Despite Worries on Broadband Data Requirements, Agencies Won’t Pull Back, Says Strickling
SEATTLE -- State commissioners and broadband providers raised concerns Monday at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners summer conference about the gathering of broadband data that NTIA, RUS, and the FCC say is necessary for distributing $7.2 billion in federal broadband funds and devising a national broadband plan.
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“Data will be collected,” said NTIA head Larry Strickling, responding to carriers that expressed discontent with the broadband data requirements for information they say could hurt business if competitors got their hands on it. Strickling pointed to last year’s unanimous passage of the Broadband Data Improvement Act and the bipartisan agreement that “this nation suffers from lack of adequate verifiable data,” as the requirement pushing for more granular data. Strickling encouraged the carriers to sit down with state officials to find a good way to provide information so interested applicants can work on their proposals. The agencies have said all broadband data will be kept confidential.
Several state commissioners said local carriers would have trouble making the business case for building out to rural unserved areas that don’t meet the notice of funds availability’s (NOFA) definition of “remote” without full grants from RUS. NTIA senior advisor Mark Seifert encouraged providers to do their best to develop business models that work with the loan program so the agencies can give out the federal money for as many projects as possible.
The definition of “remote” in the NOFA has elicited questions from a “number of different entities,” and RUS hopes to address the issue in “fairly short order,” said RUS Chief of Staff Lisa Zaina. The NOFA defines “remote” as areas 50 miles or more outside of areas with 20,000 inhabitants or more, and it has been the source of confusion for some potential applicants. Only projects serving “remote” areas will be allowed to receive full grant funding from RUS. Zaina and Agriculture Department Undersecretary Cheryl Cook said previously that RUS would be clarifying the term after concerns were raised during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Seifert, one of the architects of the NOFA, also addressed worries that the 768 kbps broadband speed baseline is too slow. That minimum was chosen because relatively small amounts of money could bring some broadband where there was none, though the speed is by “no means what we believe is the apex,” said Seifert.
Speed and definitions were not the only concerns at the conference. One state commissioner said some states were worried that RUS, which has a reputation for inefficiency, would be slow in the whole process. “You shouldn’t have any concerns in that regard,” said Strickling, saying a new team was in charge.
In a later panel, industry members said their biggest worry was over the data requirements. Cox Communications’ Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Hightower said many of the data requirements were things that the company simply didn’t keep track of. “Why are some of the requirements relevant,” asked Hightower. “We are the private sector,” said Cullen McCarty, vice president of Smithville Telephone Co., a small Indiana provider. “We ask you to respect the integrity of the network.”