Better Agency Broadband Data, Mapping, Coordination Needed, Senate Panel Told
Agencies must improve broadband data collection, mapping and coordination to better target funding and prevent government-backed network overbuilding, said lawmakers and witnesses at a Senate Communications Subcommittee rural broadband hearing Tuesday. The FCC and Rural Utilities Service need better coordination to ensure they don't fund duplicates, said Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., noting broadband data and mapping shortcomings. Better maps are needed to prevent overbuilding, agreed ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, also suggesting the FCC overhaul USF contributions to tap broadband connections.
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Broadband provider data provides a mapping baseline but must be verified and adjusted if appropriate, voicing concern the FCC "proposed" to eliminate a challenge process from Form 477 fixed service data, said Denny Law, CEO of rural carrier Golden West Telecommunications. He called agency coordination "critical" to avoiding funding "dueling" networks in areas that can't support one network without help. He hopes the FCC will delay a July 1 beginning to Connect America Fund broadband performance testing, and is concerned about permit delays for deployments on federal lands and railroad company fees, which shouldn't be a "profit center."
The FCC should consider combining planned auctions of a Remove Areas Fund for extremely high-cost locations and CAF Phase III support for high-cost areas served by large price-cap carriers, said telecom consultant Carol Mattey. Better data and increased federal-state sharing of information are needed, but the FCC shouldn't wait to auction areas that are clearly unserved, and could then come back and do a second auction when better data is available, she said: "Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good."
Thune praised an FCC December order as restoring "sufficiency and predictability" to rate-of-return telco CAF mechanisms (see 1812120039). Law said the order improved RLEC funding and stabilized it for five-10 years, crucial to making network investments and upgrades.
Midcontinent Communications will use $38.9 million in CAF Phase II auction support to "edge out" its 100 Mbps service through fixed wireless, said Justin Forde, senior director-government relations. He said the service covers "every acre" in an area, including for precision agriculture. Forde said his cable company faces much subsidized overbuilding, and, responding to a Thune query, said requiring agency coordination would help prevent it.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., voiced concern about such overbuilding, and asked what can be done to stop it. "I would formalize the coordination" among agencies, replied witness Mark Jamison (testimony), American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar. Mattey said more coordination is also needed among the FCC's high-cost CAF, E-rate and rural healthcare USF programs.
Schatz called FCC broadband mapping "a mess," said it overstates speed and the number of competitors in Hawaii, and asked what's preventing improvements. Mattey said different parties have been making suggestions, but it will take time, and any new data collection will impose burdens and require more funding. Schatz said that would be a good investment and believes FCC staffers are "very motivated" but he's concerned there's a tendency at the "political level" to "declare victory." Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., noted her efforts to improve mapping.
It would be "common sense" to tap broadband revenue for carrier contributions to USF, Schatz said. Mattey said the contribution system needs to be overhauled and called it appropriate for the FCC to assess broadband internet access revenue to help fund a mechanism designed to advance fast-web deployment.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. worried about potential rural telco price hikes if the FCC doesn't head off a scheduled July 1 increase in a USF "rate floor." Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., expressed interest in satellite broadband. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., cited efforts to address the "homework gap" affecting students without adequate broadband access.