Senate Commerce Goes on the Road

The full Senate Commerce Committee will hold a field hearing on communications in Arkansas next week, the committee said Monday.

The Senate is not in session, so that should dovetail with the whereabouts of Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, who hails from Arkansas.

The hearing, "Connecting Urban and Rural America: The State of Communications on the Ground," will be Aug. 19 in the board room of the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

Pryor has presided over a series of subcommittee hearings on the state of communications and always makes the point about keeping tabs on the issues particular to rural telecom, a concern he shares with Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

The hearing will look at telecom and media companies in that state, with a focus on broadband and consumer welfare.

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.