State commissioners hope the FCC takes note of coming NARUC resolutions (see 1907100028) on delaying some further changes to a billion dollar federal subsidy for poor people to get phone and broadband services. In interviews before their Sunday-Wednesday meeting to consider two such draft proposals, some expressed optimism the federal regulator might make changes midway through program revisions begun under the last presidential administration. Another telecom resolution, advocating no overall USF budget, lacks a sponsor and won't move forward unless it adds one, stakeholders noted this week.
Comments are due Aug. 16, replies Sept. 3 on an FCC proposal to modernize the E-rate program for schools and libraries, says a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register on docket 13-184. The NPRM would make permanent a 5-year-old budget approach to USF funding for internal broadband connectivity technology such as Wi-Fi routers to anchor institutions (see 1906190019).
The FCC is sharing illustrative examples of how Universal Service Administrative Co. recovers money from participants in the alternative Connect America model (A-CAM) program that don't provide the highest level of service they contracted to offer to as many locations as promised. It said in docket 10-90 a carrier's flexibility to serve 95 percent of its required obligations by the end of a 10-year term without penalty "may not be disproportionately applied to 25/3 Mbps obligations, rather than its 10/1 Mbps obligations." The agency upholds separate buildout obligations for tribal lands if the participating carrier elects an offer including an adjustment based on the tribal broadband factor: "Failing to enforce separate buildout obligations for Tribal lands would result in windfall support amounts for some A-CAM II carriers and would thwart the Commission's established goal of broadband deployment in rural Tribal communities." Industry raised concerns models used to develop buildout obligations for some rural USF programs don't resemble reality (see 1906210010). Some groups want to make sure a second broadband connection delivered to a residence for a distinct home office or business counts as a location (see 1907110003).
Rural broadband providers will start receiving funding this month in the third wave of last year's Connect America Fund Phase II auction, the FCC said Monday. This wave allocates $524 million in USF spending to expand broadband to more than 200,000 homes and businesses in 23 states. In the latest wave, the FCC authorized $39.2 million for broadband deployment in 26 rural New York counties through winning bidders Gtel, MTC Cable, Ostego Electric Cooperative, Slic and Verizon, the agency said, all of which bid to deliver downstream speeds of at least 100 Mbps and upstream speeds of 20 Mbps. Over the next several months, the FCC is expected to approve additional applications of winning bidders from last fall's auctions and authorize remaining funding totaling $1.488 billion to support broadband expansion to more than 700,000 rural locations over 10 years. Eventually, CAF could be replaced by a new 10-year, $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund proposed earlier this year at the White House (see 1904120065). Commissioners are expected to vote at the Aug. 1 meeting whether to release an NPRM, currently in draft form, on the RDOF (see 1907110031).
U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan urged the FCC to act quickly on the Connect USVI Fund, slated to make available $204 million for carriers in the hurricane-hit territory (see 1806120015). The fund would build on USF support to bring to the islands “the advanced networks that those living on the mainland take for granted,” the Democrat said in a June 12 letter posted Thursday in docket 18-143. Commit the full proposed amount for the full 10-year term, Bryan said: “In no event should the current level of support, over $16 million per year, be reduced or the Territory risks a substantial decline in its progress.” Funding should support minimum speeds of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, which is the FCC standard, he said. Support an entity that can do that within two years, Bryan said: “The hardship USVI residents have endured in the eighteen months since the hurricanes struck must not be compounded by avoidable delays” in deployment.
A draft FCC order would reform the Rural Health Care USF program, posted in docket 17-310 and in Friday's Daily Digest. The agency said the RHC updates set for an Aug. 1 meeting vote would reform payment distribution, create a database of payment rates based on geography, direct payment to the areas with the most shortages of healthcare providers if demand exceeds a funding cap, and offer more transparency to applicants. The agency said its steps would "clarify the scope of similar services for rate determination, define the geographic contours of urban and comparable rural areas for rate determination, reassign to the administrator the task of determining urban and rural rates for similar services from health care and service providers, reform the determination of rates based on the median of all available rates for functionally similar services, direct the administrator to create a publicly available database for the posting of urban and rural rates, eliminate the limitation on support for satellite services, and eliminate distance-based support."
Democratic FCC members voiced frustration that discussions on USF contribution revisions haven't progressed more. State officials want to see work on this, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday after the FCC meeting. She encouraged states to comment to the FCC and not wait for a rulemaking. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who recently joined a joint advisory board on contribution changes, said he has heard "a lot of strong voices at the state level" who are eager to see the issue vetted. Chairman Ajit Pai said, like Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, that he doesn't support including a fee on broadband access or usage in the USF contribution factor (see 1906250011). O'Rielly said there's no official timeline on a proceeding. He, like others, was answering our questions. Last month, the agency announced the USF contribution factor had grown to its highest ever (see 1906130014).
Broadband provider groups asked the FCC and Universal Services Administrative Co. how to determine when a home-based business is counted as a serviceable location under a USF program (see 1906210010). In comments posted Wednesday and Thursday to docket 10-90, NTCA, ITTA and Midwestern telecom alliances responded to a petition for clarification or declaratory ruling by Northeast Iowa Telephone and Western Iowa Telephone Association on the definition of locations included in the alternative Connect America cost model (A-CAM) for residences that also are businesses. NTCA challenged a discrepancy between FCC rules and orders, plus industry practices and realities in rural America, and a USAC FAQ. The USAC document says for a carrier to count a business run out of a house, barn, shed or other structure on a property as a separate serviceable location, there must be a separate facility line or drop to the business apart from that serving the home. NTCA said the FAQ guidance "does not reflect the realities and challenge of deploying networks and delivering services in rural areas." ITTA wants the FCC to rule that home-based businesses registered with a state or other governmental entity and in eligible census blocks "are considered locations and do not require separate subscriptions to facilities to count as such." Such a separate subscription requirement "can be found nowhere in the Commission's rules and orders," said the Iowa Communications Alliance, Minnesota Telecom Alliance and Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association.
The FCC would use two reverse auctions to distribute $20.4 billion in funding over the next decade through a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) that Chairman Ajit Pai announced at the White House in April (see 1904120008), per a draft NPRM released Thursday. The new USF program (in docket 19-126) would help deliver broadband service tiers of at least 25/3 Mbps to rural communities unserved and underserved. The draft circulated Wednesday; commissioners will vote on it at their Aug. 1 meeting (see 1907100072).
Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin led a letter with House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and 12 other House Democrats Tuesday to the FCC raising concerns with the NPRM to establish new budget caps on the USF (see 1905310069). The agency has extended the comment deadline to July 29, with replies to Aug. 26 (see 1907050023). Others signing on: Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Cindy Axne of Iowa, Sanford Bishop of Georgia, Cheri Bustos of Illinois, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, T.J. Cox of California, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Ro Khanna of California, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Peter Welch of Vermont. They urged Chairman Ajit Pai and the other commissioners “not to establish an overall [USF] cap … or combine the cap of any USF programs, consistent with” the House's voice vote last month to approve Pocan's amendment to the FY 2020 budget bill containing funding for the FCC and FTC (HR-3351) that would prohibit the FCC from instituting an overall USF budget cap (see 1906260081). “Imposing an overall cap on the USF would unnecessarily cut funding” to the programs, the lawmakers said. “As you acknowledge” in the NPRM “the programs currently operate with caps or targeted budgets.” The agency is reviewing the letter, a spokesperson said Wednesday.