Midcontinent Official Faults RUS Program

MIDCONTINENT OFFICIAL FAULTS RUS PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
The federal government’s broadband-loan program should focus spending on areas that don't have high-speed-Internet access, a small-cable-company executive told a Senate Committee Wednesday. The program “is largely being used to subsidize competition in areas where one and, in many cases, multiple providers of broadband exist,” said Tom Simmons, vice president of public policy for Midcontinent Communications, in prepared testimony. Simmons argued that the loan program’s failure to concentrate on unserved markets distorts competition and runs the risk that the federal government won't be repaid because loan recipients’ consumer penetration likely won't meet expectations. “Subsidizing competition is a waste of scarce resources that should be targeted to areas where a market-based solution has not developed,” he said. Midcontinent provides voice, video and data services to 200,000 subscribers in 200 communities scattered around three Great Plains states. Appearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee, Simmons called for changes to the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Rural Development Broadband Loan program, created in 2002 under federal farm legislation.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6335814.html?display=Breaking+News