Telco Groups, Satellite Providers, WISPA Oppose CAF Auction Recon Petitions

in response to a public notice (see 1608120048). USTelecom opposed proposals that would "unnecessarily risk" CAF funds or "unnecessarily direct such CAF resources to areas where funding is not justified," including those from Broad Valley Micro Fiber Network, Southern Tier Wireless, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Utilities Technology Council. NTCA opposed the petitions of Broad Valley and Crocker Telecommunications as undermining a "reasonably comparable" rural mandate by seeking "to sidestep the distinct offering of voice telephony to consumers" in auction areas, particularly by revisiting a stand-alone voice requirement. ViaSat opposed the petitions of Broad Valley, Crocker and Southern Tier Wireless, which the satellite company called procedurally improper, and also opposed a Verizon petition that sought "to prioritize funding to census blocks based on the 'dollar per location' reflected in winning bids for those blocks" rather than the "ratio of bid to reserve price." Hughes Networks Systems opposed petitions "that would undermine" the FCC's goal of encouraging a broad range of providers to participate in the auction -- particularly those requests "that would preclude applicants in the higher latency category from competing effectively." Hughes supported ViaSat and Verizon proposals. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association opposed requests "that seek to undermine the technology-neutral approach," particularly those proposed by Verizon. WISPA said such requests would "benefit price-cap carriers that declined" initial FCC offers of broadband-oriented support "in their efforts to bid on selected areas with technologies that cannot deliver unlimited usage and cannot meet a 95 percent buildout requirement."