Montana Senator Conrad Burns today chaired a Senate hearing on speeding the deployment of high-speed Internet services in Montana and nationwide. Two Montanans, Montana Public Service Commissioner Bob Rowe and John Fitzpatrick of Touch America, testified during the hearing in support of Burns' efforts. However, the pace of broadband deployment to rural America must be accelerated for electronic commerce to meet its full potential.
Broadband access is as important to our small businesses in Montana as water is to agribusiness.
Burns wrote a provision in the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act, Section 706, which was designed to cut through red tape in order to speed the deployment of broadband technologies. I will not allow Section 706 to be dismantled through FCC inaction. Burns noted that several Montana communities, most recently Billings and Libby, are receiving broadband access. He said that all Montanans must have access to broadband technologies in order to create a stable and prosperous environment for Montana's small businesses, communities and families. Rowe is also president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which represents all public service commissions nationwide.