NCTA Chief Hails Senate Farm Bill

NCTA CHIEF HAILS SENATE FARM BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow is endorsing a Senate farm bill that would help ensure that a federal broadband loan program directs funding at truly unserved areas of the country. “We commend you for restoring the program to its original intent of helping to promote broadband deployment in unserved rural areas,” McSlarrow said Nov. 1 in a short letter to Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and the panel’s most senior Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. For several years, NCTA and small cable firms represented by the American Cable Association have complained that the U.S. Agriculture Department has been providing loans to broadband providers in rural markets where cable and possibly phone companies already offer high-speed Internet access, undermining competition and the intent of the loan law.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6496986.html?rssid=196

* Unserved Should Mean Unserved
An edited excerpt of testimony delivered by BendBroadband CEO Amy Tykeson to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies on Oct. 23.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6497180.html