Iowa TV News Report Highlights Complexity, Risks of Rural Broadband Regulatory Framework

Local Des Moines (IA) CBS affiliate KCCI featured a story recently on ‘cord cutting’ of wireline telephone service that highlights the challenges of the current rural broadband regulatory framework for small, rural telecommunication companies. The report is somewhat misleading, in that it doesn’t provide a full explanation. An Ogden Telephone Company customer, Christina Janssen-Solheim, was featured because she complained about a policy of the phone company that is directly tied to the current regulatory framework. Janssen-Solheim complained that she was going to be charged $80 per month if she wanted to disconnect her landline telephone.