Today's Regulatory Mix: USDA Announces Broadband Funding for Rural Virginia, NTIA Spectrum Policy Symposium

USDA Announces Broadband Funding for Rural Virginia

The USDA announced it is investing $9 million to provide broadband service in unserved and underserved rural areas in Virginia.  In rural Virginia, Scott County Telephone Cooperative will use a $9 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network to connect 7,496 people, 416 farms, 97 businesses, a fire station, a town hall and two educational facilities to high-speed broadband internet in Scott County.

“Access to a high-speed internet connection is a cornerstone of prosperity, and unfortunately many of America’s rural communities lack access to this critical infrastructure,” said USDA Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Bette Brand. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Perdue, USDA is committed to leveraging all available resources and being a strong partner to rural communities in deploying high-speed broadband e-Connectivity to the people, businesses and community facilities that don’t have access yet. Connecting America’s rural communities to this essential infrastructure is one of USDA’s top priorities, because we know that when rural America thrives, all of America thrives.”

NTIA Spectrum Policy Symposium

NTIA announced it will host a virtual, online symposium on September 22, 2020, focusing on national spectrum policy development and the evolution of new techniques and technologies for federal spectrum management including spectrum sharing.  Speakers are expected to include representatives of the Department of Commerce, the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Congress, Executive Branch agencies, and private sector and other non-government organizations.  The preliminary agenda includes a panel discussion entitled “Federal Agency Spectrum Use and Sharing; Supporting the Race to 5G” and another entitled “Supporting Commercial Industry Needs:  Balancing Spectrum Access Demands”.  The agenda is available on the NTIA website.

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.