PITTSBURGH, December 9, 2014 – American Cable Association President and CEO Matthew M. Polka issued the following statement regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s provisional selection of several ACA Members as recipients of rural broadband experiment funding:
“ACA commends the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau for moving rapidly to implement the Rural Broadband Experiment program, which just resulted in the selection by the Bureau of nine ACA Members as provisional candidates to receive funding for the first experiments, including ACA Member Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico, where ACA Board Member John Conrad is a senior executive. The Bureau selected 39 entities in all to receive support.
“For many years, ACA Members told the FCC of their interest in using Connect America Fund support to deploy broadband in high-cost unserved areas. Earlier this year, various competitive providers, including ACA Members, were finally able to prove their interest by participating in the first Rural Broadband Experiments competitive bidding process to award support. We’re pleased that ACA Members were among the winners, considering that there were 181 bidders that together sought nearly $885 million for 600 project bids. These results dispel the notion that competitive providers wouldn’t be interested in participating in competitive bidding for universal service support.
“ACA has long held that FCC reliance on a competitive bidding process to award support is superior to using a cost model. It is more efficient, resulting in less support required to serve each location. It results in higher-speed broadband service provided to these locations. And, because support is used more efficiently, it enables broadband service to be brought to more locations.”
About the American Cable Association: Based in Pittsburgh, the American Cable Association is a trade organization representing about 850 smaller and medium-sized, independent cable companies who provide broadband services for nearly 7 million cable subscribers primarily located in rural and smaller suburban markets across America. Through active participation in the regulatory and legislative process in Washington, D.C., ACA’s members work together to advance the interests of their customers and ensure the future competitiveness and viability of their business. For more information, visit https://acaconnects.org/