New OPASTCO chairman: Broadband universal service must fund served as well as unserved areas

By Joan Engebretson

Ron Laudner, CEO of Iowa-based OmniTel Communications, was recently elected chairman of the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, assuming that role at a critical time for small U.S. telcos. With the Federal Communications Commission set to put the process of reforming the Universal Service program in motion next week, I talked to Laudner this week about that and other key issues for OPASTCO members.

Universal service reform

Connected Planet: How do you think the FCC is thinking about Universal Service reform that may influence what we see from the commission next week?

Ron Laudner: What’s going to come out next week will change the focus from the National Broadband Plan to the rules and regulations that cover broadband and how the FCC will deal with that. [The focus will be on] the transition to a broadband industry and there will be some rules and guidelines we will have to follow to get there and there will be [a request for] comments [about that.]

The FCC will say, “This is what we want. Tell us how we should get there.”

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About Mark Milliman

Mark Milliman is a Principal Consultant at Inphotonics Research driving the adoption and assisting local governments to plan, build, operate, and lease access open-access municipal broadband networks. Additionally, he works with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to increase the value of their intellectual capital through the creation of strategic product plans and execution of innovative marketing strategies. With more than 22 years of experience in the telecommunications industry that began at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mark has built fiber, cable, and wireless networks around the world to deliver voice, video, and data services. His thorough knowledge of all aspects of service delivery from content creation to the design, operation, and management of the network is utilized by carriers and equipment manufacturers. Mark conceived and developed one of the industry's first multi-service provisioning platform and is multiple patent holder. He is active in the IEEE as a senior member. Mark received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
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