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Verizon Presses for CAF II Auction Broadband Speed Measurement Details; Utilities Also File

Verizon urged the FCC to finalize a broadband speed measurement methodology well before a Connect America Fund Phase II auction of fixed broadband service subsidies starts July 24. "Potential bidders need to know (1) how the Commission will measure speed,…

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i.e., the permitted measurement tools, the testing window, and the required number of measurements; and (2) how the Commission will determine whether the tested service is compliant," said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staffers. The telco wants speed test standards to be "consistent with the real-world performance of comparable services in urban areas," and it cited gigabit-speed measurement "technical constraints." Electric power cooperatives said the FCC should "adopt performance measures that will encourage compliance with the rules and guard against waste, fraud, and abuse while also recognizing certain technical issues that may impact speed test results." Don't "penalize providers for variations in testing, inadequate customer equipment, or factors like data overhead, which can give the appearance of lower speeds even on networks that are properly engineered," said the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and others on a meeting with bureau staffers. "Data overhead and the frame size involved in measurement reduces the actual data throughput of 1 Gigabit service and therefore can have adverse impacts on speeds during testing. This means that even a perfectly-engineered Gigabit network would ordinarily test around 940 Mbps." An auction expert recently said bidder plans are complicated by absence of final broadband performance details (see 1803120037).