FCC commissioners voted to move forward with $950 million to help improve and strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was one of five unanimous votes Thursday at the agency's monthly meeting, though commissioners from each party expressed some concerns. The item allocates $500 million over 10 years to support fixed broadband in Puerto Rico, $250 million over three years for mobile broadband in Puerto Rico, $180 million over 10 years for broadband in the U.S. Virgin Islands and $4 million over three years for mobile networks in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wireline Bureau staffers said revisions to the order in docket 18-143 will include new weighting on resiliency and redundancy that would give a better score to broadband networks that use aerial facilities if they incorporate wind-resistant composite poles rather than wooden utility poles, as some sought (see 1909250007). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC should have a clearer picture of where it spent to help telecom restoration and of the state of communications facilities, before it fashioned how the new wave of USF is spent. Republican Commissioner Mike O'Rielly called the moves well intended but said he had concerns, including on 5G and disaster reporting and other requirements. Sandra Torres Lopez, president of the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau, told us the "huge amount of support" will help expand high-speed broadband to unserved parts of Puerto Rico so they will have "the best in technology." Alexandra Fernandez, associate member of the Puerto Rico Public Service Regulatory Board, tweeted the funds "will bring a new economy" there.
Nebraska residents are falling behind other Americans on broadband, says the Nebraska Rural Broadband Task Force Thursday. Comments are due Oct. 10, before the task force meets to approve the report Oct. 18, says the group’s website. Eighty-nine percent of Nebraskans, and 63 percent in its rural areas, have fixed broadband of at least 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up, compared to 94 percent in the U.S. and 76 percent of rural Americans. Mobile broadband is available to 83 percent of all Nebraskans and 56 percent of rural Nebraskans, vs. 89 and 69 percent respectively. Enhance broadband mapping and data collection, the task force recommends: "Current state and federal broadband mapping efforts likely overstate broadband coverage.” Nebraska’s map uses FCC Form 477 data, but this "census block reporting can overstate broadband availability in large census blocks,” it says. Rural areas could benefit from emerging technologies, but “5G will likely be deployed first in urban areas, potentially exacerbating the speed gap,” the draft says. The Public Service Commission should continue efforts to revamp state USF contribution and "improve provider accountability by moving to a grant-like system of distribution,” and consider reverse auction, it says. Give E-rate matching funds through state USF to incentivize fiber to schools and libraries, and encourage them to “implement programs such as Wi-Fi on buses, hotspot lending programs, low cost pay-by-the-month internet access, or TV White Space deployments," it says. An Ohio report last week also found coverage gaps (see 1909260008).
About 1 million Ohioans lack access to broadband with at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, and broadband maps overstate coverage, the Ohio Department of Transportation reported Wednesday. Companies surveyed agreed there's “no silver bullet” to expanding broadband, the report said. “A consensus is that reaching unserved communities in Ohio will require multiple different solutions, from wireline to a hub, to fiber-to-the-home, to fixed wireless. Solutions will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.” Respondents said providing access to DOT right of way would be valuable but had different views on how the state should provide that access. Ohio plans a broader state broadband report by Dec. 31.
Lifeline's national verifier will soft launch Oct. 11 in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Washington state, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Thursday. Eligible telecom carriers in those places shouldn’t begin recertifications for Lifeline subscribers as of that date and should finish any currently open recertifications by Dec. 17, the bureau said. Universal Service Administrative Co. will start reverifying existing Lifeline subscribers during the soft launch period. The NV hard-launched earlier this week in 11 other states (see 1909230046).
An Oregon Public Utility Commission state USF proceeding on requiring contributions from interconnected VoIP providers probably will move forward in December, a PUC spokesperson emailed Wednesday. Docket AR-615 (see 1811280057) was on hold while Oregon legislators last session weighed a USF bill that ultimately didn’t pass, she said. Wireless and cable opposed the Oregon USF bill to establish a broadband fund and expand the definition of retail telecom service to include wireless and VoIP (see 1904030038). HB-2184 passed the House but not the Senate.
Since 5G is nascent and won't be ubiquitous for a while, smart cities deploying advanced technology can't rely solely on that standard for tech advancement, ISP and other executives told local telecom officials. "5G is going to be great, a lot of your cities will start seeing pilots soon" from carriers, said Patti Zullo, Charter Communications' Spectrum Enterprise senior director-smart cities. Until it's the protocol of choice, "5G will not have that much effect in your city," she added Tuesday at NATOA in Tampa. With IoT and cities, "we’re not at a point of mass adoption" yet, said Comcast Vice President-IP Services Patti Loyack. Municipalities don't seek to become smart cities to get more data, Zullo noted. "They have plenty of data," she said. "They need to look at the data and have some 'aha' moments." Smart tech can help localities "tackle major problems," but such deployments haven't advanced fully, said US Ignite Executive Director Bill Wallace. Places deploying it could do real-time diagnostics and have open data, he said. "None of this is easy, and none of this will happen overnight." Moving to such a model is "hard work and it requires leadership to really take a leap of faith," Wallace said. "A lot of them take a while to pay back," he said of such investments, and "for citizens to see the benefit."
Escrow funds tagged by Charter Communications for expanding broadband in upstate New York comply with this year’s settlement agreement, ruled the New York Public Service Commission. The PSC adopted an order Thursday on the escrow funds. Under the settlement approved by the PSC in July (see 1907110045), the company had to establish $12 million in escrow funds for a one-time payment of $6 million for additional broadband passings as directed by New York Department of Public Service staff, and another $6 million payment for passings selected by the Broadband Program Office.
There were questions about 5G, how it will look in rural markets and if it could help or hurt the digital divide, at a conference Wednesday in Providence, Rhode Island. GCI will "have to look outside the box to figure out what solutions that we’re not currently thinking of are going to work in a lot of these markets,” said Kara Azocar, regulatory counsel-federal affairs. “We have to be innovative,” she told the Competitive Carriers Association conference. “Will 5G exacerbate an urban-rural divide on connectivity and are we going to end up with a second tier internet once you get out of the cities?” asked David Goldman, SpaceX director-satellite policy. “It doesn’t have to be that way.” Service in rural areas “will take work,” he said. “It’s going to take solutions that haven’t necessarily been the ones that you had thought of for previous generations.” ACA member GCI exists because it wants to bring the same services as in urban areas, said Rob Shema, the association's executive vice president-member services and finance. Rural providers haven’t “quite figured out” 5G in rural places, “but they will,” he said. “When folks say that 5G is not going to exist in rural America, that’s completely false,” Shema said: “It may look different and feel different.” At the low end, the industrial IoT will have as much combined value as the entire communications industry today, Tod Sizer, Nokia Bell Labs vice president-smart optical fabric and device research, said Wednesday. In Germany, wireless robots are transforming manufacturing, Sizer said. “They found that the wired robots were just getting in the way.” Industrial IoT will have lots of opportunity in the mining industry, he said, where “there’s a lot of need for advanced safety" and autonomous movement of people and machines. Early tests found IoT precision agriculture requires 23 percent less fertilizer and 15 percent less seed, with production increases of 27 percent, he said. ISPs also target agriculture (see 1908150057).
Satellite interests want changes to the FCC's proposed $950 million allocation of second-round USF funding to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. Award criteria for the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and the USVI Funds are flawed, Hughes said in meetings with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O'Rielly, and with Wireless Bureau staff, per docket 18-143 postings Thursday (see here, here and here): Determining satellite isn't resilient technology is incorrect, since if the ground equipment is off island, it's by nature resilient. Hughes said the agency should include in bid evaluation the time it takes to deploy. It urged scoring that would give up to 20 points for 100 percent buildout within two years and fewer or no points for longer. The Coalition to Fund CPR membership, building a satellite-based model for emergency telecom services on the island, said the FCC should include locally based satellite communications facilities in restoration funding. It said funding should include new entrants with new technology, and allowing independent community-based emergency telecom networks to participate. The coalition said membership includes Tech Latina, National Puerto Rican Agenda, Ibero American Action League and Foundation for a Better Puerto Rico. Virgin Islands ISP Broadband VI argued against changing criteria for resiliency and redundancy, saying no data in the record supported doing so, and against applying a point reduction for backup power at customer premises in competing applications going through a brief public comment period. Commissioners vote at their Sept. 26 public meeting (see 1909040073).
The FCC created its first two innovation zones, in New York and Salt Lake City. They're city-scale test beds for advanced wireless communications and network research, including 5G networks, it said Wednesday. The beds extend the geographic areas where licensed experimental program licensees can do tests, allowing “flexibility to conduct multiple non-related experiments under a single authorization within a defined geographic area” while “protecting incumbent services against harmful interference,” it said. Experimental program license holders licensed to operate elsewhere may use the zones, it said. An Office of Engineering and Technology public notice Wednesday provides details, on docket 19-257.