Media Contact:
Matthew Berry, (202) 418-2005
matthew.berry@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
STATEMENT OF FCC COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
On the Need to Extend Broadband Throughout Rural America
BALDWIN CITY, KANSAS, July 1, 2015.—This week, I’ve had the privilege of seeing 
firsthand the opportunities that high-speed broadband can bring to rural America.  For small towns, just as 
much as big cities, Internet access can help create jobs, promote entrepreneurship, and bind communities 
together.
Yesterday, I visited Diller, Nebraska, a village of 287 people in southeastern Nebraska.  Since 
1899, the Diller Telephone Company has connected people in Diller and surrounding areas to the outside 
world.  Most recently, it’s done this by deploying fiber to the home or farm.  The company’s fiber 
network has been a boon to economic development in the area.  A great example is C&C Processing, a 
local meat processor.  Thanks to the Internet, C&C has completely transformed itself over the past 20 
years into a nationally known player.  From a small, husband-and-wife grocery store and slaughtering 
operation in the mid-1990s, C&C has become a company that employs dozens of people.  It sells meat at 
retail over the Internet and ships nationwide, and its wholesale products can be found everywhere from 
the PGA Tour to Whole Foods.  Chad Lottman (a co-owner of C&C) can use an app to monitor his 
facilities remotely, and his team can now create electronic inspection records immediately available to the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, instead of filling out reams of regulatory paperwork by hand.  As Chad 
and his wife Courtney told me, Internet access, delivered by Diller Telephone, has truly made all the 
difference.  It’s a major point of pride in Diller. And C&C’s jerky is pretty darn good.
Today, I visited Baldwin City, Kansas, where I learned how RG Fiber is preparing to bring 
gigabit service later this year to this small town of just over 4,000 residents.  RG Fiber started as a 
software company that couldn’t get enough bandwidth at a competitive price.  Frustrated by the lack of 
broadband options, Mike Bosch and his business partners decided to build a network themselves. From a 
few guys drawing up a business plan in a small kitchen, they are now creating dozens of jobs, building a 
fiber network that will extend from Baldwin City to Eudora, ultimately extending to Lawrence.  RG Fiber 
is creating a stir: I met an employee who moved from Kansas City to Baldwin City just for this 
opportunity, and Mike has fielded calls from out-of-state businesses looking to relocate, including a day 
trader in California. RG Fiber is scheduled to light up in Baldwin City in a month.  Everyone from the 
town's mayor to the president of Baker University to local residents had the same enthusiastic message: 
We can’t wait!
These are just two examples of the great progress that is being made across the Great Plains when 
it comes to broadband deployment.  But along with this good news, I also heard recurring concerns.  Time 
and time again, I was told that the rising level of regulatory uncertainty coming from our nation’s capital 
was a major barrier to infrastructure investment.  (One company said it recently stopped laying fiber 
entirely because it couldn’t predict the rules of the digital road—leaving at least one important business 
customer and many residential customers with degraded copper lines and less bandwidth.)
2And I repeatedly heard that the FCC needed to promote rural broadband deployment, including 
by changing Universal Service Fund rules that are holding back investment.  In that regard, I was grateful 
to hear that numerous companies from each state were supportive of the detailed proposal I outlined on 
Monday for extending federal USF support to rate-of-return companies that offer stand-alone broadband 
service.
As I travel back to Washington, DC, I’ll carry with me a renewed appreciation for those who do 
the hard work every day connecting rural America with next-generation services.  Building and 
expanding high-speed broadband networks in sparsely populated areas isn’t easy.  But it’s the key to 
future economic and social development in states like Nebraska and Kansas.  Fortunately, there are 
thousands of small telephone companies, cable companies, wireless Internet service providers, and others 
who are rising to the challenge.  My goal is to change the FCC’s rules in order to help them to meet that 
challenge, to extend the broadband revolution—in short, to give rural Americans digital opportunities 
comparable to those enjoyed by their urban counterparts.
###
Office of Commissioner Ajit Pai: (202) 418-2000
Twitter: @AjitPaiFCC
www.fcc.gov/leadership/ajit-pai
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official 
action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).