Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Tim Johnson recently recruited more than a third of the U.S. Senate to join his effort to fix the problem of dropped, incomplete, and poor quality long-distance phone calls to rural America. Johnson has worked closely with South Dakota small businesses, telephone customers, and rural telephone providers on the issue, and he is now pushing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski to take further action to resolve these problems.

Last month, Johnson held a meeting for Senate offices to learn about the call completion problems and invited Wall, SD resident Denny Law, the General Manager and CEO of Golden West Telecommunications, to help emphasize the significance of the problems. (The information Law provided lawmakers is located here).

Johnson has heard from many South Dakotans who still depend on traditional landline telephone services and who are being negatively impacted as these problems persist. Johnson recognizes that unreliable phone service has serious economic consequences for small businesses. It is also a public safety issue for South Dakotans who deserve the assurance that they will be able to receive an urgent call. 

“The bottom line is that folks in rural America are not getting a fair shake, and I am fighting to ensure they have the same access to quality service as individuals in more populated areas of the country,” said Johnson. “It was no easy task, but I now have more than a third of my Senate colleagues working with me to fix this.”  

“This issue doesn’t get a lot of headlines, but Senator Johnson understands how serious it is, and he brought it to the attention of Senators across the country,” said Law. “He first learned about the issue from a small Canistota business, and he has been a strong advocate pushing for these problems to be resolved.  Golden West’s customers and I are very appreciative of Senator Johnson’s leadership on the call termination issue.”

Senator Johnson led an earlier letter to the FCC in January 2012 regarding the call completion problems.  On February 6, 2012, the FCC issued a Declaratory Ruling on Rural Call Completion Issues that reiterated and clarified the federal prohibitions against blocking, choking, reducing or restricting telephone traffic.  While this action was a step in the right direction, these problems are continuing to occur at an alarming rate.  The FCC is currently investigating the problems, and South Dakotans experiencing these issues can submit complaints directly to the FCC here.

(For a copy of the letter Johnson and 35 Senators sent today, click here). 

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