Formal National Broadband Map Challenge Process Needed, ILECs and CLECs Say
Telcos and cable companies said there wasn’t enough time to sift through the hundreds of thousands of National Broadband Map (NBM) challenges by the filing deadline for reply comments in docket 10-90 Thursday. The proceeding seeks input on the process of challenging the map’s designations. The cable and phone companies agreed a new, more formal challenge method was needed, but disagreed on the specifics. In comments earlier this month, cable companies and price-cap carriers criticized the NBM as “grossly” overinclusive and underinclusive depending on where one looks (CD Jan 11 p7). The map is used to determine where Connect America Fund Phase I money can be distributed. Price-cap carriers get access to the money to help fund broadband buildout in areas the map lists as unserved.
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Price-cap carriers “have no reasonable way of evaluating [the] challenges in their ILEC service areas and responding to them,” because the FCC hasn’t released a compiled list of the census blocks proposed to be added or removed, said USTelecom and the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance (http://xrl.us/bocbtt). “That we feel compelled to submit such a ‘placeholder’ here underscores the need for the Commission to set forth a rational and clearly delineated method for determining the areas that should be eligible for CAF Phase I incremental support in 2013."
"The statutory mandate of universal service requires more than reliance on a flawed, dated, and incomplete mapping database that is subject to check only through unverified comments filed in an abbreviated cycle,” said NTCA, the National Exchange Carrier Association, OPASTCO, and Western Telecommunications Alliance (http://xrl.us/bocbuf). The process should at least require any potential unsubsidized competitors to petition a state commission with “clear and convincing evidence” of several factors, the associations said: That it’s a state-certified carrier; can satisfy the public interest obligations of a USF recipient; can deliver the required broadband speeds; offers broadband and voice on a standalone basis at reasonably comparable rates; and will comply with the same accountability requirements as the USF recipient for the area. The competitor should also show that it receives no high-cost support of any kind, nor cross-subsidizes its operations in the study area with revenue from other sources, they said.
Mediacom is “in the process of reviewing the 4,000+ page submission by CenturyLink claiming that almost 195,000 Census blocks with more than 3.3 million homes are incorrectly listed as served area” (http://xrl.us/bocbyq), the cable company said. “Given the sheer scale of analyzing CenturyLink’s submission and specific claims, and that CenturyLink and Mediacom’s service areas covering 22 states significantly overlap, Mediacom is not in a position today to confirm one way or another any of CenturyLink’s claims."
The FCC’s proposed challenge process should be replaced by a “formal dispute resolution process with equitable and reasonable burdens of proof,” said the American Cable Association(http://xrl.us/bocbza). The currently proposed process involves publication of a list of census blocks shown on the NBM as eligible for support and a request for comment on whether service areas are overstated or understated. A method proposed by ACA and NCTA would place “equal burdens of proof on a provider challenging the NBM, then permits opportunities to rebut the provider’s prima facie case, and enables the Commission to establish deadlines to ensure an expeditious resolution which is equitable and transparent,” ACA said. The association also included an appendix with several declarations from its members disputing CenturyLink claims that areas were unserved.
Comcast submitted a list of 30,000 census blocks it said “should now be deemed ’served'” on the NBM, and 77,000 census blocks that “should no longer be designated as served by Comcast” (http://xrl.us/bocbz5). Charter Communications attached a list of 6,000 census blocks it said were “incorrectly identified as ‘unserved’ on the Map” (http://xrl.us/bocbz7). The cable company said it had taken “appropriate steps” to bring the circumstances surrounding those census blocks to the attention of state mapping entities.