Broadband Mapping Improvements Sought Before FCC $20B, 10-Year High-Cost Fund
USF stakeholders should make more improvements to broadband mapping, especially before the FCC begins awarding some $20 billion over about 10 years in the next version of its USF high-cost fund. That's the consensus in Q&A with us at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition panel (see 9:45 a.m.) Thursday and from audience members. Stakeholders targeted telcos, which some said don't always know down to a small-geographic level what areas they serve with internet service, and the FCC. The commission has been improving its mapping, working with others in the federal government including the Rural Utilities Service, said RUS Assistant Administrator-Telecom Programs Chad Parker.
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FCC maps can overrepresent what areas ISPs serve, SHLB was told. That can mean applicants for USF money aren't considered for some funds because the areas they want money for are deemed passed by other networks. Some National Rural Electric Cooperative Association members were excluded from Connect America Fund phase 2 "from what they saw as bad reporting" of data to the commission, said Senior Director-Regulatory Issues Brian O'Hara. One ILEC's broadband availability was reported to have risen significantly in an area, when the electric co-op there didn't observe any change, he said: "The process in the way it's set up ... is self-reported, unverified. You can’t really fix a problem" of broadband availability "if you don’t know what it is" with accurate figures.
Mapping is "a problem" in Mississippi (see 1904100064), where C Spire is a major carrier, said Ivy Kelly, of the company's technical staff. "It comes down to the forms that are self-reported," she said. "They’re very inaccurate. That’s one of the things we’re trying to encourage" to improve. Such maps may show the company's parent Telapex serves a town when it doesn't. Electric utilities have a better handle on where they have facilities and deliver broadband than telcos, partly because the first industry has been widely using geolocation, said others including O'Hara. Moving toward such equipment measurement may be part of the rationale for USTelecom's broadband mapping pilot (see 1908200055), he said. The association didn't comment.
Panelists and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks worry about the first Rural Digital Opportunity Fund tranche of some $16 billion from the FCC coming before the agency's broadband maps are fixed. Speaking later at SHLB, Starks worried about what he called "flawed maps" and cited the amount of money. O'Hara on the panel hoped the maps improve at least in time for the second tranche.
"The FCC is actively engaged in improving broadband maps," a spokesperson emailed, noting commissioners OK'd digital data collection rules Aug. 1. The regulator is moving "forward on investments to bridge the digital divide," he added. Chairman Ajit Pai said that day on the RDOF NPRM, "While some have suggested that we should not move forward on Phase I until the data needed for Phase II has been collected ... it makes [no] sense." There's "no reason to delay action to provide broadband to Americans we know don’t have access to it," he had said.
The administration's American broadband initiative (see 1904150066) includes the FCC and other agencies for mapping, said RUS' Parker. His agency is also getting some data from the commission for RUS' broadband funding program, he said. "We have a very good idea, where we have funded, of what the service is like in those areas." The FCC is stepping up, the official said. "We are very excited from what we’ve seen from the FCC just recently." That regulator didn't comment.
RUS funding applicants give it sufficient details so "we know where the fiber is being laid, where the towers are," Parker said. His agency meets at least monthly with FCC and NTIA counterparts to make sure RUS projects aren't overbuilding and to align projects with the FCC. RUS will add "our other telecom programs into that system" that provides such details to stakeholders as it's doing for the current ReConnect program, Parker told an audience member seeking such improvements. "It's going to take us little while to reach back into our portfolio."
"Very, very soon, maybe even this week, we will start hearing some announcements about awards" for broadband from a recent RUS funding round, Parker said. Congress allocated money for it in the past two fiscal years, and he's hopeful that will be the case for this FY 2020, too: "I think we will get funding." The question is what the legislative vehicle will be, panelists said.