The following may be attributed to Joan Marsh, AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal & State External Affairs:
“Ensuring rural Americans have access to broadband is one of the most important policy goals of our time. AT&T shares the Commission’s commitment to getting the job done. We are proud to already be offering broadband to over 700,000 rural homes and small businesses as part of our CAF II commitment. And we applaud the Commission for moving forward to develop its successor – the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund – so that there is no pause in the progress. But funding must be targeted to the right places and we encourage the Commission to move rapidly to create a nationwide “fabric” of geocoded locations as the foundation for new broadband maps. The detail that the fabric will provide is the key to truly closing the digital divide.”