Two of the state’s largest telecommunication organizations say the proposed Federal Communications Commission plan for broadband service could hurt Iowa. The Iowa Telecommunications Association (ITA) and the Rural Iowa Independent Association (RIITA) recently filed a joint response to the federal plan with Iowa Utilities Board.
I-T-A president, Dave Duncan, says their filing highlights some of the problems they see in the national plan. Duncan says they also suggested that while the state goals of the national broadband plan to deploy broadband to all Americans, many of the suggestions would be “detrimental to rural Iowa.”
Duncan says the national plan does not take into account the additional costs to companies to bring broadband to rural areas like those in Iowa. He says the plan instead redirects some of the funding mechanisms currently in place to help defray the cost of deploying broadband to rural areas like Iowa to some of the urban areas on the east coast of the United States. Duncan says they want to see those type of issues addressed.
Duncan says they recommended to the Iowa Utilities Board that it join with the telecommunications groups to advocated for change of significant portions of the national plan to allow for further growth of broadband in places like Iowa. Duncan says the recent Connect Iowa study showed just over 99% of Iowans have access to broadband service, so no urban-rural digital divide exists.
Duncan says there are concerns about continuing to upgrade the existing broadband availability for rural Iowa. The F-C-C is currently taking comments on the plan.
You can see the I-T-A’s comments on the issue on the Iowa Utilities Board website at: www.iowa.gov/iub.
