House Communications Subcommittee to Look at Rural Broadband

Look for the House Communications Subcommittee to schedule a hearing next week on rural broadband, a Hill source familiar with the hearing's planning said.

The Trump Administration and FCC have declared closing the rural digital divide a prime directive.

In fact, connecting rural America and bridging that gap is a bipartisan issue, though how that gets done is not.

For example, FCC chair Ajit Pai has argued that rolling back net neutrality regs spurs the kind of innovation that gets broadband to unserved areas. Democrats generally do not agree with that assessment.

Republicans say deregulating ISPs frees up capital for buildouts, while Democrats tend toward freeing up more government funding, even if it means overbuilding some commercial service to make sure those buildouts are sustainable.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.