The FCC should "develop and implement methods for collecting and reporting accurate and complete data on broadband access, especially on tribal lands where service is known to be lacking," GAO recommended Tuesday. It said stakeholders identified limitations in location data for the broadband serviceable location fabric as a "key challenge" for the agency. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., sought the review. FCC officials told GAO it plans to award a one-year contract with the option for four additional years to update the location fabric with new data "at least twice a year." GAO interviewed officials from the FCC, Census Bureau, NTIA, Transportation Department and the Postal Service. It also spoke to AT&T, Lumen, NCTA, NTCA and USTelecom. The FCC "is pleased that GAO evaluated the approach being taken by the FCC to develop the broadband serviceable location fabric and accurately identified the challenges we face," emailed a spokesperson.
The FCC Wireline Bureau extended to Dec. 31 the deadline for Lifeline reverification, recertification, de-enrollment and income documentation requirements for subscribers in rural areas on tribal lands, said a docket 11-42 order listed in Thursday's Daily Digest. The bureau previously extended the deadline to Sept. 30 (see 2106280032).
The FCC Wireless Bureau encouraged tribal applicants for 2.5 GHz licenses to work together to resolve issues when two or more apply for the same market. “Most of the Rural Tribal Priority Window applications that remain pending before the Bureau are mutually exclusive with other applications also filed in the window,” the bureau said Wednesday: “Due to statutory requirements, mutually exclusive applications cannot be processed under the Commission’s normal application review process unless the overlap is eliminated.” Applicants can help by taking “voluntary steps to remedy any overlaps,” the bureau said. It announced 20 more applications were accepted for filing from Alaskan Native communities after “potential mutual exclusivity issues were addressed through voluntary steps.”
House Ways and Means Committee Democrats’ decision to include a 30% tax credit for municipal, state and tribal government-owned broadband networks’ operations (see 2109140063) in the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package “is just the latest example of big government picking market winners and losers,” FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon said Tuesday. “Government-owned corporations rarely produce the results they promise” and “this is particularly true of highly competitive and innovative industries like broadband.” President Joe Biden “should take a page from the Trump administration’s playbook and incentivize private markets to bridge the digital divide rather than foolishly continuing to throw more of the taxpayers’ money at the problem,” Brandon said. The American Action Forum and Free State Foundation are among others that also criticized the tax credit proposal.
An FCC draft NPRM on expanding eligibility for E-rate to tribal libraries is expected to be unanimously approved during commissioners' Sept. 30 meeting, experts said in recent interviews. Library groups and tribal leaders welcomed the move, saying more libraries may be likely to consider applying.
Smith Bagley asked the FCC for an additional six-month extension of the Lifeline rule waiver scheduled to expire Sept. 30, said a petition posted Tuesday in docket 11-42 (see 2106280032). It said 2,800 Lifeline subscribers on tribal lands may be de-enrolled in November or December if reverification requirements take effect Oct. 1.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington and other chamber Democratic leaders told us they haven’t signed off on the House Commerce Committee’s portion of the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package because of what they consider an underwhelming amount of money for broadband. Senate Republicans we spoke with appeared unified with their House colleagues in opposition to the language.
Microsoft’s petition for reconsideration of relaxed interference rules for distributed transmission systems is “illogical and contrary to the public interest,” said NAB and America’s Public Television Stations in a call with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington Thursday, per a filing posted Monday in docket 20-74. “There is no track record of [TV White Space] TVWS success, or even the potential for success, that would warrant limiting broadcasters’ efforts to improve service to viewers,” the associations said. “Despite Microsoft’s repeated efforts to amplify the purported successes of TVWS deployments ... just 322 TVWS devices [are] authorized in the United States today.” Microsoft didn’t comment. In a separate filing, APTS and NAB targeted replies from Public Knowledge, Tribal Digital Village and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. New DTS rules don’t give broadcasters new spectrum rights or new protections, the broadcasters said: “Despite the length of the Interest Groups’ comments, they are rife with factual errors and misleading conflations and reflect no effort to engage seriously with the substance of this proceeding.” The groups didn’t comment.
A draft FCC NPRM seeks comment on how to improve access to the E-rate program for eligible tribal entities (see 2109090068).
The FCC provided details on its proposal to reshape the rules for the 4.9 GHz band, adopted 3-2 last year, in a draft report and Further NPRM posted Thursday and set for a commissioner vote Sept. 30 (see 2109080081). The item examines sharing the spectrum, while giving public safety priority access similar to FirstNet.