FCC Chairman Pai Eyes Rural Broadband Fix

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai told a group of House members he acknowledges shortfalls with the subsidy arrangements for rural telecom carriers. “I aim to circulate an order ensuring adequate and efficient funding for rural broadband deployment later this year,” he wrote in a response to Reps. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Collin Peterson (D-MN) and other lawmakers. They had complained in May that the FCC’s subsidy fund suffers from a “persistent insufficiency” that hurts “the ability of smaller rural broadband providers to effectively deliver broadband services in the most rural areas of America.”