Pai Seeks Vote on Broadband Deployment Report

Chairman Ajit Pai, who's leaving Jan. 20, circulated the order for a vote. Some groups hope the FCC will rethink the benchmark and other expected conclusions.

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented in April when the last report was approved 3-2 (see 2004240042), calling it “baffling” and saying it “ignores the lived experiences of so many people struggling to get access to broadband.” It was “especially perplexing and disturbing that the majority would cast this report as a victory lap,” said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who also dissented. Commenters disagreed on the preliminary conclusions (see 2009210042).

The appropriate benchmark “really depends ... on the nature of consumer use of the internet,” Pai said during an Institute for Policy Innovation webinar Wednesday (see 2012160051). “We use the internet for all kinds of things,” from HD, high-bandwidth gaming “that requires a massive pipe” to “narrowband IoT devices,” he said. “I anticipate over time that number is going to adjust upward,” he said. Whatever the number is, it follows that if the definition is 1 Gbps, “we should not be subsidizing anything below gigabyte service,” he said: “That wipes out a lot of programs that the FCC has. … Be careful what you wish for.”

Incompas wants a 1 Gbps standard, emailed CEO Chip Pickering. “The pandemic has disproven cable company myths that consumers don't need more bandwidth, and moving to fiber eliminates downspeed discrimination,” Pickering said: “Other nations have increased their benchmarks and are racing toward gigabit goals and it's time for Congress and the FCC to think bigger and faster on broadband."

“Pai is rushing to lock in items that will constrain the Biden FCC because of the 2-2 deadlock,” said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. “This is extremely unfortunate, and certainly violates the idea of ‘pencils down’” as congressional Democrats and some others seek, he said. “It also highlights how anticipation of a deadlocked FCC is even now warping the policy process.”

“It’s laughable that after the past 10 months of people sitting in front of Taco Bell and in library parking lots to get broadband access that anybody could say that broadband is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis to all Americans,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy's Gigi Sohn.

“Conclusions in the FCC’s 706 report are continually based on inaccurate and incomplete Form 477 data,” said Francella Ochillo, Next Century Cities executive director. “Consequences” of getting things wrong “are real,” she said: “Small business owners who do not have reliable broadband have nonetheless been forced to migrate online or risk indefinite closure. Households with students and adults competing for low-bandwidth connections in their home know that slow internet means taking turns or regularly getting disconnected from online classes and videoconferencing. Seniors and those with limited mobility are among the most likely to be disconnected.”

"Nearly a quarter of the country still lacks an adequate internet connection at home,” said Free Press Vice President-Policy Matt Wood. “That is Ajit Pai's real legacy. Yet his entire run as chair has been nothing but a vanity project.” No one "is cheering, except the companies he's supposed to regulate but treats instead like his clients,” Wood said.

The Wireless ISP Association supports the proposed standard. “For Americans in urban or rural America, 25/3 Mbps service allows them to participate in the digital economy,” said Louis Peraertz, vice president-policy. “Even when consumers are faced with many choices, they choose 25/3 broadband. WISPA’s survey data shows that even where up to a gigabit of download speed is available, the most frequently chosen service is 25/3. ”