Tag Archives: Telecommunications Act

Feds trump states to help provide Internet to rural areas

 
Chris Spiers
March 30, 2015

How do farmers get involved in the Internet of Things without the Internet?  It helps to get the FCC involved.

In a recent 3-2 vote, the Federal Communication Commission (“FCC”) decided that federal authority preempts state laws preventing public utility broadband networks from expanding to rural areas.  Prior to the ruling, large Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) lobbied state legislatures in 22 states to pass laws that limited how far a city’s broadband service could stretch.

Why would large ISPs care if rural areas had access to the Internet?  Essentially, because it has been more economical for ISPs to block the expansion of municipal broadband by their competitors, local utilities, than to provide these areas with high-speed Internet service themselves.

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