Benchmarks, Deployment Issues in Next Broadband Competition Report
The FCC got differing advice from commenters in its annual Communications Act Section 706 proceeding. Wireless and wireline groups had a different version of the role wireless can play. Public interest groups said the FCC should say the market needs improvement, in comments posted Friday (see 2009180049) and Monday in docket 20-269. The agency's decision depends on who's in control next year, industry officials said. In April, FCC Democrats disagreed that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner (see 2004240042).
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“Advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” Free Press said: “This ‘706 test’ has not been met because the Commission is not measuring progress towards the goal Congress established.”
Don’t rely on Form 477, “which provides inaccurate and incomplete information, as the primary datapoint to measure broadband deployment,” Common Cause, Next Century Cities and Public Knowledge said. “A robust analysis requires the Commission to evaluate additional factors such as pricing data, user demographics, quality of service metrics, actual service speed data, data caps, network vulnerability and resilience data.”
“Update the fixed broadband performance benchmark to 1 Gbps,” Incompas said. “Fixed and mobile services are not yet functional substitutes and should be evaluated separately,” the group said: “Consumers and businesses expect to have both types of networks available to them because the experience of using these services can be distinctly different.”
Data shows that “mobile wireless broadband is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis,” CTIA said. “Most consumers have a mobile device within arm’s reach and the ability to connect to almost anyone and anything through high-speed mobile broadband services.” Consistent with its last report, the FCC should find it can’t impose one connections' benchmark, CTIA said.
The FCC “is successfully meeting its statutory mandate,” USTelecom said. The association supported different benchmarks for mobile and fixed. “Although emerging technologies may eventually require even more bandwidth in coming years, there is no reason to move away from the 25/3 Mbps as the target [fixed] benchmark,” it said.
“Recent experience confirms that a 25/3 connection still satisfies the statutory definition of advanced telecommunications capability and should continue to be used as a baseline,” NCTA commented. Networks have held up well during COVID-19, ACA Connects said, but it wants “regulatory action to ensure that the costs to replace utility poles are fairly and proportionately allocated among pole owners and other parties that benefit from a replacement, such that new attachers are not forced to bear the entirety of these costs.”
The Fiber Broadband Association said consumers demand faster connections, so raise the benchmark. “There is a consensus that fiber is the fundamental communications infrastructure for all 21st Century communications networks -- even 5G relies on fiber,” the association said.
NTCA wants mobile and fixed treated differently: “Not only do fixed and mobile services fulfill different needs," it said, "but also even purportedly ‘unlimited’ mobile data plans can nonetheless result in providers limiting actual data usage to ensure sufficient capacity for all users. The upload and download speeds currently available in most areas for mobile services are vastly different from those of fixed broadband providers.”