Mark Pryor

Because isn't it true that the more you have to pay for the programming, at some point you are going to have to pass that on to the customer?

But the fact that you are saving the veteran the hours and hours of leaving their home...

But, you know, in talking to them, it is interesting, because one of the things they say is, look, 'We are just like the general public. We are using more spectrum.'

That would be great.

And my understanding is that is because everybody works really hard to try to make it work.

there are a lot of people in our state that may have access to broadband--and, again, some of that is going to be the definition of 'broadband' and what is adequate, but, nonetheless, they have access, but they don't utilize it.

And AETN is a statewide network, in a sense.

This has become a major component part of getting companies to locate here and keeping them here and keeping them coming.

Is it true that your viewership, PBS's viewership, is actually going up?

And part of this is the availability of technology, but part of it is just the cost to the end user, right? It is just hard for a lot of our people in this state to afford.

I hope when you are in Arkansas it is not all work, work, work. I hope you have some fun while you are here too.

Margins in agriculture are extremely narrow, and for the precision agriculture, to really reduce that and be able to farm more acres I think would be a benefit.

So, yes, the technology is great.

And let's talk about rural areas. Are you having trouble getting that out into rural Arkansas?

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's field hearing on the state of communications in Arkansas.

Thanks to the efforts of Senator Pryor and others, NATCO in 2010 received a Broadband Initiatives Program grant loan.

I think that just points out the urgency and the need for us to kind of go through this and work through some of the issues.

I can speak firsthand to that because I use that sometimes.

I want to ask you a question, as well.

The country has done a good job in building a network for voice communications, and we don't want to see anything fall apart.

Senator Pryor, we appreciate your continued leadership on many important issues in our industry, including your co-sponsorship of an amendment earlier this year that would have extended the moratorium on taxation of the Internet.

Let me also note that all of our panelists have done a great job today of keeping their comments to the 3 minutes.

We do not want to see the tale of two Americas, where you have urban and suburban America that have the latest and greatest and best technology and they have the investment and the innovation and all those good things, and then you get…

How do we make sure that these great, cutting-edge, amazing services reach everyone, not only urban areas but also rural areas?

Yes. I think that is what happens on the other side.