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Today's Poll!Report predicts rural phone troubles under FCC plan
Monday, December 10, 2012
A year-old Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order intended to improve broadband services throughout the country likely will result in less communications services in rural areas, a Missouri State University report predicts.
And the rural phone company that paid for that report wants Missourians — and their state and federal lawmakers — to know it.
“Rural Missouri will experience a loss of jobs, a reduction in economic output, and lost tax revenue,” the Chariton Valley Telephone Corp. news release warned, as the company announced the conclusion of a new economic study.
The study, conducted by David Mitchell, director of Missouri State University’s Bureau of Economic Research, looked only at the effects the federal changes would cause to Chariton Valley’s operations and costs.
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Comments
Littleinvestor 5 months, 1 week ago
Just more of the war Washington, D.C. and is waging on rural America and the farmers and ranchers who feed the country. No TV, spotty or no cell phone service, now no landline telephones. I guess we'll have to go back to CB radios.
JCLifer 5 months, 1 week ago
The government thinks those country bumkins don't need their FFA chapters or their telephones.
I predict some huge demonstrations at the state and federal capitols soon. Combines, tractors, manure spreaders, and pitchforks will be all used to get the rural point of view accross.
The Liberal vs. Conservative war has truly morphed into the City vs. Rural war.
TrueStory 5 months, 1 week ago
We don't live in the city so what do the democrats need us for.....when they are all hungary we shouldn't share, but we will because that is who we are, even though they steal from us and our families daily to pay for the inner city.
asb 5 months, 1 week ago
You are all mistaken. The rule simply changes how the Universal Fund or whatever it's called is managed. The phone company funding the study is whining. Any losses in land line access will be more than compensated for with added cell and wireless. With land lines, Chariton often has a wired monopoly, as do many wirebased rural telcos that used federal money to run low-profit wires. The new rules will allow wireless to compete. That's the issue, an existing lack of competition being replaced by multiple, and cheaper, wireless service. The new rules should bring wider and cheaper service to rural America, as long as the FCC is adequatly funded and enforces the intent of the adjusted system. I got better cell service in Jamaica than I do in north Missouri, because they put a tower on every mountain and don't bother with land lines, too old and expensive a process. But by all means, let's blame the government . . .
spelchek 5 months, 1 week ago
Allowing "wireless to compete" equals one big corporation muscling in and kill local jobs and customer service with meaning. I do blame government, they never make anything better, just more bloated bureaucracy with zero accountability. Can you name one government program/agency that comes in under budget? Do gov't agencies constantly come in over budget demanding more money to fix their inefficiencies because the rich don't give enough? (don't answer that). Is it possible the huge cell/internet providers have DC in their pockets thus new FCC rules? Why are you championing the demise of small business? Could it be that it is you that are "mistaken"? Or is it that everyone else is dumber than you are? (don't answer that). Maybe these rural folks that you look down your nose upon like the service they have and don't want their customer service call re-routed to India. Maybe their neighbors are employed by Chariton and don't want them to become another victim of government making our lives better by making us seek them out for hand outs via unemployment, food stamps, mortgage fixes, health care, etc. Just how much more do you want government to control our lives? Your slope is slippery.....
asb 5 months, 1 week ago
Spel, why are you being so rude? I am not looking down on rural America, I'm from rural America. I am not championing the demise of small business. How is a small wireless business any different than a small wired business? They both have to compete with the big telcos, wired and wireless. Either medium can be small or large. I've read the (very biased) report, and land lines will not be dropped from the universal coverage, but they'll have to share. Are you against competition? Why do you say I think everybody else is dumber than I? I've never said that, or written that, or even implied that, you're just being rude. Why would a customer service call be re-routed to india any more for wireless or cell than for land line? Rural land lines are already subsidized, what does inhcluding wireless and cell in the universal service fee (which has been grossly misappropriated by the bigger telcos due to a lack of enforcement) have to do with healthcare and unemployment? Why must you crudely insert your extremist yapping points into every conversation?
Littleinvestor 5 months, 1 week ago
Try getting a TV signal with an antenna in much of the Ozarks. Cannot be done and there are no cable companies. Satellite is the only provider and is at least $50 a month for the lowest tier package. If you are in a valley, cell phone service is mostly none existent in the Ozarks. I only have service at home if I sit on the dresser in the west window upstairs or stand out in the road. But I'm lucky. The neighbors have to go into the closet to get a signal. It is a lie that everyone has, or will have, cell service. There will never be towers in low population density areas; it is not cost effective. So rural residents HAVE TO HAVE a land line or use signal fires.
asb 5 months, 1 week ago
Your land line is also subsidized. The rule shifts emphasis for federal funding from wired to wireless. In most of the rural US that will mean wider coverage to more people, at lower cost. In the hills, push for more towers, and come out of the closet . . .
Littleinvestor 5 months, 1 week ago
Read the full report. The landline subsidy is being taken away and being given to broadband, which many rural residents will never get. Our area actually is lucky because an electrical cooperative is putting in broadband after the local telephone companies refused because they would not have enough customers. What do you think people in west Texas and large areas of Montana and Wyoming are going to have happen? They are going to be left with no modern communication at all. People in Washington, D.C. have never lived in a remote area and think we have it all like rural Virginia, which has a much greater population density than parts of Missouri and many other states. The people who feed you are going to be left all on their own for communications. That comes down to two-way radio communication and signal fires.
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