The FCC Wireline Bureau should amend the FCC’s...
The FCC Wireline Bureau should amend the FCC’s new Connect America Fund requirement that a provider show it has current or past customers in a census block to certify it serves the block, said NCTA in a reply comment (http://bit.ly/1skgUJF)…
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posted Thursday in docket 10-90. NCTA had filed a petition for reconsideration (CD Aug 5 p6) saying cable operators in some cases can’t come up with a customer record in areas they serve. A company may be serving a new subdivision, for instance, where no one has yet moved in, it has said. The requirement would mean “areas where unsubsidized providers already offer broadband services will be erroneously treated as if they are unserved -- an outcome that is flatly inconsistent with the Commission’s determination that broadband subsidies should be precluded in areas where unsubsidized competitors offer service,” NCTA said in Thursday’s reply. Incumbent LECs that opposed the petition to reconsider are wrong to argue that the agency had discretion to authorize subsidized overbuilding with CAF Phase II funding and that overbuilding is a necessary outgrowth of the FCC’s goal of expanding broadband availability in price cap territories, NCTA said. The American Cable Association also petitioned for reconsideration of the requirement.