NARUC's Rural Members Seek Better Maps for 5G Fund

The 5G fund would have some $9 billion for rural 5G, including about $1 billion for precision agriculture applications, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a media Q&A at Thursday's commission meeting. He declined to comment on the NARUC resolution, saying he hadn’t seen it. The $9 billion is to help some rural areas “where there might not be a business case” for fifth-generation wireless services, the chair said. He cited nationwide support for the plan, and from “elected officials here in Washington.” He had no time frame on issuing the item, and said staff “are hard at work putting those details together.” Pai noted staff had been working on the $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which commissioners approved earlier Thursday (see 2001300001).

“All we have now is a press release,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told us of lack of information on the 5G fund and its wireless coverage maps. “There's no detail, there's no information. ... It's stunning that's all we have at this point. We need more.”

Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly said the timing of when information about items is released is up to the chairman. “I obviously don't have details, either,” said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. He pronounced himself “shocked” the agency hadn't done more to hold companies accountable for providing bad data to the agency. “I'm deeply expectant that we won't have these problems going forward in the new 5G program,” he said.

State Concerns

South Dakota’s experience challenging MF-II coverage maps showed “how accurate they were not,” Nelson said in an interview. Industry maps showing coverage were inaccurate in about 30 percent of the places the state tested, he said. Similar problems nationwide persuaded the FCC to kill MF-II, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of areas in rural America that have no wireless coverage whatsoever,” the state commissioner said. The draft resolution adapts a 5 Mbps speed threshold from MF-II, he said. That’s to prevent subsidies from going to upgrading 4G areas to 5G, further widening the digital divide, he said. “We need to focus first on areas that have got nothing.”

Nelson is “cautiously optimistic” about passing the resolution based on his conversations with co-sponsors from three other rural states: Nebraska, North Dakota and Indiana. Nelson hasn’t spoken to the FCC. He doesn’t see “anything in here that would ... complicate what they’re doing.” The commissioner wants to make a statement now while the FCC is developing the 5G fund.

Mapping

One way to improve maps may be to do “third-party, independent testing to make sure that the signal strength and the propagation of the signal is what the carrier says it is,” said co-sponsor Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Tim Schram. Connecting unserved areas should be a “team effort” involving state and federal resources, said the Republican. The Nebraska PSC is awarding some state USF support to fixed wireless, so having good, timely maps will prevent overbuilding, he said. Wireless coverage is critical for enabling precision agriculture that’s important to the farming state, Schram said: “To our producers, it’s a real efficiency tool, and if they don’t have connectivity, they’re at a real disadvantage competitively.”

“The FCC has given little information regarding what areas would be eligible to receive 5G funding,” said Indiana Utility Regulatory Commissioner Sarah Freeman in a statement to us. “Current and accurate mapping of coverage must be required before awarding any dollars from the 5G fund,” the resolution co-sponsor said. Indiana didn’t participate in the MF-II challenge process, “but we understand that FCC staff conducted tests to measure network performance and staff’s testing revealed significant discrepancies between the coverage maps generated by the providers whose networks were tested, and actual, on-the-ground mobile experience, as measured by the speed tests,” said the nonpartisan commissioner appointed in 2016 by then-Gov. Mike Pence (R). Freeman predicted “robust support from fellow commissioners, independent of whether they are from rural or urban states.”

The proposed resolution captures many of Vermont concerns, said Department of Public Service Telecom and Connectivity Division Director Clay Purvis in an interview. The state spent thousands challenging MF-II maps and voiced frustration about the program’s termination (see 1912060010). Vermont officials plan to meet with the FCC Wireless Bureau to discuss the 5G fund while they visit Washington after NARUC's meeting, said Purvis.

“The maps need to be accurate,” said Purvis, a NARUC Telecom Subcommittee member. “My concern with the 5G fund is that 5G hasn’t been deployed by the private market yet, so how are they going to determine which areas ... need a public subsidy in order to get 5G deployed?” Don’t subsidize areas that already have great cell service when some areas have none, he said. “It’s dangerous to public safety and it’s cruel to do to rural people.” The FCC should give states money and more time for testing than in the MF-II challenge process, he said. “Use the data,” added Purvis, saying the FCC appeared to toss the data collected by Vermont and others to challenge MF-II maps.

"Prioritizing areas without access to 5 Mbps download and at least 1 Mbps upload is important, but we also need to keep in mind that this funding also needs to continue to flow to areas that have relied on USF for 2G, 3G and LTE,” emailed Rural Wireless Association General Counsel Carri Bennet. “These networks have not yet reached end of life and in the case of LTE will be the building blocks for 5G.” Currently subsidized rural areas shouldn’t lose services if funding is shifted to a 5G fund, she said.

CTIA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association didn’t comment.