Providers who actually started off as Telephone Companies in areas where the Large Companies chose not to provide service eesti and 100 years ago because it is rural, it is remote, hard to make a business case, so they built up Telephone Networks and have evolved Service Lines that are broadband providers. Half of our people do wireless. They are truly a onestop shop for Communication Service in Rural America, covering 3 of the land mass. They are close to literally live and work and raise their families in the communities where they provide Communication Service, and we represent them. We do everything from advocacy to education and training for them, to finding ways with synergy to bring Business Opportunities that is hard to do for small carriers. Host who are some of your Member Companies . Who do they represent . Shirley bloomfield i have carriers in various states. I have coops that are as large as 100 subscribers down to Community Health companies with 200 people in the middle of iowa. They are folks who literally provide service to Rural American generally. I have folks who are doing Amazing Things because it is the community they live in. For example, i have a four to in Eastern Kentucky would a four to have in Eastern Kentucky cooperative in Eastern Kentucky. They are using broadband for jobs and growth. They created 350 new jobs by partnering with a federal entity to do some telemarketing and Customer Service training. They opened up a training center, broadband nonmember company. People can work from home and do teleworking which requires terrific broadband to do that. I have got companies that serve on islands, the top of mountains, alaskan villages. They are truly the people who are looking to make sure Rural America does not get left behind as we go through this amazing medications evolution where communication is everything. Host but talk about some of the issues the ntca members face. We have david of communications daily. You mentioned broadband several times, and that is highspeed general accessor rural areas, and we hear about that all the time. What are your biggest priorities, either in congress or the ntca . Shirley bloomfield that is a loaded question, but the answer is broadband. One of the things we are seeing, the sec completed some Service Requirements that was a big years,of making the six crunching numbers and models and different objectives with the sec. The sec came out of that fcc came out of that with a legacy path for carriers, but the problem was there is not sufficient funding to give the jobs, the models and the legacy the people are now set to do. A lot of accountability, which is great, but there is the ability to locate where you are building broadband, which is important for policymakers. People are wondering, do i have broadband, enough of it . Is it sufficient for needs in the future . I look at universal service to make sure we can finish reform that will bring the promise of broadband to Rural America. That is job number one. Communitiesfrom across the country that are not my membership saying, can we get one of your companys out here . How do we start a cooperative . Congress is based on agenda and president trumps agenda, we are hearing a lot about infrastructure. Surert two, how do we make broadband is considered part of the infrastructure package that is considered . I think about the future being about broadband, the ability to do teleworking, bring jobs and Public Safety education, all of the initiatives that keep the country robust can really drive broadband. How do we make sure policymakers see infrastructure beyond a road and a bridge . In thatd i would throw is really important has been great for perceiving nobody but our sector in the industry the sec fcc had designated a range that urban rates and rural rates need to match one another. If you look at my carriers, i have folks that reach 2000, maybe 1000 people. It is not comparable. How do you find a reasonable way to make sure we are not having to match urban rates . That is top of mind for us. How are the universal service fund dollars used . Shirley bloomfield this is an interesting distinction. Can tellpeople say you your Networks Using universal service. People can build Networks Using Capital Infrastructure programs, like the Lending Program from us ga, which is one of the few super appropriating line items in the budget that Program Makes money for the government. Defaults never been a in the program. Sce use things like that or c or cobank. Is a supportvices mechanism that make sure the rate is comparable. How do you keep the network up to date, up to speed . How do you build it out, and make sure when you are charging for those services is reasonably comparable to urban rates . For example, my carriers have a timbers per mile. Pennsylvania is a good state to based off of because it has a mix of urban and rural. Pennsylvania, the average density permit ill is to hunt per mile is about 284. How do make sure you are not charging both consumers 300 a month to get Broadband Access . The Program Works hand in but universal services ensures you can do a comparably, reasonably priced access for Rural Americans. Reformswhat the scc have been important for. They put in place we can quantify how far out we can go. This has put a real emphasis on underserved areas. Had we look at communities that dont have broadband . How do we ensure we can reach those underserved areas . You are talking about universal service. It is a Subsidy Program that helps build out the operations. It gets about over 2 billion rural telik codes you represent. They need to provide another 250 million in funding or so per year. How is that looking over the fcc . [laughter] Shirley Bloomfield fingers crossed. It is a tough time. Everybody is assessing where we are apt, but i look at that and think, 250 million a year to ensure what the fcc has in place , we canfully funded quantify how many more people we can reach and what higher speeds we can actually provide for them. I think, wow, the farthest part of our country to make sure all americans including Rural Americans, have access . It is a pretty small price to pay. It is like they have built this car, it is great but not enough gas in the tank. The 250 million you are referencing would go a long way to making sure that works. And the High Cost Program does not have which the universal no cost have is there of living adjustment. They had been frozen. I think, we are talking about broadband, how do we make sure you get the great equalizer out there . I would be hopeful. We have a commission that is. Ural empathetic it was an interesting election. Rural america stood up a little bit and waved the flag saying, though forget about us. Dont forget about us. And you have a person from kansas who is not just representing it but lived on the ground. You understand that challenges and made a point of getting out into communities and seeing what it takes, who are the people, how are they doing it. And commissioner riley took a real leadership role, so he feels a strong passion about making sure americans have. I think we have a lot of challenges. Contribution has done, it is based on the legacy of the telephone service. You have this declining base at the same time you have the growing demand of a program that has become the broadband program. You are getting into a trick that, but the folks are thoughtful. I think they are willing to talk about it. If we can talk about an infrastructure bill universal service to actually do some of that feeling the gap would be really efficient and very Cost Effective way of pushing the broadband further out. You mentioned infrastructure. You just had your legislative conference, and you had a lot of members go out. You probably got a good sense of what the current out his of effort of efforts is. Donald trump talked about a broad infrastructure bill and broadband and chairman pi supports it. It would be more money for universal service, which could help you all address your issues. . Hat is your sense of prospects have you been lobbying at the hill, the white house . Trying to get the news. Shirley bloomfield i am very bullish about them actually doing it. I talked to people. I have talked to senators. I do the 7030, 6040. I look at the mood, and i have been out here for a long time and gone through cycles of administrations. There will be something set for finding a topic that this country can rally around that is bipartisan, that everybody can find something that is important. I think infrastructure really becomes that issue. There is a lot of it. I am hopeful we can actually do this. The fact you have got president mp putting out 1. 2 really 1. 1 trillion proposal, the democrats as well, whether it is proportioned the same way, it is hard to say, but the reference to broadband should be a part of that. The white house has been interesting. They are focused on infrastructure, figuring out what the pieces might look like. We played this game in washington where it is like, you cant do it in an election year, because that gets everybody riled up. I would disagree. So we have big ticket items the need to get off the plate, but the fourth quarter, i remain very hopeful by the summer, early fall, people are willing to start doing things people can respond to. Tohink it is a great year start infrastructure spending. Everybody likes to have something positive to talk about , and every Community Benefits from infrastructure investment. There is also new leadership in congress, mark doyle on the house side, greg walden is the new enc chair, chairman buffoon on the other side, etc. What has been your interaction with this group . Shirley bloomfield i have been very excited. Wherenators have been they were. South dakota. He if i show you where my carriers provide service, south dakota is a big state for us. It,ave someone who gets these are the constituents, and he is wired to think about what is happening to rural consumers and making sure his state have the same access that minnesota nextdoor has. So he has been a joy to work with. Congresswoman blackburn has been very engaged. She spent a lot of time early on working with the Trump Administration through the transition, so very behind the scenes in terms of priority. She is already invited the government to participate in a closeddoor broadband summit. She held it in tennessee in february. We put together with folks in tennessee doing interesting telemedicine initiatives with a university, and she addressed our group last week in washington dc and shared some of her agenda and talked a lot rurall broadband broadband. I am very optimistic about this. And congressman walden has a history of being from a state that has deep, rural pockets and has a cheap chief of staff that spend time with the acp. You find in washington you will not agree with everyone all the time, but if you can have good discourse, if you can find ways to engage on things and find areas of commonality, we can Work Together to push the ball forward on behalf of all consumers. Lets assume there is a broadband infrastructure component and infrastructure is being pushed as it will. We have some different models. You have the rural utilities service, usda program out there, and the universal services program, and the stimulus bill of 2009 which you said did good things, now that people have criticized it. If you were giving advice, what would be the best way for to for congress to channel . Shirley bloomfield it would be a multichannel support, because there is no one way to fall on this. For universal service, now they have been reformed, now that not so much accountability is the geocoding allows people to say, where does the money go to . There is something concrete about that that is the accountability people are looking for when it comes to things that are an investment program. So i think that is one important piece. I look at it and you are right, stimulus is in companies that have built out and seeing things we are not antistimulus. I look at things like ruf. Ca. Was always usda versus nt are you real Network Programs . We saw things hit the ground faster with ruf than nita. Putting it to an agency that understands requirements, standard safety nets, that is important. The other thing, if we take this seriously, there has got to be a compromise governmentwide push to standardize, make sure that people who are going through dont work through different sets of hoops to get processes in place. With stimulus, we have folks that ran up until the deadline because they could not get something through on a nita review or some kind of jurisdiction issue. If you could not get it by the deadline, you were out of the game. And people want to throw out tax incentives. It is an important piece, not so much for my company. If you cant make money, having a tax credit where you are not making money is not a huge motivator, but i would say for the entire state as a whole, it makes sense. That could be a part of it, but i dont see the tax incentive some people put them first. I would probably put them last. One thing i admire, you have chairman boone and senator nelson with their global knowledge, kind of addressed the streamlining and easement issue. Fcc pian hired the of the fcc is complementary. I think he is creating a Broadband Advisory Council and it is intriguing. He spoke to my membership last week, and it was fun to share thoughts with him because when they created this advisory council, really a roll up your sleeve, lets get into this and figure out what it takes for broadband, he got 40 names in the pot. There are currently about 400, so there is a lot of interest of people serving on the advisory council. What percentage of the u. S. Population does not have access to broadband . Shirley bloomfield it depends on how you define broadband, and it would be an interesting statistic. I look at our sector, 85 of my membership has speeds in excess of 10 megabits to 85 of their consumers that are out there. So i look at our kind of ecosystem, and is a pretty robust ecosystem. I would not want to throw something out because everyone has different standards, but some parts of the country are not served. That is why one of the initiatives the fcc put together with the connect america fund 2, which allows the larger carriers who are for whatever reason choose not to invest in the world markets, need to put that area up for auction. That would be an interesting process, and something we are excited about the because a lot of those areas are contingent to my areas. They are anxious to get support to build and provide broadband to those folks who have not had it yet. The light bulb goes off. There is a transforming kind of technology when you bring into these Rural Communities and see what they do with the capacity is pretty impressive. Again, sorry not to throw statistic at you, because it will be wrong. [please stand by] so the fcc harvest he rolls privacy rules have not. How do you plan that out because the fcc and federal trade commission have talked about harmonizing where there has been a lot of criticism, this could endanger privacy, some people say, no, they will do a harmonized framework for everyone, not just broadband, telco, cable providers. How does that ran out . Shirley bloomfield i look at it and i think that has been interesting reading the press reports. The conclusions of what this really means. In reality it was a little bit of an overreach. The carriers i represent, they have every needed to be consumercentric. From a market perspective, my carriers live in the communities they serve. Ody wants to do anything it is an important balance. These are your neighbors. They could be your family. They are very consumercentric, privacy is important. I think what the fcc had done was really look at one sector in the industry, and frankly, there other focus in this industry, on the edge, providers had far more access to data then certainly a broadband has. So i like the idea of harmonizing with the federal trade commission. It has been a reasonable approach. I think cooler heads will prevail, and for everybody to go back to the table and talk about whether the principles that will be important to ensuring Consumer Privacy is protected, it is the ultimate goal, not targeting anyone as you are waiting. A reset here. Itemother big ticket remains, Net Neutrality or the open internet, as well as the framework to govern that. They said broadband is entitled to service, republicans trying to repeal that. Do you think congress is going to make a serious run at some sort of legislation to target that, or do you think they might be a more broader attempt to rewrite the Communications Act . Shirley bloomfield having lived through the 1990s, it is a big bite, but Net Neutrality is the right hook to look at something comprehensive. I think that is possible. I am a fan of the art of the possible, and maybe something you can get one bite at a time. We have particularly given the social media in place since the 1996 act, it has made the volume in the room so much louder, and everybody able to do their own thing. Looking at Net Neutrality will anchor a part of what congress would do on the rewrite of sorts. We are in a unique position in that my carriers are already you regulated under title ii, so we are less concerned about what was happening under a title to regime, the only difference being the past fcc in our minds really overreached with where they were going and pushed that, instead of the ability to make sure our folks could connect or that they have Seamless Networks between one another. There was a bit of discrimination between if you were a buyer versus a content provider. The inability to look at the universe as a whole. So that kind of thing if people can sit down and share stories, we have got a Good Opportunity to do it. If it goes back to earlier questioning, congress has a lot on their plate right now, and Net Neutrality took a lot of oxygen. So can we clear up enough so folks can really could focus on the issues . Or will they want to . I could see it as a Communications Act rewrite. I imagine a lot of our viewers are not in rural areas. Some are. A lot of suburban or urban. Why should they care about all the talk about Rural Broadband, because they are paying into this fund and the universal service fund, or they are paying taxes for other programs potentially and infrastructure. Why should they worry so much about Rural Broadband . Shirley bloomfield aside from the fact rural is rural, the reason they should care about it , the value of the network especially grows the more connections you have on the network. Out twork that lays leaves out 60 of our country has far less significant value to all of us. The other thing i would say is Rural America, when you think about it, the percentage of natural resources, energy, agriculture, all of these things tied to commerce and why broadband is important to bring them to market, really do benefit all of it. It comes from a cow somewhere in numeral area. Area. A rural the hudson did a study, and they did an Economic Analysis that is ad that Rural Broadband 24. 1 billion impact on the american economy. Of that, 66 was the benefit of urban america, and that is because vendors, suppliers. So it does not stay in one location. So the economic reasons, and i think certainly as we look at ourselves as a country, the more we continue to create a robust a national network, it benefits all of us. Host Shirley Bloomfield runs the ntca. David kaut is a Senior Communications editor. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. It is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. On friday, former First Lady Michelle Obama served as the honorary chair for the healthier america and talked about the progress of her lets move initiative to help reduce childhood obesity. Her remarks are just
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