FCC Democrats Unhappy With Draft 5G Fund NPRM

The NPRM explores two possibilities. An auction for phase I next year would define “eligible areas based on current data sources that identify areas as particularly rural and thus in the greatest need of universal service support.” The second would delay phase I “until at least 2023, after collecting and processing improved mobile broadband coverage data through the Commission’s new Digital Opportunity Data Collection.” The Competitive Carriers Association told the FCC both proposals are flawed (see 2004130038).

Industry officials said they aren't sure why it would take years for the FCC to build a new database for the fund. The draft offers some explanation: A March broadband data law (see 2003240049) doesn’t fund completing mobile coverage maps. “Due to the current lack of appropriated funding, the expected length of time that would be needed to collect, verify, and analyze these data, and to collect and adjudicate objections from members of the public and state, local, and Tribal governments, this approach would also be likely to significantly delay the Phase I auction,” the draft NPRM says.

Both proposals are “disappointing, and I strongly encourage the commission to explore other options to ensure much-needed funding is distributed to areas in need as quickly as possible,” CCA President Steve Berry emailed Monday. “Reliable data is a must for an effective, efficient support program,” he said: “There is no reason why we can’t ‘walk and chew gum at the same time,’ collect accurate data in a quick and efficient manner and promptly distribute funds to unserved and underserved areas.” CTIA declined comment. The agency didn't comment.

“The FCC has put forward a couple of options that could be combined into an elegant solution,” Rural Wireless Association General Counsel Carri Bennet told us. RWA spoke with officials Thursday to discuss “continued funding for small rural carriers who have been using universal service support to expand and upgrade their networks for the past 20 years from 2G to 3G to LTE and now can use the current legacy support to go to 5G,” she said.

RWA, and members including Sagebrush Cellular, Panhandle Telephone, Pine Belt Cellular and Pioneer spoke with officials, mostly from the Office Economics and Analytics, said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-32. The group proposed language for the NPRM suggesting that “a $2 billion 5G Small Carrier Fund could be carved out of the 5G Fund for a ten-year period.” Under the “alternative mechanism,” smaller carriers “would make specific 5G build out commitments over the 10-year period.”

Using current data is a “nonstarter,” said Gigi Sohn of the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. “Why is it 2023, why isn’t it 2025 or 2026?” she asked. “It doesn’t make any sense.” The FCC is offering commissioners “a false choice,” she said: “That is one of the lamest excuses I’ve ever seen for putting off something that’s important.” Sohn also asked why the FCC needs a specific appropriation and can’t do the job with current funding.

T-Mobile questioned basing support on areas left unserved after the buildout it committed to as a condition of buying Sprint. “T-Mobile’s commitments under the Commission’s Merger Order are population based and do not commit T-Mobile to deploy 5G to defined geographies,” the carrier said: The order “gives T-Mobile flexibility to identify where to deploy 5G, consistent with its overall population-based benchmarks.”