RWA: FCC Should Reconsider Parts of 5G Fund Order
The Rural Wireless Association sought reconsideration of the FCC’s August order launching a 5G Fund. Commissioner Brendan Carr, on tap to be FCC chair starting next week, dissented on the order, raising BEAD concerns (see 2408290041). In a filing posted Monday in docket 20-32, RWA agreed with Carr that the FCC should wait for decisions on where BEAD money will be spent before moving forward on a 5G Fund auction. In addition, RWA questioned the fund’s reliance on the broadband data collection’s mobile challenge process for assessing funding needs. “As RWA and others have previously pointed out, the process is ineffective, particularly in rural areas, due to the limitations of crowd-sourced data and data compatibility issues in submitting bulk mobile challenges, and the Commission has failed to adequately address these concerns.”
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RWA said the FCC should instead “conduct its own drive-testing of mobile broadband availability coverage using an independent third-party vendor to ensure accurate mapping.” The commission “has turned a blind eye to the overstated coverage of the national carriers and instead relies on the fact that there are not many challenges as proof that there is not overstated coverage in rural areas,” the filing said. RWA sought reconsideration of the speed threshold for eligible areas, saying 7/1 Mbps is too low: “This threshold is based on unfounded assumptions and does not reflect the minimum desired 5G mobile user experience.” RWA suggested instead a 35/3 Mbps threshold. It also challenged how the FCC arrived at the size of the fund -- $9 billion. “The Commission’s stated rationale for this … budget amount is without support or evidence,” RWA said.