Parties Seek Alaska Plan, Tribal Broadband Factor in Rate-of-Return USF Overhaul
The FCC should include an Alaska Plan in a looming rate-of-return USF overhaul, General Communications Inc. (GCI) and other Alaska telecom interests are telling commission officials. The plan is aimed at supporting broadband deployment in rural Alaska, and time is of the essence, given the state's construction season, they say. Native American groups are separately pushing for including a Tribal Broadband Factor, citing a projected reduction of almost $33 million in support for carriers serving tribal lands under a draft FCC order. Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) also has asked the FCC to adopt its price-cap USF proposal for Alaska.
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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently circulated a "bipartisan" draft order intended to revamp USF mechanisms to support broadband service and new deployment in high-cost areas served by rate-of-return telcos. The office of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel would like to see the order address Alaska-specific issues instead of deferring those until later, said an aide Feb. 19 (see 1602190056).
GCI urged the FCC to "adopt the Alaska Plan contemporaneously" with the national reforms, said a company filing Wednesday in docket 10-90. It noted discussions GCI officials had this week with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Rosenworcel, and aides to Rosenworcel and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly.
The Alaska Plan "establishes fixed funding and defined performance obligations for Alaska's carriers to enable improvements in broadband service [in] remote Alaska," said the Alaska Telephone Association in a recent filing summarizing discussions it had with a Clyburn aide. "We noted the importance of moving forward quickly to allow Alaska’s providers to take advantage of the upcoming construction season," ATA said.
ACS said it fully supported the Alaska Plan's proposed continuation of existing levels of high-cost support for rate-of-return companies in the state for 10 years. ACS urged the FCC to adopt the plan in conjunction with its pending broader rate-of-return action, said a filing summarizing meetings earlier this month with various FCC officials, including Rosenworcel.
“There seems to be a positive FCC willingness to work on the Alaska Plan,” an informed source told us Thursday. "Timing remains a question."
Native American groups are concerned the draft order could have negative fallout for tribal lands. Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GRTI) and the National Tribal Telecommunications Association (NTTA) provided an estimate of the draft's "likely impact" on tribal lands, based on proposed changes floated in a recent filing by NTCA, a rural telco group that has engaged in extensive negotiations with the FCC on overall rate-of-return changes. "The effect on carriers serving tribal lands is estimated to be a more than $32 million reduction in support beginning in July 2016," GRTI and NTTA said in a filing this week on meetings they had with aides to Wheeler. "This at a time when the GAO and the President’s Broadband Opportunity Council have recognized that costs to serve tribal lands are high and additional funding is needed to address the 'connectivity desert' that is tribal lands."
GRTI and NTTA urged inclusion of their proposed Tribal Broadband Factor (TBF) in the coming order. If the commission decides to seek further comment on the TBF, it should commit to completing the item by a date certain, they said, suggesting July, to coincide with expected implementation of proposed rate-of-return changes.
Mescalero Apache Telecom backed the TBF proposal as a way to bring broadband to tribal areas, where it said FCC data show 72 percent of residents lack access to broadband speeds of 25/3 Mbps (down/up). "The TBF contains provisions that would assist any rate-of-return regulated eligible telecommunications carrier in expanding the availability of broadband-capable networks in tribal areas. It would accomplish this by offering increased federal universal service support in exchange for certain buildout commitments and timelines," Mescalero said in a letter Thursday.
In the price-cap arena, ACS earlier lobbied the FCC on its proposal for using model-based Connect America Fund Phase II support for broadband deployment in Alaska. ACS said it had committed to deploying broadband that meets CAF II "speed, latency usage, and affordability requirements to 26,000 eligible locations, subject to certain flexibility requested in the proposal." All of the locations were considered "unserved" by 3 Mbps (down) and 768 kbps (up) under a National Broadband Map as of December 2014, the company said in its filing.
ACS noted that other price-cap carriers had made their CAF II decisions last August and were "well underway with their deployment efforts" around the country. "As time has passed since that date, Alaska is falling further behind on broadband deployment due [to] this delay, hurting residents in our State, while it has become increasingly difficult for Alaska Communications to explain to its investors this delay in CAF II deployment for Alaska," ACS said. "Further, Alaska Communications must compete for the services of network planning, engineering, and construction firms that have already been engaged by larger price cap carriers located in other states, potentially driving up costs and the risk of delay."
USTelecom backed the ACS price-cap proposal. "ACS is anxious to move forward on its efforts to provide broadband to rural areas of Alaska. It is important to approve ACS’ proposal so that it can get underway in its deployment efforts in conjunction with the rest of the price cap carriers," said a recent filing from the group, which represents price-cap and rate-of-return carriers.