NEMR’s Jennifer Chrisman (Marketing and Sales Manager) and James Kigar (Board of Directors) joined other members of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, in our Nation’s capital last week to advocate on behalf of rural telecommunications providers.
NEMR (Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone Company), Chariton Valley, Grand River, and Green Hills Communications companies met with Senators Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley’s office staff, and Representative Sam Graves and his office staff to advocate on the need for Universal Service Funds (USF) contribution reform, ending federal taxing of broadband grants, funding future-proof networks with fiber deployment through the upcoming Farm Bill.
“Congress has seen the need to bridge the digital divide and deliver broadband infrastructure funding,” said Chrisman. “However, without USF reform, the cost to sustain the infrastructure will fall on the providers and thus on to the consumers.” A USF funding idea proposed by rural broadband providers suggests that streaming services utilizing broadband networks for free, could be charged fees. “Streaming giants like Netflix, Hulu, and others utilize our fiber network to deliver video content to consumers without contributing to its upkeep. This expense is currently borne by us,” Chrisman explained.
A recent Missouri Senate bill allows 100% income tax deduction for federal grant funds received to provide or expand access to broadband internet in areas of the state lacking such access. “The federal government continues to tax these grants, resulting in less money available for recipients,” said Kigar, “We would like the federal government to follow our state’s example.”
Rural broadband providers are also advocating for the Senate Farm Bill to uphold a minimum speed requirements of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. According to Chrisman, low speeds might not need fiber optic cable and funding could go to providers who cannot provide future-proof broadband infrastructure.
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