The linear density of a fiber-to-the-home project is the best...
The linear density of a fiber-to-the-home project is the best predictor of the project’s costs, said a study sponsored by the Nebraska Rural Independent Companies. The study, included in an FCC ex parte filing dated Friday, said the number of…
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customers per route mile explains 87 percent of cost variation, whereas the area density -- the number of customers per square mile -- explains only 71 percent. Researchers looked at the costs for fiber projects in 227 rural areas and 209 towns in 15 states served by 63 ILECs, the study said. The RLECs that commissioned the study urged the FCC to “conduct further analysis with a larger data set.” If its findings hold up, they could help the FCC solve problems in the high-cost Universal Service Fund, the filing said. Using them, the commission could develop “a mathematically supported upper limit on ‘reasonable’ capital expenditures,” settle on a method “for limiting the pace of broadband” deployment and estimate “the nationwide ‘cost'” of building national broadband networks, the study said.