Rural Call Quality Would Be Improved Under McCaskill Plan

Missourians in rural communities often experience poor call quality, legislation would provide equal service to rural customers

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is backing bipartisan legislation to ensure Missourians in rural communities receive reliable and affordable phone call quality.

“The ability to reliably make a simple phone call shouldn't depend on whether you live in St. Louis or Lancaster,” McCaskill said. “We’ve got to ensure folks in rural areas can depend on their phone service—it’s a critical lifeline for commerce, communication, and basic public safety, and it’s something providers should be able to guarantee.”

The bipartisan Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act would establish basic call quality standards for companies that route calls and require them to register with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) so they can be held accountable if they don’t meet the standards. McCaskill has previously called on the FCC to implement similar reforms through regulation.

McCaskill, a longtime advocate for improving access to affordable, reliable forms of communication in small towns and rural communities, recently introduced the Community Broadband Act to improve internet access in rural communities by protecting the rights of localities—who often face significant cost and other barriers—to build municipal broadband networks. McCaskill said of the bill, “Access to broadband in rural communities is critical to helping our small towns thrive—growing jobs and businesses, educating our kids, and delivering essential health services. If big-city internet providers are making the barriers to entry too high for the rest of the state, then we’ve got to give our small towns and communities the tools they need to invest in high-speed internet where they are.”

McCaskill has also requested an examination of the interaction between the lack of adequate access to broadband technology in rural areas and the reliability of Postal Service delivery. Without efficient and effective mail service as a result of recent Postal Service consolidations, Missourians in rural communities are put at an economic and communications disadvantage, the effects of which haven’t yet been properly studied.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/rural to learn more about McCaskill's fight to protect rural Missouri.

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