C-Band Rider Called 'Possibility' in FCC Funding Bill; House Panel Slams RDOF
House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and other legislators raised FCC broadband issues during a Wednesday House Appropriations Financial Services hearing on the commission’s FY 2021 budget request. They criticized the agency’s decision to advance its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund without first improving its broadband coverage data collection process and the length of the commission’s recently concluded probe into wireless carriers’ disclosure of consumers’ real-time location data. The Senate passed a House-revised version of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (S-1822) Tuesday that now serves as a broadband mapping legislative package.
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“I’m disappointed that rather than taking the time to fix” broadband mapping problems identified before the FCC scuttled its Mobility Fund Phase II program, the commission plans to move forward on RDOF and will “dole out [$16.4 billion] in broadband subsidies by the end of the year” via the programs’ first phase, Quigley said. That leaves $4 billion in RDOF funding for underserved areas and those “incorrectly labeled as served.” Commissioners voted 3-2 in February to approve its plans for Phase I.
Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., is concerned RDOF is “being rolled out using old maps.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also highlighted deficiencies in the RDOF process, saying “we need to have maps before money and data before deployment.” She again said she believes the FCC could make significant improvements to broadband coverage maps in three to six months. Chairman Ajit Pai said Rosenworcel’s claims are “flatly incorrect.” He said he “consulted with career staff” and it “takes six months to analyze any particular” form 477 filing to ensure it’s “error free.”
Bishop and Quigley pressed Pai on whether President Donald Trump’s administration interfered with RDOF's rollout, which Pai announced as part of an event where Trump opposed 5G nationalization (see 1904120065). The RDOF auction will begin Oct. 22, less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 presidential election. “The FCC should be focused on serving the American people and not politicizing for winning elections,” Bishop said. Pai defended his process and said the administration hasn’t tried to influence any FCC decisions during his chairmanship.
Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., focused on FCC coordination with the Department of Agriculture on broadband issues to prevent overlap. Pai said he met with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue several times about the importance of not duplicating funding for rural broadband deployments. Rosenworcel noted previous periods when USDA’s Rural Utilities Service duplicated broadband funding, which required FCC reimbursement via USF.
Senate passage of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Ac Tuesday that now serves as a broadband mapping legislative package got praise from Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, House Commerce GOP leaders and several communications sector groups. “Better data is essential to ensuring that scarce federal broadband subsidies are targeted to those Americans without service,” O’Rielly said. “I am especially grateful that [the bill] takes affirmative steps to restrict subsidized overbuilding by the FCC and other federal agencies, including by requiring the Commission to consult the newly created maps before awarding new funding for residential and mobile broadband deployment and enabling the Commission to determine enterprise coverage across” USF programs.
About “19 million Americans -- including one-fourth of the rural population -- still cannot access standard broadband services,” said House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and House Communications ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio. “To expand broadband to communities that need it, we must know exactly where those communities are.” The Competitive Carriers Association, Connect Americans Now and USTelecom lauded S-1822's passage.
“It is absolutely time” for the FCC to talk about possible coronavirus disruptions and “how technology can help,” Rosenworcel said. U.S. consumers’ anticipated increased reliance on telework, telehealth and tele-education amid the outbreak will “expose some truly hard facts” on “the scope of the digital divide.” The FCC should “be convening broadband providers right now to prepare,” she said. The commission “should be identifying how it can use its universal service powers to support connected care for quarantined patients and Wi-Fi hot spots for loan for students whose schools have shut.”
Quigley faulted the FCC’s conduct of the wireless location data probe, in which the commission found all four major U.S. carriers failed to safeguard that information. The FCC proposed $208 million in fines (see 2002280065). The investigation “took nearly two years” to complete, which is unacceptable, Quigley said. “Perhaps if the FCC would have prioritized their enforcement duty, this would not have been such a drawn out undertaking.” He cited instances when the FCC “can't seem to move fast enough” to enact policies benefiting wireless carriers and ISPs while appearing to treat consumer protection as “an afterthought.”