Pole Replacements: A Reasonable Cost of Doing Business
BLOG | SOMETHING FOR NOTHING: BIG CABLE’S SELF-SERVING PUSH TO UPEND POLES POLICY
While it may be understandable that the cable industry would ask policymakers to force competitors to pay their bills and taxpayers to offset the costs of their low-ball Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) bids, policymakers must reject these self-serving requests when they clearly do not serve the public interest. Granting these concessions would be unfair to taxpayers and to broadband companies that play by the rules. Most important, such a diversion of public funds would lead to fewer unserved and underserved Americans receiving broadband.
There are many productive ways state and federal agencies can work with broadband companies to achieve our nation’s shared goal of universal connectivity. Covering the spread for companies that gamed the RDOF auction process is not one of them.
ISSUE BRIEF | POLE REPLACEMENTS—A REASONABLE COST OF DOING BUSINESS