U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar this week urged the Federal Communications Commission to work to boost rural broadband infrastructure.

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Klobuchar highlighted her “Dig Once” legislation to promote more rapid and cost-effective expansion of broadband networks. The legislation would require certain federal transportation projects to include the simultaneous installation of underground broadband conduit, helping to expand access to high-speed Internet for consumers and small businesses – in other words, “dig once.” Klobuchar also urged the FCC to work with the Rural Utilities Service to preserve development of rural broadband.

“Infrastructure development is not just about rebuilding our nation’s crumbling roads and bridges. It also means facilitating the deployment of 21st century technologies that are the infrastructure backbone of tomorrow,” Klobuchar said. “These initiatives will help ensure that high-speed broadband can be supplied as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Klobuchar introduced the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act with Senator Mark Warner to require states to simultaneously install broadband conduits as part of certain federal transportation projects. The legislation would include projects such as building a new highway or adding a new lane or shoulder to an existing highway. The legislation allows this requirement to be waived when the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Communications Commission determine that the conduit is not necessary.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that 90 percent of the cost of deploying broadband is for digging up and repairing the road. That means it is 10 times more expensive to add broadband after a road is already built than to install it in the first place.  Broadband conduits are the “pipes” which house tiny fiber-optic cables that carry high-speed, high-capacity communications.

Klobuchar also recently wrote a letter to the RUS and the FCC requesting that they work together to preserve build-out of rural broadband and support Universal Service.

Klobuchar is a member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and serves as chair of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion.