CTIA President Meredith Baker warned Tuesday that the U.S. will fall behind other countries unless Congress restores FCC auction authority, in remarks to the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas. Baker quoted Paul Milgram, the economist whose work led to the first spectrum auction. The loss of auction authority is “nuts,” she said. The agency’s auction authority lapsed in March 2023 (see 2303100084).
Broadband deployment continues in a timely manner and adoption rates are rising, ISPs said in comments about the FCC's annual Section 706 report on the state of competition in the broadband marketplace (see 2409060058). In addition, some urged that the commission refrain from including metrics on pricing and adoption rates in its final analysis. Others said the FCC should refine the broadband data collection (BDC) process and national broadband map.
Congressional Democratic leaders remain intent on attaching funding to restore the FCC’s lapsed affordable connectivity program to a year-end legislative package (see 2409170066). Some lawmakers acknowledge the push faces long odds in what’s likely to be a fraught lame-duck session. Some ACP boosters believe Capitol Hill’s lame-duck dynamics could change depending on the outcome of the Nov. 5 election. GOP lawmakers aren’t enthusiastic about attaching ACP money to a legislative vehicle this year, in part citing their longstanding demand for a major overhaul of the program in conjunction with additional funding.
Tribal-area wireless provider Smith Bagley told the FCC the Navajo Nation this week adopted a legislative resolution supporting the carrier’s April request for a waiver of Lifeline rules. The provider asked the FCC to temporarily provide expanded monthly tribal Lifeline benefits of $25 to $65.75 to make up for the loss of funding following the expiration of the affordable connectivity program (see 2404080030). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith Bagley “added 100 Gigabytes of data each month for Tribal ACP customers to use while their Tribal lands were closed down and they were forced to stay home,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 11-42. Now that ACP has lapsed, Smith Bagley “can no longer provide the additional 100 Gigabytes of data to Tribal homes,” the filing said: “With minor adjustments, it has returned to its pre-COVID rate plans, which means that high data use customers must purchase additional bundles of data when needed.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr again took aim at how the Biden administration and NTIA have implemented the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, a concern Republicans on Capitol Hill have amplified (see 2409190063). BEAD is “a program worth fighting for,” but it must change, Carr said Friday during an American Enterprise Institute webinar.
Cost remains an obstacle for 1.7 million New York state households to get broadband, said a New York Department of Public Service staff report Tuesday. And the end of the federal affordable connectivity program and litigation over the FCC’s reclassification of broadband and New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (see 2409160031) have complicated efforts to connect them, staff said. “To alleviate that uncertainty,” the department included in the report a list of low-cost plans available from ISPs.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel visited an Arizona elementary school as part of an initiative to promote recent modifications to the E-rate program, said a news release Friday. "Visiting rural Arizona made it clear that if we want our children to succeed in this digital age, then we need to ensure they can get access to the internet," Rosenworcel said. She met with parents, teachers, and school staff to discuss the benefits of the program. The agency noted that the E-rate program "takes on renewed importance following the expiration of the affordable connectivity program," which connected more than 500,000 households in Arizona before it ended. Using hot spots, the FCC is "working to close that digital divide" for schools and libraries, the agency said. Rosenworcel will spend the next few months meeting with national, state, and local school leaders to discuss the program's importance.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is eyeing attaching her Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) to an end-of-year package instead of pursuing another markup attempt before Congress recesses at the end of September for pre-election campaigning. She previously eyed a potential September markup of S-4207 (see 2408150039) in hopes of resurrecting the measure after it repeatedly stalled earlier this year. S-4207 would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through Sept. 30, 2029, and provide a vehicle for allocating funding for the commission’s lapsed affordable connectivity program and other telecom priorities.
ISPs and consumer advocates recommended tweaks as the California Public Utilities Commission began finalizing state rules for NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. The CPUC plans voting Sept. 26 on a proposed decision approving rules implementing volume two of the CPUC’s proposed rules, which it submitted to NTIA in December. Determining the extremely high cost per location threshold (EHCPLT) on a project area unit (PAU) basis as proposed "will lead to inconsistent results,” said AT&T in comments Thursday, recommending a statewide approach instead. “Such piecemeal and fluctuating EHCPLT determinations make project predictability difficult as applicants formulate their submissions and will likely increase the number of PAUs that would be too costly for fiber deployments.” Also, several proposals would "result in rate regulation in violation of the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act," including a proposed middle-class affordable option with a $74 monthly rate cap, AT&T said. The California Broadband & Video Association advised that CPUC maximize BEAD funding’s reach “by prioritizing private matching funds over speculative awards from other grant programs and by ensuring that applicants have the financial capability and sustainability for their proposed projects.” Avoid discouraging participation with "restrictive price caps" or "skewed scoring criteria related to affordability, labor, and network resilience,” the cable association said. But Tarana Wireless asked the CPUC to reconsider scoring criteria that favor big companies. For example, one category "will only award a full 20 points to providers capable of providing at least a 65% private sector match or more of requested funding amount," a requirement that's "unusually high and favors larger and wealthier service providers.” The CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office urged setting "a hire bar" for allowing a subgrantee to increase the price of a required $30 low-cost option. Center for Accessible Technology, another consumer group, asked why companies may request increasing low-cost plan prices to account for inflation or increased costs, but there’s no way to reduce prices “when a provider’s financial viability can be sustained at the lower level.” The Utility Reform Network said the CPUC should plan for the possibility that the low-cost option and affordability issues may need to be revisited, including due to the end of the affordable connectivity program.
Responding to state budget cuts in the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund Program (BLLRF), the California Public Utilities Commission clarified Thursday during a meeting that it will award just $50 million of the originally planned $750 million. The program was meant to support broadband deployment costs for nonprofits, local and tribal governments. But at the same livestreamed session, commissioners approved about $91 million in grants from the federal funding account (FFA) for 10 last-mile projects.