Section 706 Comments Divided on Broadband/ATC Deployment Finding, Metrics
Parties disagreed on the adequacy of the scope and pace of broadband deployment under a Telecom Act Section 706 mandate, and on the metrics the FCC should use. Major wireline and wireless telco groups said advanced telecom capability (ATC) is being rolled out to all Americans in a reasonable and timely way, and urged the commission to keep or soften its current ATC criteria. Smaller wireless carriers and consumer advocates said broadband isn't being deployed widely and quickly enough, and urged the commission to raise and expand ATC benchmarks. Comments were posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-245 in response to a notice of inquiry, which cited ATC and broadband similarities but said not all broadband services provide ATC.
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Tech Freedom called the proceeding a "broadband masquerade," echoing Republican commissioner NOI statements that the FCC would again find ATC isn't being deployed adequately (see 1608040068). "What new regulatory efforts or subsidies will the FCC use this year’s negative Section 706(b) finding to justify? Even that is little mystery: the answer is broadband taxes," said the group, referring to potential broadband-based USF contributions. "On what basis will the FCC claim that broadband is not being deployed in a 'reasonable and timely fashion' this time?"
CTIA, Mobile Future and USTelecom said ATC is clearly being deployed pursuant to the statute. USTelecom said 96 percent of U.S. households have access to at least one wireline broadband provider and CTIA said FCC data show 99.6 percent of Americans have access to at least one 4G LTE wireless provider. USTelecom, Mobile Future and NCTA said the FCC should reconsider its decision that a positive ATC determination required access to both fixed and mobile services, but the wireless groups said the mobile progress was good enough anyway. "The Commission must find that under any reasonable metric, mobile broadband deployment is reasonable and timely," even under a 10/1 Mbps mobile data speed definition, CTIA said.
The FCC shouldn't change its 25/3 Mbps definition for fixed ATC service or add various other criteria, said USTelecom and others (the agency proposed keeping 25/3 Mbps as the speed benchmark and adding latency as another fixed criterion). Adtran and NCTA warned against again "moving the goal posts." The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association opposed a higher fixed speed benchmark and said the FCC should be "cautious" about adding other considerations. The Fiber to the Home Council, Americas said the commission should drop speed as a benchmark and simply focus on objective deployment of all-fiber networks. Network engineer Richard Bennett asked for a "coherent methodology" and "clear terminology."
Some parties said the ATC mandate wasn't being satisfied: the Competitive Carriers Association, New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) and U.S. Cellular. They backed expanded ATC fixed requirements and/or specific mobile standards. OTI said the FCC should increase its broadband speed benchmark to 50/20 Mbps, and the Utilities Technology Council said it should consider 50 Mbps or higher. NATOA agreed higher speeds are needed.
Netflix said broadband must be sufficient for consumers to view Internet TV and said data caps would impede ATC availability. Deere said ATC deployment is needed in agricultural areas, not just residential areas.
Broadband in remote rural areas likely will lean heavily on satellite delivery, satellite operators said. Multiple companies argued against instituting any latency standard, saying latency doesn’t affect web browsing, video streaming and other applications that are the bulk of Internet traffic. Pointing to its own network delivering broadband applications with a latency of 120-150 milliseconds, O3B said any latency benchmark should be higher than 100 milliseconds.
Its forthcoming Jupiter 2 satellite will increase network broadband speeds upwards of 25 Mbps, Hughes said. ViaSat said it offers 25/3 in much of the country, and ViaSat-2, to be launched in 2017, will support peak speeds of more than 100 Mbps, while ViaSat-3, to go up in 2019, will provide more than 1 Tbps of throughput and burst in the 1Gbps range. Boeing said its planned V-band service also would top the agency’s 25/3 benchmark.
Hughes said it backed the NOI proposal not to increase the speed threshold. “Most consumers that have access to higher speed tiers decline to purchase it,” Hughes said. ViaSat argued against evaluating satellite deployment data differently than terrestrial networks: “Any suggestion that satellite networks are capacity-constrained in ways that other networks are not is incorrect.”