has recognized the problems created by calls not being completed in rural areas and has approved H.R. 2566,” said Derrick Owens, WTA’s Vice President of Government Affairs. “We’re hopeful it can be advanced to the House floor and passed.”
H.R. 2566 directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to address the ongoing problem of telephone calls not always being completed to rural areas. Specifically, the bill would require all intermediate providers of voice communications services to register with the FCC and comply with service quality standards established by the agency. For several years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of telephone calls not being completed in rural areas mostly due to the use of least cost routers that, at times, do not terminate calls in rural areas because of the cost. This has communications, health care, business, and public safety implications. A similar bill, S. 827, was passed by the Senate Commerce Committee in June.
