O'Rielly Says RUS Should Focus $600 Million Broadband Pilot on 'Truly Unserved' Areas
FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly urged the Rural Utilities Service to target $600 million in congressional appropriations for boosting broadband on "areas most in need of support" that are "truly unserved." O'Rielly and Microsoft urged a "technology-neutral" approach, and the American Cable Association said RUS must "prevent overbuilding of existing broadband providers and coordinate with broadband support programs of other federal agencies." There were 130 comments posted by Monday in RUS-18-TELECOM-0004 of regulations.gov in response to a notice of inquiry on how to structure an e-Connectivity pilot program.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
O'Rielly said RUS should focus funding on "communities with no access" as it interprets a requirement that eligible rural areas have at least 90 percent of households without "sufficient access" to broadband, defined as 10/1 Mbps. He said a more expansive definition subsidizing areas that have service would be a disservice to Congress, which "explicitly focused on the unserved," and would undermine broadband investment incentives. Make funding decisions in a technology-neutral fashion, prevent recipients from "cherry-picking locations," exclude areas served by other agencies and consider market mechanisms such as reverse auctions, he recommended.
An FCC staff order July 6 establishing a framework for measuring the speed and latency performance of Connect America Fund Phase II fixed-broadband subsidy recipients was submitted by the Wireline Bureau.
Microsoft said a technology-neutral approach "to attract the widest possible group of participants." The company urged RUS specify applicants seeking to provide broadband via TV white space spectrum are eligible for funding: "Throughput on TVWS devices exceeds the RUS’s 10/1 threshold for service speeds in its existing programs and, in fact, can meet the FCC’s 25/3 service speed threshold."
ACA said RUS should follow the FCC's lead and "distinguish between 'fixed' and 'mobile' technologies, "with the latter being unable to provide 'sufficient access' at this time." The FCC distinction "is based on its recent finding that fixed and mobile networks are not yet close substitutes," ACA commented. "Any 'fixed' technology meeting the performance parameters ... should be considered to provide 'sufficient access.'" It suggested RUS build on the FCC's CAF "challenge" process.
The pilot should prioritize funding "for areas that lack a price-cap" telco, commented the Nevada Governor's Office of Science, Innovation & Technology: "The areas with no price cap carrier quadrupled the number of locations in [Nevada] that lacked basic terrestrial or fixed wireless service." Comments were also posted from electric cooperatives, small RLECs, local officials, individuals and others.