State Telecom Activities

摘要

Rural regions will face bigger telecom and broadband funding challenges and states must act accordingly,nsaid the professional services firm Balhoff & Williams in a 45-page white paper (http:/bit.ly/1a51Qor) released Tuesday. “State legislators and public service commissions have a short periodnto affirm their long-standing commitment to terrestrial rural voice and broadband networks, and it will bendifficult to recover if the networks fail or falter,” the firm said in a news release (http://bit.ly/ZK3ZBv).n“The ultimate concern is the potential damage to local economies, emergency preparedness, and socialnenvironments in rural regions.” The paper highlights the importance of state USF funds, pointing to communities'nneed for broadband access as well as declining federal support. The paper details the history ofnsupport companies receive and lays out the stakes associated with the funding challenges: “States mustnadjust their approach to funding service in high-cost areas (which historically have accounted for up to 75npercent of the total funding need) or risk leaving thousands of communities and millions of householdsnwithout adequate broadband and voice services,” the document said, saying states must understand the urgencynand many aspects of providing universal service. This challenge makes it more important for statesnto supplement funding with their own USFs and begin analyses immediately, Balhoff & Williams said.nState commissioners Larry Landis of Indiana and Jim Cawley of Pennsylvania praised the paper’s findings,nin statements. The paper “underlines the importance of State USF mechanisms for supporting thenredefined concept of universal service for all Americans that now includes retail broadband access services, and for meaningfully sustaining the carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations of wireline ILECs inngeneral and rural ILECs in particular,” Cawley said.