Chairman Walden slams FCC's broadband report

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) was incredulous about the Federal Communications Commission report that found broadband is not being deployed in a speedy manner.

The report emphasized that "more than 100 million Americans do not subscribe to broadband." The report is controversial because industry sees it as a pretext for regulation. The FCC used last year's negative findings to help justify network neutrality regulations passed in December. Chairman Walden made it clear that he thinks the findings are without merit. “It is one thing to recognize that some areas of the country -- typically rural -- are difficult to serve; it is quite another to say that broadband is not being reasonably and timely deployed to all Americans," he said. "The former only requires the FCC to consider reform of the Universal Service Fund; the latter is a claimed excuse to impose network neutrality and to further regulate the Internet,” he said.