FCC Targets More RLEC USF Support for 25/3 Mbps, 5G Auction Details, QR Questions

RLECs receiving Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) support of $146.10 per location monthly would be offered $200 per location if they expand 25/3 Mbps in their areas and deploy at least 10/1 Mbps to new locations, said a draft order: "We increase the 25/3 Mbps service requirement to 50% of fully funded locations for low density carriers, 65% of fully funded locations for medium density carriers, and 85% of fully funded locations for high density carriers consistent with ITTA’s proposal." If all eligible carriers accept the offer, 100,000 new locations would receive 25/3 Mbps and the added cost would be $67 million a year.

A new 10-year funding term would begin Jan. 1 and run through 2028. "Each carrier will be required to serve at least 40% of the requisite number of eligible locations by end of the 2022, 50% by the end of 2023, 60% by the end of 2024, 70% by the end of 2025, 80% by the end of 2026, 90% by the end of 2027, and 100% by the end of 2028," said the draft.

The order would offer carriers still on legacy RoR support an opportunity to transition to model-based support of $200 per location for 10 years, with the same 25/3 Mbps deployment milestones of the revised offers to the model-based recipients. It also would include a tribal broadband factor, providing $213.12 per location monthly to carriers serving tribal lands.

ITTA lauded Pai "making good on his promise to address the RoR high-cost program budget before the end of this year," emailed President Genny Morelli. "We fully support the proposed changes in the program for existing A-CAM companies as well as the proposed parameters of a second A-CAM offer for existing legacy support companies and urge the Commission to adopt the proposed order at its December open meeting."

The draft would set a $1.42 billion budget for RoR carriers on legacy support, increased annually for inflation, and with budget controls eased. "We revise the deployment obligations for legacy carriers commensurate with the minimum threshold of support that will not be subject to the budget constraint," it said. "We also revise the minimum speed obligation to 25/3 Mbps, up from 10/1 Mbps."

NTCA is "encouraged the chairman has put this out there," Senior Vice President Mike Romano told us. "We think this is a really important order. Hopefully, something along these lines will be adopted.” USTelecom "appreciates the Commission's attention to the budget concerns raised by rural providers," emailed a spokesperson. "Reforming the unpredictable and insufficient funding for rate-of-return carriers will spur broadband adoption and deployment and get us closer to our shared goal of universal service for rural consumers and businesses at the speeds they require.”

An attached FNPRM would "seek comment on how to implement an auction mechanism for legacy rate-of-return areas that are overlapped or almost entirely overlapped by an unsubsidized provider," said a summary. It also would "seek comment on how to address budgetary impacts resulting from carriers transitioning from voice or voice and broadband lines to broadband-only lines." An order on reconsideration would "deny three petitions seeking reconsideration of the Commission’s decision to offer additional support to all carriers that accepted the revised offers of model-based support."

5G Auction, Market Report

The FCC anticipates auctioning millimeter wave band spectrum in 100 MHz blocks licensed by partial economic area, it said in a draft order released Wednesday. The draft said the planned incentive auction for the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands will be in two phases -- a "clock phase" with bidding on generic license blocks followed by an assignment phase with clock phase winners bidding on specific frequencies. It said incumbents giving up spectrum usage rights will get incentive payments. It said incumbent 39 GHz licensees can either give up spectrum usage rights for a share of the proceeds from the auction of new licenses, or receive modified licenses consistent with the new band plan and service rules.

The draft said modifying the 39 GHz band plan from seven 200 MHz channels to 14 100 MHz channels makes repacking incumbents easier. It said having the same 100 MHz channels for the 37 GHz band and the upper microwave flexible use portion of the 47 GHz band avoids creating complexities for bidders if they get auctioned together, and will let the two bands function effectively as one.

The draft communications marketplace report -- which consolidates a variety of agency reports into one in order to fulfill a Ray Baum's Act mandate for a report on the state of market -- seems to sacrifice a lot of the granular data that individual reports about various communications services typically contain, said Common Cause Media & Democracy Program Director Yosef Getachew. Common Cause and others raised such red flags in the past (see 1803160059). Getachew said his group and others also urged the FCC in the past to collect and report such data as fixed broadband pricing, and that's not included in the draft report. "The data needs to be more," he said, saying making substantive policy decisions without substantive data is difficult.

Not included in the draft report is the Telecom Act Section 706 advanced telecom capability report that the FCC had indicated it would issue as part of its marketplace report (see 1808100040). An FCC spokesperson said the agency anticipates releasing that broadband report in a draft appendix in advance of the December meeting but is waiting for "a very small number of companies" to verify data.

The report said the FCC agenda for encouraging more investment, deployment and competition includes making a "significant amount" of spectrum available over the next two years, with possibilities including the 26 GHz and 42 GHz bands. It also said a goal over the next two years is looking at "outdated" wireline regulatory structures such as rate floor rules for rate-of-return carriers and its tariffing rules.

QR, Media Modernization

A draft 2018 quadrennial review NPRM seeks comment on several questions about how competition should be measured in TV and radio, whether current local ownership limits on TV and radio should be maintained or relaxed further. “How should the impact of Internet services like Google and Facebook on local advertising markets factor into our consideration of the Local Radio Ownership Rule?” asked the draft item. “Has the disparity between the FM and AM services been narrowed to an extent that we could consider relaxing or eliminating the subcaps?” The item also seeks comment on whether the rise in FM translators should be taken into account when considering relaxing subcap rules.

On TV, the draft asks for comment on modifications to the FCC’s top-four network duopoly policy, and asks whether a “bright-line” test should be established. The agency also seeks comment on how those rules affect retransmission consent negotiations. The draft seeks comment on how multicasting, satellite stations, ATSC 3.0 and the incentive auction have affected media ownership.

The December media modernization item would eliminate broadcast license posting rules that have become “redundant and obsolete now that licensing information is readily accessible online through the Commission’s databases.”