Democrats Dissent on FCC 2020 Broadband Deployment Report

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called the report “baffling” and said it “ignores the lived experiences of so many people struggling to get access to broadband.” She also said the FCC should adjust the performance standard to 100 Mbps download and consider a symmetrical upload to match. She wants the next report to address price and affordability. “Crises can reveal a lot,” she said in her dissent. "The pandemic has demonstrated conclusively that broadband is no longer nice-to-have. It's need-to-have."

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the report declares broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion, but "this finding does not suggest that we have succeeded in our mission to bring broadband access to all Americans, and I personally will not rest until that work is done." He praised efforts to compare mobile and fixed broadband services. He wanted more data on satellite broadband in the main body of the report.

Commissioner Brendan Carr said light FCC regulations encouraged industry investment in broadband networks.

This year's report in docket 19-285 relies again on inaccurate Form 477 data, and that should be reflected in its conclusions, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said in his dissent. “As we enact emergency efforts to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, I will continue to call on the Commission to speed the work of correcting our broadband deployment data and to develop better data and policy on affordability,” he said.

“We disagree with commenters that content that the section 706 requirements have not been met,” the report said. It rejected arguments urging the FCC to assess “based only on the number of Americans with access to broadband instead of measuring year-over-year progress.” The report recognizes the inaccuracies in form 477 data and notes efforts to get better data are underway. The report concludes that despite its positive finding, “our work to close the digital divide is not complete” and that nearly 18.3 million people lack access to fixed terrestrial broadband. Rural and tribal access remain a focus for deployment, it said.

Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called the report "mind-boggling.” “How on earth can new FCC Report claim broadband is reasonably and timely deployed in the midst of a pandemic that shows how lacking our broadband is for helping jobless, school-less and healthcare-less?” he tweeted.

“The ongoing pandemic has laid bare a stark reality: millions of people do not have reliable or affordable access to the internet,” said Joshua Stager, senior counsel at New America’s Open Technology Institute: “This problem actively undermines our efforts to combat COVID-19, including stay-at-home orders that wrongly assume people have home access to online services.”

“To reach this conclusion in the middle of a pandemic where it's painfully obvious millions lack access is shameful,” Yosef Getachew, Common Cause director-media and democracy program, tweeted.

The report defies reality when tens of millions of Americans don't have access to high-speed internet service, said Gigi Sohn, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society senior fellow. “Chairman [Ajit] Pai has decided it's time to take a victory lap even as millions of children cannot do their schoolwork, workers cannot telecommute and families cannot connect to friends, neighbors or each other during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The FCC relies on data that the agency and bipartisan members of Congress “admit grossly overstates the number of Americans with access to broadband,” she said in a statement. She urged the FCC to set a new definition for broadband above 25/3. Benton Senior Fellow Jon Sallet called the FCC's analysis “woefully inadequate.”

The Irving Group's Larry Irving called the report the best fiction he's read while at home during the pandemic: “It basically says all is fine.” He wants more focus on affordability in urban areas, instead of just access in rural areas. He said recent experiences with online education and work-from-home Zoom meetings should highlight the need for higher-speed symmetrical broadband. “Nobody on that commission is using 25/3,” he said, and yet they say it's good enough for the rest of the country.

The report recognizes that all-fiber network deployments are surging and consumers increasingly demand access to them, Fiber Broadband Association CEO Lisa Youngers said. “This need for consumers to access all-fiber connectivity has become even more apparent during the COVID-19 emergency. ... We expect this reality will be reflected in the next report and that the benchmark broadband speeds will increase to a level that reflects what Americans both use and require.”

NTCA wants to help obtain better data to assess, said Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs and Business Development Mike Romano. The group's members “continue to make great strides in broadband deployment despite serving some of the most remote parts of the country.”

“ACA Connects supports the FCC’s decision finding that advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion,” a spokesperson said. “The FCC’s light-touch regulatory regime, coupled with its efforts to remove barriers to deployments, has helped propel their broadband investments.”