FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly renewed calls to prohibit E-rate funds to schools and libraries that receive broadband service from one provider when another has already received USF dollars at the same location. "It's awful enough when the government subsidizes network builds in areas where the private sector can or does provide service, but it's a separate layer of hell when E-rate money goes to an area already being subsidized by the FCC," O'Rielly told an FCBA USF seminar. O'Rielly has corresponded with school superintendents and consortium leaders in Texas and Arizona about their plans to build self-provisioned wide-area networks that would overbuild a local incumbent's fiber facilities. "I have never been presented with credible evidence that E-Rate funded overbuilding has been anything other than wasteful for the USF," he said, citing "copious evidence of bidding matrices designed to favor a particular outcome and schools buying far more bandwidth than they use or need."
Locality pre-emption beefs with the FCC aren't ending soon, with limits on local regulators' 911 VoIP fees and an end to some cable TV rate regulation on October's agenda. Chairman Ajit Pai, previewing the items for the Oct. 25 meeting in his blog Thursday, also said there will be items wrapping up part of the lengthy 800 MHz rebanding process, as expected (see 1910020030). There's also a media modernization NPRM that appears to concern eliminating broadcast antenna site rules that industry lawyers say have been used barely a handful of times in the past 30 years. Pai said there will be an order on testing procedures and performance measures for carriers receiving support from the USF Connect America Fund program for broadband deployment to high-cost areas and an order addressing two tariff regulations.
The FCC should grant its petition for forbearance on USF contributions for interstate and international inmate calling services, for callers and correctional telecom providers, replied Network Communications International Corp., posted in docket 19-232. The company petitioned in August, and Worth Rises says the FCC continue to collect USF fees from providers but prohibit pass-through to consumers (see 1909170029). NCIC said that "would require the modification of other FCC rules which are outside the scope of the proceeding." It said such a change would likely lead some ICS providers to pass the costs to users directly or indirectly. Global Tel*Link said because interstate ICS isn't a Lifeline service, it's subject to USF contributions that can be passed through to users, even when those users and families would typically be Lifeline customers.
The FCC said it won't offer USF support to deploy broadband to houses that don't exist, in a recent order on docket 18-143 released Monday on a new wave of USF funding to strengthen fixed and wireless broadband infrastructure in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Commissioners voted for up to $950 million in support at Thursday's FCC meeting (see 1909260032). In a nod to questions about incomplete broadband mapping data, the FCC will give some consideration to winning bidders who can identify discrepancies in location data within a year of the initial public announcement, but it declined a proposal by Puerto Rico Telephone to apply a pro rata reduction when the actual number of locations is found to be less than 90 percent of the totals counted in the bid. "We expect an applicant's proposal to reflect its due diligence and informed business determinations of the costs and support amount required to satisfy its commitments," the agency said. "The Fund would not be accountable for the incorrect assumptions in a carrier's proposal. Further, we do not wish to provide support for non-existent locations."
The FCC is waiting for letters of credit and from providers' legal counsel to authorize the next round of 566 winning bids in its Connect America Fund Phase II auctions that would award USF support for broadband deployment over 10 years, it said Monday in docket 10-90. Letters are due Oct. 15.
The National Exchange Carrier Association's indexed cap on USF support amounts for high-cost loops for legacy rate-of-return carriers fell $17 million to $401 million for 2020 vs. 2019, NECA reported Monday in FCC docket 19-253. The number of ROR carrier working loops decreased nearly 6.4 percent, as the Gross Domestic Product-Chained Price Index dropped 2.4 percent.
The FCC Office of Economics and Analytics projects three auctions from now through Sept. 30, 2020. Two are already scheduled and a third was promised by Chairman Ajit Pai. The notice doesn’t mention any auctions tied to the USF, including a Mobility Fund II auction. A C-band auction didn’t make the list. The first auction listed is that of the 37, 39, 47 GHz bands, to start Dec. 10 (see 1904120065) and the second is the 3.5 GHz priority access licenses auction, to start June 25 (see 1909260040). The third hasn’t been scheduled, for 2.5 GHz educational broadband service licenses.
Hughes "believes it can meet" the new mean opinion score testing requirements for high-latency bidders in USF competitive awards, after the FCC addressed earlier concerns "that the original MOS testing framework adopted by the bureaus might not be achievable by satellite broadband providers using geostationary satellites," it filed, posted Thursday in docket 10-90. The FCC updated its MOS testing regime this month (see 1909120064). Satellite broadband can compete for USF support through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and a $950 million program to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands commissioners OK'd Thursday.
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).
USTelecom with CEOs urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to consider transitions for rural areas where incumbent price-cap carriers lose USF support because they either don't participate in upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auctions or another bidder wins, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-126: "Rules applicable only to ILECs due to their historical regulatory classification must be relieved in any areas subject to competition." If a winning bidder can't offer telecom service immediately, USTelecom said, new rules should address how an ILEC will receive transitional support from USF if it's required to continue providing service: "Where a new provider receives RDOF support, the ILEC should be relieved of any obligations to continue serving the area." USTelecom still wants a national broadband serviceable location fabric as part of digital opportunity data collections proceeding "as quickly as possible" so it can inform phase one of RDOF. If the agency uses only current Form 477 data "without reference to additional and more granular data provided by the fabric, the commission must address up front the fact that the auction will be based on inherently flawed location counts and bidders should be held harmless," the group said. Association CEO Jonathan Spalter and counterparts from Consolidated Communications, Bob Udell; Tony Thomas of Windstream; Frontier Communications' Dan McCarthy and others also met with each commissioner. Also in Washington last week, Udell spoke with us about RDOF (see 1909230030).