NCTA Says RUS Should Stop Broadband Loans Until Rules Are Fixed

Cable operators have advised the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service that it needs to fix its rules for handing out broadband development loans under the Broadband Loan Program and should stop handing out the money until that happens.

In a filing with the Department of Agriculture on interim rules for the program, which is distinct from the broadband loans RUS handed out as part of the stimulus package, NCTA argued that the interim rules won't stop RUS' practice of giving out funding to areas where broadband is already provided by cable operators and others. NCTA's issue with both the ongoing loan program and the one-time stimulus package broadband funding was that it was going to overbuild service where it was already provided, or essentially government-subsidized service that hurts their members. "Unless RUS makes significant changes to the interim rules," said NCTA in the filing, "we are concerned that this pattern of conduct could continue unabated."