Senators Air Concerns About Inaccurate Broadband Mapping, USF Support

West Virginia’s mobile broadband coverage “does not fit into the FCC’s narrative,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who had requested the hearing. “If people can’t connect, I guarantee they won’t stay.” He described “challenging” terrain, where “you’re lucky to have a 50-foot line of sight” from cell towers, far less than in flatter states such as Iowa. “Why hasn’t the FCC seen fit for the money to go where the need is?” Manchin asked witnesses.

“There seems to be a preconceived notion that there’s a wireline solution,” ViaSat Vice President-Government Affairs Michael Rapelyea told Manchin. He noted the Connect America Fund mechanism is run out of the Wireline Bureau and said the proof can be found in the tally of the distribution of funds so far: “Therefore the tilt or the bias is that way.”

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., quoted FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s remarks about conducting CAF Phase II in a technology neutral role. “I think that statement sounds great,” Gardner said. “Are we achieving that goal?”

“No,” Rapelyea told Gardner. “Simply put. There has been an adoption of the opposite.” The FCC has its “thumb on the scale” for fiber solutions, Rapelyea said, over any other technology represented on the panel, which included witnesses for ViaSat, the Competitive Carriers Association, U.S. Cellular and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA). If ViaSat made a bid meeting certain performance and quality standards, “my bid would be scored lower,” Rapelyea said. CCA President Steve Berry said “quite frankly” Rapelyea is right and “most of the funds” go to wireline.

Senators invoked constituents and personal habits. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., cited witnessing young people going to McDonald’s parking lots “to do their business.” Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., saw wisdom in transitioning support to broadband and away from more traditional service. “We don’t have a landline anymore,” Ayotte said. “We’re all using cellphones.” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said he's a WISP customer, saying in Montana a person can have “a fly rod in one hand and still be doing your business with the other.” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., cited visiting Ely, Nevada, with fewer than 5,000 people: “This local hospital had difficulty sending out X-rays. The businesses are complaining that their Internet service is so weak you can’t slide a debit card in any of the businesses in this town.”

U.S. Cellular Chairman LeRoy Carlson told Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., he’s unaware of any Mobility Fund Phase II rules that are finalized but warned against any setup that would reduce the size of the fund and against the FCC's taking significant action until broadband mapping is better. “Today they are blind,” Carlson said. CCA’s Berry also complained of what his group considers a slow disbursement of Mobility Fund Phase I funds: “To date, only $66.08 million has been disbursed,” Berry testified of that Mobility Fund auction. The FCC announced the winners in fall 2012 for what they said would be $300 million in one-time support.

Many senators and officials agreed there may be a mapping accuracy problem. “Under CAF II, I think the presumption is your state is fine,” Rapelyea told Ayotte, questioning its premise and prompting Ayotte to call that “a problem.” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., proactively asked witnesses about inaccuracies. Carlson told him Congress needs to ask the FCC “to produce maps that show a quality standard of coverage level” and said “you can’t know what you’re doing if you can’t have a map of the road to get there.” Moran, also active on these issues in his role on the Appropriations Committee, agreed: “We will once again ask for accurate mapping.”

“What’s the best way to get accurate numbers for us?” Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., asked. Carlson backed drive tests. “And that means chartering an external engineering firm, other than ourselves, to drive the territory and see what the actual signal strength is,” he said. “If we can afford to do a census every 10 years ... we should be able to do a census of our coverage across this country for mobile broadband.” CCA’s Berry backed “all the available technology” for testing, including the possibility of harnessing drones for testing.

WISPs are shut out of a lot of the government support programs because the programs are not “technology agnostic,” argued All Points Broadband CEO Jimmy Carr, testifying on behalf of WISPA. “In effect, the program is rewarding those multibillion dollar, legacy monopolies for their unwillingness or inability to deploy fixed broadband in the very areas where they already have plant and customers, giving them a huge advantage over potential competitors,” Carr said. “Meanwhile, smaller telephone companies, cooperatives, WISPs and others were left on the sidelines and at an even greater competitive disadvantage. The program is subsidizing and entrenching incumbent monopolies at the expense of innovation and competition.”