Washington, D.C. — All Americans should have access to reliable telephone service. Unfortunately, chronic call completion issues exist for too many rural American families and businesses, affecting commerce, public safety, and even connecting with family and friends. To address this issue, U.S. Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both R-Wyo., and a group of western and rural serving senators sent a letter to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today asking the commission to take the necessary steps to address call completion issues.

The senators urged the FCC to complete its work on an order it approved unanimously in October 2013 to address and better identify the call completion problem. Since that time, the commission solicited comments and feedback on the order, but has not followed through to complete the process since the comment period ended on February 28. The senators noted that, “Americans in rural areas will continue to experience subpar service without the commission’s commitment to move the order forward.”

Call completion issues range from calls that are extremely poor in quality, to frequently dropped calls, to calls that simply do not complete.

The eight Republican senators who also co-signed the letter include: John Thune, R-S.D., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., James Inhofe, R-Okla., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., John Boozman, R-Ark., John Hoeven, R-N.D., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Deb Fischer, R-Neb.

Click here to read the full letter.

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