There’s an ongoing need for a new Connect...

There’s an ongoing need for a new Connect America Fund program tailored to rate-of-return regulated rural LECs to help them “sustain and promote technological evolution for the benefit of all rural customers,” NTCA told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1farA1O). Such a program would be tailored for smaller company operations, would recognize the “unique challenges” associated with being a smaller network in rural areas, and wouldn’t require “complex rules changes, unpredictable shifts, or wholesale disruptions in universal service distribution,” NTCA said.