RLECs Keep Up Drumbeat for Increasing Rural USF Budget; WISPA Seeks Auctions

high-cost funding beyond a budget set in 2011 and modesty increased above $2 billion. WTA backed "fully funding" the "outdated" budget to meet broadband demand, first to $2.43 billion this year and gradually to $2.975 billion in 2026. It said RoR USF should be a single budget. NTCA cited "consensus" the agency should "right-size" the budget to account for past and future inflation. A group of Nebraska carriers receiving support based on an Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) said increasing their monthly funding from $146 per location to $200 would be a "reasonable balance." The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission backed hiking A-CAM support to $200/location and increasing the overall budget to account for inflation, including for carriers receiving legacy support. GVNW Consulting on behalf of Illinois RLECs (here) and Granite State Telephone (here) urged keeping a "100 percent overlap" requirement for challenging support based on unsubsidized competition, while GeoLinks, a wireless ISP, urged changes. The Broadband Alliance of the Midwest and the Eastern Rural Telecom Association were among the other RLEC parties replying. The National Tribal Telecommunications Association called for easing a rural-growth cap generally and budget controls for tribal carriers, and Gila River Telecommunications pushed a tribal broadband factor. The Wireless ISP Association said it and NCTA had sought rural USF changes, including moving toward auctions for distributing subsidies. "Arrayed against this reasonable, market-based approach are a handful of [RLECs and allies], all with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo," WISPA said. "Broad aspersions are cast on the ability of competing providers to offer new service to unserved areas without any supporting data other than the skewed information produced by the failed challenge process." USTelecom opposed the auction proposals.