USTelecom Says Gigabit Tier Bias in CAF Auction Would Severely Limit Benefits
USTelecom knocked proposals to assign large bidding credits to gigabit performance tiers in the FCC's planned Connect America Fund Phase II auction of broadband/voice subsidies. "This type of proposal, if adopted, risks reducing by three-quarters the number of homes and…
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businesses that obtain broadband under this program. That would be an unfortunate result for rural America," ILECs' main trade group said in a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. The filing was used in meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai (here) and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (here). Commissioners tentatively are set to vote on a CAF II order Feb. 23 (see 1702020051). "Assigning bidding weights that would skew auction winners to 1 Gbps networks risks reducing the number of rural locations that would benefit from new broadband connections from roughly 1.5 million to under 400,000, leaving more than 1 million rural homes and businesses without broadband," USTelecom wrote. The group said backing terrestrial broadband to more locations at any speed promotes more rural fiber deployment, which is not only "more equitable" but supports 4G and 5G wireless services. USTelecom proposed "reasonable weighting of the speeds that customers actually demand" to bring broadband to as many Americans as possible. A rural electric/telco coalition has urged the agency to adopt bid weights that promote the higher speeds in rural areas that it said urban customers take for granted (see 1702030040).