Rural Broadband Advocacy in Action

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. But we still clearly have a lot more to get done – a lot of networks to still deploy and deliver new services – and this is where public policy plays an important role, and why it’s so nice to see a packed room here this morning. That role that public policy plays in building and sustaining networks in rural markets just wouldn’t otherwise be able to justify some of these investments and some of your ongoing operations and some of those stories of change that we’ve been talking about.