Snyder to speak on broadband initiatives at Pa. Telephone Association annual convention
CARMICHAELS, July 6 – As a legislative leader in the fight to bring reliable, modern internet to rural areas where such service is spotty or nonexistent, state Rep. Pam Snyder will speak at the Pennsylvania Telephone Association’s annual conference in Hershey on Tuesday.
Snyder, D-Greene/Fayette/Washington, said she welcomes the opportunity to tell a new and important audience about the package of legislation she and state Rep. Kristen Phillips-Hill, R-York, have crafted and are promoting to address this problem.
“Representative Phillips-Hill and I, who chair the legislature’s newly formed Broadband Caucus, look forward to providing an overview of our initiatives, successes chalked up thus far, and where we are headed,” Snyder said. “This is an important issue to 800,000 Pennsylvanians, and we’re ecstatic to gain the support of the Pennsylvania Telephone Association as another key ally.”
Previously, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, which has 62,000 farm member families, joined the fight to bring better broadband to underserved and unserved areas.
Last month, the state Public Utility Commission launched an action to take jurisdiction of utility pole attachments away from the federal government.
Snyder and Phillips-Hill were invited to the governor’s announcement of his commitment in March. At that time, he announced creation of the Pennsylvania Office of Broadband Initiatives, which is responsible for developing and executing a statewide strategy to expand access to every Pennsylvanian by 2022.
Progress on their four-prong package of bills and resolutions was announced in April, when one component was approved by the House Education Committee.