Category Archives: News

Legislation recently introduced in Harrisburg requiring regulated rural phone carriers, the RLECs, to provide certain minimum broadband speeds punishes the very companies that are already bring increasingly higher speeds to rural areas. Under HB 333, the rural carriers (members of the Pennsylvania Telephone Association, PTA), would be required upon customer request to offer speeds of […]

State Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) has re-introduced legislation, SB 85. that will modernize and streamline telecom regulations in Pennsylvania. Hill, Senate Majority Caucus Chair and vice-chair of the Communications & Technology Committee, introduced the legislation last session as SB 341. In her co-sponsorship memo, Hill said that the legislation is “long overdue, and is a […]

Proposed legislation in Harrisburg that would mandate minimum broadband speeds for regulated phone carriers and allow municipal governments to own and operate their own broadband networks will waste taxpayer dollars and bring zero benefit to Pennsylvania consumers.

One of the biggest concerns of the rural telephone industry over the upcoming disbursement of millions in federal broadband dollars is the prospect of squandering the money on unnecessary or unsustainable projects, President of the Pennsylvania Telephone Association (PTA), Steve Samara, told the Board of Directors of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. “Don’t repeat the […]

Pennsylvania’s rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) are eager to throw their support and decades of expertise behind the implementation of Act 96, the recently enacted law that created the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority.

Before a Senate/House joint committee hearing, PTA President Steve Samara cautioned against repeating mistakes of earlier federally funded broadband programs, including overbuilding of broadband networks.

The state House sent the Senate HB 1658, which broadens the current ability of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to move public utility infrastructure, and enter into cost sharing agreements with rural landline telcos during road and bridge projects.