Pennsylvania (PA) Broadband News

Welcome to www.PaBroadbandNews.com, a news site dedicated exclusively to the changing landscape of the state and national telecommunications industry. As lawmakers and officials at the state Public Utility Commission grapple with new technology, sweeping federal court rulings and an increasingly competitive marketplace for all telecommunications services, www.PaBroadbandNews.com will provide daily and weekly updates on industry developments.
Updated daily, the headlines feature will include links to papers and trade publications in Pennsylvania and around the nation on significant telecom developments.

Each Friday, we will provide a Weekly Update on competitive issues in the industry.

Click on our Links page to access our database of links to corporate, government and private Web sites.

Pennsylvania's Rural Telephone Companies Critical of Streamlining Report
The recent release of "Streamlining State Government, Reforming the Regulatory Structure of Pennsylvania" by the Commonwealth Foundation has elicited a mixed response from the Pennsylvania Telephone Association (PTA), the trade-association representing Pennsylvania's 35 rural telephone companies, according to the group's President, Steve Samara.
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Rural Phone Companies' Perspectives on Federal Stimulus Projects Affected by Broadband Deployment Law, PTA President Tells Senate Committee
The 2004 law, Act 183, that established threshold dates for universal broadband deployment in exchange for the easing of some regulations on telcos is working, and has made Pennsylvania the most progressive broadband deployment state in the nation, according to Steven J. Samara, President of the Pennsylvania Telephone Association (PTA).
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Rural Phone Service Protected Under Provision in VoIP Legislation
A three-page telecommunications bill recently signed by Governor Rendell could end up being a savior for affordable rural local phone service. It did not start out that way. The legislation, SB 1000, keeps government regulators away from a growing Internet phone service, VoIP. But it also statutorily requires payments to local phone carriers that provide wireline service to thousands of rural Pennsylvanians. As originally written, SB 1000 contained no such guarantee.
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The Next Three Years: Likely Revenue Scenarios for Rural Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers
"The challenge...to rural ILECs is both short-term and long-term. Declining revenue streams need to be replaced by contributions from unregulated services...This must take place in an increasingly competitive and technologically changing environment..."
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Study: Pennsylvania Telephone Companies Hailed for Rural Broadband Deployment
Members of the Pennsylvania Telephone Association committed to the most aggressive broadband deployment plan in the nation under Act 183 of 2004, according to a study just released by the US Internet Industry Association.

"Today, many of the companies are already 100 percent deployed, and the rest are making tremendous strides in meeting the commitments made to the PUC as provided for in the law," the 'Deployment of Broadband to Rural America' study says. "In other words, all of the companies have either met or exceeded their commitments."
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House Consumer Affairs Committee Public Hearing on House Bill 539
Testimony of Steven J. Samara, Vice President, Pennsylvania Telephone Association
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Commitments Made, Commitments Kept
Universal broadband deployment throughout a state with geographical challenges, a significant rural population and a customer base that may or may not subscribe to the service is what incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) members of the Pennsylvania Telephone Association (PTA) were facing in 2003 when Chapter 30 of the Public Utility Code expired and a replacement statute was being discussed.
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Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania Technology and Telecommunications Summit June 7, 2007
Remarks of David E. Freet
President
Pennsylvania Telephone Association
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Antitrust Case Against Comcast Certified
A federal judge has certified a class action antitrust suit against cable television giant Comcast Corp. that alleges the company set out to establish monopolies in the Philadelphia and Chicago markets and then increase prices once it had eliminated all the competition.
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Local Phone Company Embraces Technology; Offers Latest in Broadband to Businesses/Consumers
When D&E Communications won the ‘Technology Company of the Year’ award from the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania in 2002, it served as a reminder that top notch technology companies are found right here in Pennsylvania. Founded in 1911 to provide local telephone service, the company is now an integrated communications provider and has a history of being a leader in embracing new technology. Company spokesman W. Garth Sprecher noted that D&E’s leap forward started well before the 1996 federal law deregulating the telecommunications industry.

Also in this edition:

Cable competition benefits ignored
and more!

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