As the nation's leading broadband provider – a business that has invested over $170 billion in private capital to build broadband networks that are available to 93 percent of America homes – the cable industry strongly supports efforts by federal policymakers to reform existing rural telecommunications subsidies to free up billions of dollars that can be used to extend broadband to unserved communities.

With 25 million digital voice customers, cable companies are major contributors to the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), but despite robust voice competition in most communities, billions in government funding are being used to subsidize telephone companies in rural areas. By reducing or eliminating USF support in rural areas where true phone competition exists, and recalculating the subsidy in noncompetitive areas at a lower level which would attract private investment, meaningful USF reform can help fund new broadband networks.

The 2010 National Broadband Plan included these principles in its USF reform strategy, and the cable industry supports the Federal Communication Commission's efforts to achieve the goal of universal broadband availability without increasing the size of the USF program. Reform should also include competitive and technical neutrality so that all providers have the equal opportunity to serve rural communities and eliminating the "first right of refusal" provision which doesn't encourage efficiency and favors incumbent providers.

Additional information:

• Testimony of NCTA President & CEO Michael Powell before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
• Study: "The Rural Utilities Service Should Reassess Its Reliance on Universal Service High-Cost Support to Leverage Broadband Loans"
• NCTA Blog: USF Reform an Opportunity for Fiscal Sanity
• Letter to the FCC on Universal Service and Intercarrier Compensation Reform
• Amended ABC Plan
• NCTA Blog: Building Momentum for USF Reform
• Testimony of James Assey, Executive Vice President of NCTA, before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
• Testimony of Kyle McSlarrow, President & CEO of NCTA, before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
• Statement of Kyle McSlarrow, President & CEO of NCTA, Endorsing Universal Service Act of 2010
• NCTA Blog: Connecting America to Broadband More Affordably
• NCTA's regulatory filings on this issue