USTelecom Funds Ad Pushing Hill to Fund Broadband

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Legislators have proposed billions for broadband buildouts in COVID-19 aid packages, citing the need for online learning and remote healthcare and the ability to work from home, which means closing the digital divide given that a broadband connection is increasingly a prerequisite for full participation in a pandemic-altered society. 

The ad also comes as USTelecom member AT&T publicly called this week for direct congressional funding of Universal Service Fund, the FCC program that subsidizes advanced telecommunications--increasingly that means broadband--for low-income residents, hard-to-reach and uneconomical to serve places, and schools and libraries. 

According to a copy of the contract with TEGNA's WUSA-TV Washington, the $30,000 spot in CBS' Face the Nation will be a "Call to action: Get congress to invest in broadband connection for Americans." 

The ad flight is scheduled to start July 27 and run through Aug. 2. 

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.