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Government

Help for Rural Areas Needing Wireless Access

C-Span
Ia. 2nd Dist. Congressman Dave Loebsack, on the floor of the US House.

A bill to improve access in rural areas to wireless internet and phone service has been approved by Congress and signed by the president. Sponsored by Iowa Second District Congressman Dave Loebsack, it's included in the huge federal budget bill.

Called the Rural Wireless Access Act, it would require the Federal Communications Commission to set uniform standards for collecting wireless coverage data. That's because he says the agency's current maps are incomplete or in-accurate.

"And without accurate coverage maps, resources needed to improve wireless access will not be directed to the areas that need the most help, including rural areas."

And he hopes the bill will help rural areas in his district in southeast Iowa, and across the country, soon get the wireless coverage they want and need.

Loebsack serves on the Communications and Technology sub-committee of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over telecommunications issues. He also serves as a co-chair of the Rural Broadband Caucus.

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.