Monica Hogan

FCC broadband maps “lack sufficient and meaningful detail” (see 1905010089) to properly allocate a $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 1904160057) proposed last month by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “because carriers only report broadband deployment at a census block level,” Windstream CEO Tony Thomas said Wednesday on a Q1 webcast. Thomas is pleased that the Connect America Fund has helped drive rural broadband upgrades but added current data doesn’t demonstrate whether specific locations are served or unserved. “We simply can’t solve a problem that we do not fully understand,” Thomas said. “It would be reckless to spend tens of billions of dollars over a decade on the back of the current broken mapping system.” The telco reported sales fell about 9 percent to $1.32 billion from the year-ago period but it had the best residential broadband subscriber growth since 2011. It projects it will add 30,000 such subs in 2019. Windstream added 11,400 consumer broadband subscribers in Q1. Windstream continues to replace copper with fiber in parts of its ILEC market but is restrained by the limits of copper in some of the real estate it leases from Uniti, the CEO said. Windstream considers the rent it pays Uniti to be “significantly above market” value, Thomas said. As part of its bankruptcy proceeding (see 1902280017), he said Windstream will evaluate all options for its Uniti lease, “including renegotiation, recharacterization, unwinding the lease,” and “outright rejection of the lease.” Uniti stock closed down 5.6 percent Wednesday at $10.21. Uniti didn't comment. Thomas said it's too soon to say when Windstream will emerge from Chapter 11 protection.

Frontier Communications CEO Dan McCarthy expects broadband subscriber losses to slow over the next four to six months as the company makes a concerted effort to improve network capabilities and address churn. “We’re looking at what bundles are profitable,” he told a webcast JPMorgan conference on Tuesday, noting that some of the systems Frontier acquired came with unprofitable video programming deals. Adoption of over-the-top video services is accelerating while linear video service rates are dropping. McCarthy said Frontier remains agnostic and wants to deliver the video experience that customers want, adding the company aims to protect the broadband experience. Wireline phone subscriptions continue to decline, and McCarthy said it’s too soon to say whether the decline will continue at its current pace or stabilize. The company acknowledges it must focus on new products in an attempt to offset an expected decline in voice. The telco seeks to reduce subscriber churn acknowledged in its Q1 report (see 1905010027) through focus on standardizing customer service and tech support practices. That could not only reduce customer wait times but also reduce the need for contractors, an often unpredictable expense, the CEO said.

Forward-thinking telecom companies can help facilitate disruptive changes to healthcare from broadband and digital health technologies, FCC Associate General Counsel Karen Onyeije said Monday during an FCBA event. She said cross-sector collaboration is crucial: “Think of the bedfellows we need to make.” The FCC plans to release an update on a broadband and opioid study in the next four to six weeks, said Onyeije. She's also chief of staff for FCC’s Connect2Health Broadband Task Force, which is designed to think five to 10 years out. Her agency is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to map the use of broadband as a social determinant of health, and they’ve created a conceptual model that includes opioid overdose data and mortality data in the hopes that it could help healthcare entrepreneurs identify those at risk and intervene sooner. “How do we play to where the puck will be?” Onyeije said. She cautioned that if not done correctly, the move to digital health could exacerbate health disparities because the technological advances won't be available to those who need them most. David Siddall of DS Law said that medical body area network (MBAN) technology is a classic case of spectrum sharing. When MBAN developers sought spectrum, they spent three years negotiating a sharing and interference mitigation arrangement with trade groups in the flight testing industry. The spectrum-sharing arrangement in place allows for use of the products in most U.S. hospitals, although Siddall noted that in larger cities, there might not be enough spectrum to cover all the hospitals. “The solution is more spectrum, but spectrum doesn’t grow on trees,” he said. Given the right spectrum, MBAN devices could be used to monitor patients in the home or ambulances, as well, he said. The first MBAN devices (wearable, bandage-size monitors) have yet to launch. Siddall believes product developers want to coordinate the technology with European standards first.

CLECs want the FCC to protect their access to the business data services market by denying a petition from USTelecom to remove a mandate that incumbent LECs provide transport network services to CLECs as an unbundled network element (UNE). The latest smaller-carrier opposition to USTelecom's petition for forbearance from requiring ILECs unbundle and resell access to some of their networks came in responses posted in docket through Monday 18-141 to an April 15 public notice with supplemental business data services statistics. CLECs contend that BDS data is limited and there was insufficient time to comment.