Government support is necessary to deliver broadband to all Ameri...
Government support is necessary to deliver broadband to all Americans due to the cost of building broadband infrastructure in rural areas, a white paper by consulting firm McLean & Brown said. Rural broadband service providers depend heavily on a…
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combination of explicit support provided by the Universal Service Fund and implicit support through intercarrier compensation, it said. But the current USF and ICC regimes are based on voice-service metrics that aren’t sustainable in an increasingly broadband world, it said, urging “fundamental reforms.” Without them, rural carriers will face financial collapse, it warned. Meanwhile, the historical dichotomy between “telecom service” and “information service” is no longer necessary and is inconsistent with the evolution and growth of broadband services, the consultant said. Wireless networks lack the speed and throughput capacity to fully or economically replace rural wireline networks as an “important rural broadband delivery vehicle,” it said.