5G Fund Needs New Data, Commenters Agree; Small Carriers: Can't Wait 3 Years
The FCC should expedite launch of a $9 billion 5G Fund, not wait to hand out money in 2023 when better maps are available, NARUC, the Rural Wireless Association and other commenters told the FCC. T-Mobile said the NPRM puts too much emphasis on buildout commitments agreed to as part of the Sprint deal. Comments were due Thursday in docket 20-32. Commissioners approved the NPRM in April over partial dissents by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, concerned about delays (see 2004230046).
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The NPRM proposes two alternatives. A Phase I auction could start next year using “current data sources” or wait until 2023 after “collecting and processing improved mobile broadband coverage data through the Commission’s new Digital Opportunity Data Collection.” Commissioners will consider a draft order and Further NPRM on the data collection July 16 (see 2006250062).
“Funding 5G deployment in rural America is too important not to do right” and that requires improved data, NARUC commented. “The agency has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to act and act quickly," state regulators said: “The NPRM does not provide an adequate explanation of why the Option B proposal to base the Auction on better data requires a delay until 2023.”
RWA seeks a “hybrid” four-phase approach, with the first $1.5 billion paid out quickly to carriers with 500,000 or fewer subscribers already receiving legacy support. “Apart from the substantial burdens” the proposed data collection poses, waiting “would unnecessarily harm the public by delaying the initial deployment of 5G service to currently unserved rural areas,” RWA said. “Under RWA’s proposal, small rural carriers will be provided the certainty needed to begin deploying 5G immediately in areas where no 5G exists today and where 5G is unlikely to come without this funding.”
The NPRM proposes “to rely heavily on T-Mobile voluntarily disclosing exactly where it will deploy 5G for the next six years as a method for identifying eligible areas,” the company said. That proposal won’t work, it warned. Deployment plans “will evolve” and “commitments are structured differently than the criteria proposed for the 5G Fund, and the details of a future deployment are highly confidential,” the carrier said, noting Commissioner Mike O’Rielly questioned that part of the NPRM.
The FCC should accelerate its timeline, with a 5G Fund auction in early 2022, the Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers said. Basing an auction on existing data is a “non-starter,” it said.
AT&T said to wait for better maps, acting as quickly as possible on data collection. “Mobile broadband providers are still very much in the midst of deploying 5G to areas where most of the population resides, with the COVID-19 pandemic possibly slowing these providers’ deployment timelines,” the carrier said. More accurate, granular data “will result in a better outcome for rural subscribers,” it said. The telecom firm wants larger licenses -- census block group rather than census blocks -- in a reverse auction. Collect new data, but hold an auction in 2022, Verizon advised.
SES Americom seeks technologically neutral rules. It sought "policies that enable satellites to play their critical role of extending broadband connectivity in a cost-effective and expedient manner to areas that are remote or have low residential population density.” Others raised 5G-related health concerns.