Jonathan Chambers

For over 30 years, Jonathan Chambers has been deeply involved in and influenced the development of government telecommunications policies and the deployment of internet access networks. Early in his career, Jonathan worked in the U.S. Senate as the Republican staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. During that time, the Committee overhauled most of the federal laws that today still govern the telecommunications industry, including the wireless, cable, telephone, and internet access industries. Later, Chambers worked in the U.S. and Europe with cable television and wireless providers as the first broadband and digital mobile networks were planned, designed, and constructed. In 2012, Chambers returned to the federal government as the Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning for the FCC. He was a principal advocate for the reforms that altered $12 billion in annual FCC spending from support of voice services to support of broadband services and from subsidies for incumbents to competitive bidding.

Since early 2016, Chambers has worked primarily with electric cooperatives to bring much-needed fiber broadband services to rural America. Under his leadership, rural electric cooperatives have collectively secured more federal broadband funding than any other group in the country. In 2021, his expert guidance of Conexon’s Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium, made up of nearly 90 co-ops, received more than $1.1 billion through the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase 1 auction to deliver fiber broadband service to rural Americans throughout the country. Jonathan is the author of the widely-read Co-ops Connect FYI weekly industry email.

Jonathan holds a BA in economics from Yale College, an MA in international affairs from Columbia University and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.