National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) says broadband regulatory par...
National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) says broadband regulatory parity bill (S-2430) by Sen. Breaux (D-La.) and Senate Minority Whip Nickles (R-Okla.) jeopardizes rural carrier eligibility for universal service support. NTCA said Mon. in letter to Breaux and Nickles that…
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although bill doesn’t propose interLATA and unbundling relief to ILECS at expense of small telcos, as Tauzin-Dingell bill (HR-1542) would have accomplished, it still could harm carriers “by reclassifying broadband services as something other than Title II telecommunications services… The legislation would leave the reclassification of broadband services and the future of universal service program and what it will cover to the FCC alone to ponder,” NTCA’s Govt. Affairs Committee said. It said Breaux-Nickles, by removing regulatory distinctions of broadband providers, regardless of technology, places rural telcos “in the position of being brought under obligations their rural exemption currently protects them from.”