Stimulus not a game-changer for rural providers

Rural service providers thought the broadband stimulus would mean improved economics in the form of lower costs for more expansion.

They thought wrong. At least, that’s what many companies said after receiving rejection letters from the government. So, without stimulus money to fuel growth, some operators are banking on another federal program to help juggle the expense of bringing broadband to hard-to-reach areas: the Universal Service Fund (USF) – after, of course, the USF gets an overhaul and subsidizes high-speed Internet rather than traditional voice services...