The goal is to make rural broadband “as ubiquitous as we can.’’ Approaches suggested by political officials and advocates include making grants and loans to towns or rural cooperatives ...

The Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act requires the National Telecommunications ... and my legislation is a critical step to accomplishing this goal,” Pfluger said in a news release.

Paul Weirtz, state president of AT&T, said trying to expand broadband coverage from about 75 percent of the state to 100 percent with wired, in-ground networks — the government's goal — would ...