Shirley Bloomfield

Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, discussed the importance of rural broadband to small-town America and issues of concern to community-based broadband operators, including the Universal Service Fund and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD), at a Communications Forum luncheon at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2024. "I have to highlight what I think has been the most successful rural broadband initiative that has ever existed that flies a little bit under the radar.

On May 21, Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, sent a letter on behalf of the organization to National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson. The letter followed up on a discussion about the implementation of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

The rural broadband industry has such a great success story to tell. In the face of transformative technologies, regulatory challenges and increasing competition, you have embraced that change, stayed committed and looked to close the digital divide by delivering the robust and high-quality services that you do every single day. Your commitment to sustainable networks and affordable services is what really has made rural communities fertile ground for innovation. We’ve seen that in so many ways, and this innovation contributes billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every single year.

Congress has recently committed tens of billions of dollars to broadband deployment, but taxing broadband grants dramatically reduces their impact.

Working parents in rural and urban America struggle daily to ensure they have adequate care for their little ones and certainly safe care at an affordable price. Here at NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, we have spent countless hours talking about workforce issues that impact broadband deployment in rural America. During our annual Women in Telecom Fly-In to Washington, D.C.,  the discussion turned to what could be done to encourage more women to enter the rural broadband space as an attractive career path.

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress established a preference for “priority broadband projects,” defined as projects providing broadband service that meet high performance standards, can scale with consumer and business needs over time, and will enable the deployment of 5G and other advanced services. After receiving input from a wide range of parties, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) determined that “end-to-end fiber optic facilities” were the only platform that satisfied these requirements and warranted such a priority.

One of the most critical questions that each State and Territory must tackle in implementing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is how to make efficient investments in the most reliable, capable, and sustainable broadband connectivity for those residents and businesses that have been left behind while reaching as many unserved and underserved locations as possible.

I celebrated my thirteenth anniversary back at NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association in this role leading the best association team and the most exciting industry. I spent 20 years at NTCA after working on Capitol Hill and loved everything about the membership that the organization represented. At the time I started (in the dark ages, per my daughters), our mission was about bringing telephone service to rural Americans.

To Members of the 118th Congress, as you begin work on the many important issues facing our nation, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association (“NTCA”) hopes that you will see broadband access as a key component to enhancing and sustaining our nation’s economic and civic well-being. We offer here a policy blueprint for achieving and sustaining universal broadband access in rural America.

In response to Sen. John Thune's (R-SD) oversight letter on issues concerning federal broadband programs, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association writes: