Senate to Hear From Telecoms on Rural Communications

The Senate Commerce Committee’s Communications Subcommittee announced the witness list for an April 9 hearing on rural communications and the "challenges facing companies serving rural consumers" and the list include smaller cable operators and telecom providers intimately familiar with the issue. Among those challenges, according to cable operators are not being overbuilt by government broadband stimulus money, and continuing to get subsidies as the FCC migrates the Universal Service Fund from phone to broadband. Scheduled to testify are Steven Davis from CenturyLink, John Strode of Ritter Communications, Patricia Jo Boyers of BOYCOM Cablevision Inc., and Leroy Carlson Jr. of Telephone & Data Systems.