Begich Bill Encourages More Broadband Investment in Rural Communities

Small telecommunications companies providing service in rural areas like those in Alaska are finally seeing signs of relief from faulty Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations discouraging broadband expansion projects. To support this relief, Sen Mark Begich (D-AK) introduced legislation to help expansion and improvement of rural broadband services by relieving unfair financial burdens imposed on small, rural telecom companies.

Sen Begich’s bill, The Rural Broadband Investment Act of 2013 (RBIA), eliminates well-documented flaws in the FCC’s 2011 Universal Service Transformation Order that caused financial burdens to small- and mid-size communications carriers operating in rural areas. The FCC’s order, because of a questionable statistical analysis to determine funding and a complicated and expensive waiver process for telecommunications carriers, was an immediate disincentive to investment. Sen Begich heard repeatedly that it was causing Alaskan companies to rethink and reduce broadband expansion plans needed to spur rural economic development.