Washington – As a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback participated in a Senate Subcommittee on Communications hearing today on broadband deployment in rural areas.

"How to properly incentivize the deployment of broadband infrastructure and services in rural areas is arguably the single most important telecommunications issue faced by Congress today," Brownback said. "The Internet is changing the way we communicate, learn, shop, and entertain ourselves. But having access to broadband services can make the difference between whether a community is part of the new economy, or isolated from it."

"With few exceptions, broadband deployment is not occurring in rural areas in a timely fashion. This is not a cynical plot to exclude rural areas from receiving broadband services. The reality is that it costs a lot of money to deploy broadband in rural areas. Congress needs to ensure that there are not regulatory impediments, in addition to economic impediments, that are slowing deployment.

"As a result, I introduced S. 877, the Broadband Internet Regulatory Relief Act of 1999, which would exempt the broadband facilities and services of incumbent local telephone companies from the stricter regulations that do not apply to any other companies. My proposal is simple: when it comes to the deployment of new facilities, the incumbents should be treated like any other carrier - cable companies, competitive local exchange carriers, and others.

"If the incumbents are willing to make the investment in new facilities, they should be rewarded by not having to permit competitors to piggy-back on their investments. Incumbents should be able to recover their costs associated with deploying new equipment as quickly as the marketplace permits.

"New facilities can just as easily be deployed by competitive carriers as by incumbents. Risk must be rewarded in order to maximize the incentive for deployment.

"Congress should use deregulation as a means of spurring deployment of broadband infrastructure in rural areas. With the right deregulatory incentives, we can prevent the creation of a digital divide,” Brownback said.