Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers Seeks 5G Fund Changes
The Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers (CWRC) this week sought reconsideration of the FCC’s August order launching a 5G Fund. The coalition agreed with the Rural Wireless Association (see 2501130024) that the FCC should hold off on a 5G Fund…
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auction while BEAD unfolds. “BEAD-funded projects that move points of fiber interconnection closer to proposed new towers, or those towers currently using microwave backhaul, will stretch 5G Fund program dollars and benefit rural areas in need of improvement,” the group said in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 20-32: “When fiber moves closer to a new or proposed tower or fixed wireless access provides both home and mobile broadband to an area, 5G Fund auction bids will reduce, increasing the program’s efficiency and better serving the public interest.” CWRC also called for better broadband maps and an improved challenge process. “One CRWC member provided drive test data demonstrating that an area shown on the mobile availability map to have 5G service at 7/1 Mbps or better had almost no such coverage,” the filing said.