Texas Carriers Seek FCC Rulemaking to Discourage Fiber Network Overbuilding Through USF
Texas telcos asked the FCC for a rulemaking to update competitive bidding requirements for the E-rate program to discourage overbuilding of existing federally supported fiber networks (see 1903190014). The filing posted Wednesday from Central Texas Telephone Cooperative, Peoples Telephone Cooperative…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
and Totelcom Communications petitions to modernize Part 54 rules to prevent waste. The FCC should require E-rate applicants to confirm that no fiber facilities exist at the schools and libraries in question and allow a 60-day period during which an existing provider, as well as state and local officials, could challenge the assessment. "Overbuilding an existing USF-supported fiber network is likely not the most cost-efficient method to acquire service," the so-called Texas Carriers said, adding that such overbuilding "reduces the pool of funds available to rural schools and libraries that actually need fiber broadband connection." Exceptions may be considered when existing fiber network owners are unwilling to negotiate in good faith to lease the fiber at reasonable market-based prices, the Texas Carriers suggested. The telcos raised concerns about region-based consortiums in Texas that have submitted E-rate requests for proposals to construct wide-area networks to provide broadband to every school in a region, regardless of whether they are served by fiber.