Mobility Fund Too Small to Meet Rural Needs, Say RCA, RTG

"The record confirms the need to address the funding disparities created by the CAF Order,” RCA said (http://xrl.us/bmsxg6). “Commenters object to the ‘ill-conceived $2 billion budget target’ for a CAF mechanism devoted exclusively to rate-of-return carriers, which contrasts starkly with the allocation of barely ten percent of the CAF’s overall funding budget to wireless carriers,” RCA said. RCA also said the FCC should look for other ways of funding wireless. There are “serious concerns” about “the dearth of available funding to deploy and support next-generation wireless networks in rural areas,” RCA said. “Wireless services in many regions of the country would not exist today if rural wireless providers had been unable to access funding through the legacy high-cost mechanism."

RTG agreed the fund is too small. “The FCC’s driving motivation should be to ensure that rural and remote areas do not lose service or existing coverage levels,” the group said (http://xrl.us/bmsxzm). “To that end, the size of the Mobility Fund should be increased to reflect consumers’ ongoing migration to wireless service.” RTG also encouraged the FCC to carefully monitor upcoming Auction 901, a reverse auction that will award $300 million in the first phase of the Mobility Fund. The auction “will be the first time the Commission has ever conducted a reverse auction, let alone used a reverse auction mechanism for distributing universal service support,” RTG said. “The process and results should be used to inform the Commission on how to structure the process for awarding Phase II ongoing support."

U.S. Cellular offered extensive comments, arguing that the Mobility Fund as proposed is too small. The FCC “allocates a disproportionately small amount of support for the deployment of mobile broadband networks, allocating an insufficient level of funding for the Mobility Fund and cutting against the Commission’s announced objectives for supporting mobile broadband deployment,” the carrier said (http://xrl.us/bmsxts). “Several commenters” argue that “the Commission’s overall budget will not be sufficient to bring affordable, high-quality broadband services, comparable to services available in urban areas, to consumers throughout rural America,” the carrier said. C-Spire Wireless said in comments filed at the commission supported by a few other carriers that the FCC’s budget for a Mobility Fund is “insufficient and short-sighted,” (http://xrl.us/bmsxxf). The USA Coalition agreed that the amount allocated are too small. “The growth in demand for wireless services stands in sharp contrast to the disbursement allocations made by the Commission,” the coalition said (http://xrl.us/bmsx3o).

Verizon and Verizon Wireless said the FCC should get rid of “outdated, unnecessary legacy obligations” under the USF, for example by eliminating eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) voice service obligations in areas where a provider does not receive support. “A handful of commenters suggest that the Commission should merely layer new broadband obligations on top of existing voice service requirements,” Verizon said (http://xrl.us/bmsxdz). “Such a short-sighted approach is unworkable and will impede the successful roll-out of the new universal service fund broadband programs."

AT&T offered similar comments, saying most commenters agree that the FCC shouldn’t impose new regulations that won’t help the push to get broadband built in rural America. “In particular, the Commission should not impose an unnecessarily complex or costly methodology for testing broadband performance; it should reform the way it determines whether rates for voice services are reasonably comparable; and it should not undermine the efficiency and efficacy of CAF funding by restricting eligibility for auction participation or funding, providing small business credits, requiring letters of credit from all carriers that receive funding, or imposing IP-to-IP or other interconnection requirements that are both premature and unrelated to achieving universal service goals,” AT&T said (http://xrl.us/bmsxz8).