Arlington, Va., (February 24, 2021)—NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield announced the winners of the 2020 Smart Rural CommunitySM (SRC) Showcase Awards: Hill Country Telephone Cooperative (HCTC) in Ingram, Tex. Jefferson Telecom in Jefferson, Iowa LightStream in…
Customers of the SpaceX Starlink satellite broadband service are likely to receive inferior service in areas for which SpaceX won funding through the RDOF (Rural Digital Opportunity Fund) auction, according to a SpaceX service report commissioned by NTCA – The…
NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) have asked the FCC to use a broadband speed definition of one gigabit per second (Gbps) symmetrical for the commission’s next annual broadband deployment report. As a fallback,…
Rural telcos have made big gains in gigabit broadband availability and also have seen a big jump in customers who subscribe to gigabit service, according to the latest rural gigabit broadband data from NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association. The average NTCA…
Service provider groups NTCA and USTelecom and their member companies have joined the K-12 Bridge to Broadband program spearheaded by the national non-profit EducationSuperhighway (ESH). The initiative aims to help students that don’t have high-speed broadband gain that service. The…
Arlington, Virgina — September 15, 2020 — NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association announced today that it is collaborating with Digital Bridge K-12 to help rural broadband providers and school districts across the country work together to make sure that every student…
Two organizations representing rural broadband service providers have asked the USDA to relax certain rules for the ReConnect rural broadband funding program. In a letter to the administrator of USDA’s Rural Utilities Service unit, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association…
Just one day after lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at expanding the USF (Universal Service Fund) contribution base to include broadband as well as voice revenues, a new report argues that the proposed change would not impact broadband adoption. Advocates…
When COVID-19 struck and schools sent children home, teaching and learning began occurring over broadband connections. What about students without broadband at home? Some rural telecom providers – including South Dakota’s Golden West Telecommunications and Golden Belt Telephone (GBT) of…
A handful of U.S. Senators has introduced the Keeping Critical Connections Act to help small broadband providers ensure rural broadband connectivity for students and their families during the coronavirus pandemic. This is one of several attempts by the government, industry…
The FCC today adopted rules for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which will use a reverse auction to award $20.4 billion in rural broadband funding to be distributed over 10 years. The final order has not yet been made…
More than a quarter (25.3%) of customers served by rural telcos have gigabit broadband availability, according to a new report from NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association. That number is up slightly from 23.4% in 2018. Another 35.5% of rural…
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