In the Oct. 12 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 56, No. 40), CBP published a proposal to revoke one ruling on synthetic ice panels and modify one ruling on wood slats and bottom rails.
The growing demand for fiber due to broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program spending shouldn't mean a shortage of or difficulty for broadband providers in procuring fiber, we were told. Fiber interests say a shortage of labor to do installation work is likely more pressing.
The Wireless Infrastructure Association is continuing its push, started under former President Jonathan Adelstein (see 2204180045), to ensure that wireless has a big role to play as the federal government awards more than $48 billion in connectivity money through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, new President Patrick Halley said in an interview. WIA was among the groups that raised concerns NTIA is putting too much emphasis on fiber, in contravention of the direction from Congress when it created the broadband, equity, access and deployment program (see 2205130054).
Some telecom companies disagreed with cattlemen and corn growers on whether the Nebraska Public Service Commission should include a matching requirement in rules to implement the state’s 2022 Precision Agriculture Infrastructure Grant Act. Nebraska plans to fund upcoming PRO-AG grants through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The PSC shouldn’t require a match for at least the first two years since the program is for "the most rural and cost-prohibitive locations in the state,” Paige Wireless said in comments posted Tuesday in docket BEAD-1. Not requiring matching will encourage more participation, though the commission could give preference to projects that offer a match, said Hamilton Telephone, Nebraska Central Telephone and Reinke Manufacturing in joint comments. Nebraska agriculture associations including for cattlemen, corn growers, and dairy and pork producers supported matches similar to what's required by the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program -- 25% for high-cost areas and 50% for other areas. Require at least a 25% match since projects are in unserved areas, the Nebraska Rural Broadband Alliance said. The state law doesn't allow funding for ILEC fiber, but projects "would wisely be leveraged with other fiber projects,” the alliance said. With 5G wireless "a game-changer for agriculture," grant eligibility should be technology neutral, commented CTIA: The PSC "should be thoughtful about any affordability requirements, and it may be prudent in the context of this agriculture-focused program not to impose any.” The state agriculture associations urged the PSC to give highest priority to areas that lack at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds and that haven't received federal broadband support. Not all precision agriculture applications require 100/20 Mbps, they cautioned. “If those speeds are an absolute requirement, that could be a significant limiting factor in the deployment of these grants.” Require projects to be completed in one year, while letting applicants seek one six-month extension, said the agriculture groups: Completed projects should be required to remain in service at least five years. The PSC should start the PRO-AG grant cycle within six months of the state receiving NTIA approval for BEAD dollars, they said.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., urged NTIA Friday to encourage streamlining of permitting processes for recipients of money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. “With inflation already raising costs, we cannot afford to waste time and resources on needless bureaucracy when we should be building networks,” the GOP leaders said in a letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “Without action, we worry that deployments will take longer and be more expensive, leaving more Americans on the wrong side of the digital divide.” NTIA should “require states and territories to work with their local governments to streamline permitting processes to expedite and reduce barriers to deployment,” Rodgers and Wicker said: “We are encouraged” that BEAD’s notice of funding opportunity (see 2205130054) “asks states to identify steps to reduce deployment barriers, including streamlined permitting processes, and encourages state and territorial governments to expedite permitting timelines," but “merely encouraging and promoting these actions … is not enough.” NTIA should “require states and territories to work with local governments to adopt streamlining policies that reduce the burdens associated with obtaining permits,” the lawmakers said. The agency “should also set a high bar for the ‘other critical policy goals’ that states and localities can use to justify burdensome permitting regulations so that the exception does not become the rule.”
House Agriculture Committee leaders eyed how to address broadband issues in the 2023 farm bill during a Thursday hearing, with panel ranking member Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and some others noting dissatisfaction with the degree to which the $65 billion in connectivity money included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would affect rural areas. “Rural broadband will continue to be a major focus” for House Agriculture despite House passage of IIJA’s connectivity money instead of the panel-approved Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act (HR-4374), which included $43 billion to Rural Utilities Service programs for FY 2022-29 (see 2107140061), said panel Chairman David Scott, D-Ga.
Steve Berry, who is leaving the Competitive Carriers Association at the end of the year (see 2209130072) after 13 years as president, told reporters a top priority for the rest of the year is getting Congress to fully fund the rip and replace program needed to remove Chinese gear from small carrier networks (see 2209090053). The program faces a $3.08 billion shortfall. “We need to get that done, we need to secure our networks,” he said: “It was a decision made by Congress. Now we’ve got to make sure that they actually pay for it.”
The FCC's rejection of SpaceX's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction long-form application (see 2208100050) “is so broken it is hard not to see it as an improper attempt” to undo the prior FCC’s decision to permit satellite broadband service providers to participate in RDOF, said SpaceX Friday in an application for review of the decision. “The decision appears to have been rendered in service to a clear bias towards fiber, rather than a merits-based decision to actually connect unserved Americans.” In rejecting the application, the agency “misused data outside the record” on SpaceX’s speeds, “ignored robust record evidence” of SpaceX’s capability to expand, and didn’t accurately weigh SpaceX’s pricing against competitors, the appeal said. Commissioner Nathan Simington welcomed the appeal. "I am troubled that the decision to rescind SpaceX’s RDOF award applied standards that were not in our RDOF rules, were never approved by the Commission, and in fact made their first appearance in this drastic action," Simington said in a statement Monday. "I urge my fellow Commissioners to review SpaceX’s appeal and take prompt action to uphold our rules." Commissioner Brendan Carr has also been critical of the rejection of SpaceX's application (see 2208240049). The FCC's rejection of the SpaceX application, "lengthy review" of SpaceX’s application to launch more satellites, and NTIA’s move to exclude satellite from the BEAD program will combine to slow rural broadband access and "risk giving Chinese satellite internet providers, who have the full support of their government, a competitive advantage in serving the rest of the world," Simington said. “Any suggestion that Starlink is relatively expensive is unsupported by an apples-to-apples comparison because SpaceX, unlike other RDOF bidders, fully discloses its true cost to consumers,” the application for review said. “Changing the rules to undo a prior policy is grossly unfair” after SpaceX has already invested “thousands of employee hours and millions of dollars” into RDOF preparations, SpaceX said. The appeal also says the agency violated SpaceX’s Fifth Amendment due process clause, and improperly denied a request for waiver. The FCC should reverse the Wireline Bureau’s decision, grant SpaceX’s long-form application, and waive the deadline to submit evidence that SpaceX is an eligible telecommunications carrier in states where it hasn’t yet been so designated, the review application said. The FCC didn’t comment.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Biden administration slammed the door on technology neutrality in how it's awarding broadband funds (see 2205130054), former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly blogged Wednesday. “Effectively ignoring this basic principle (and the underlying law), the Administration essentially has done everything possible -- absent strict mandates -- to favor fiber broadband technology over any other when awarding the $41.601 billion in competitive grants under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program,” O’Rielly charged: “In doing so, the Administration has unfairly penalized other innovative technologies, such as licensed fixed wireless access providers or Low Earth Orbit Satellite systems. This has huge ramifications, including driving up broadband costs and deployment timelines in the short-term and leaving consumers unserved in the longer-term.” The BEAD rules make the job of state broadband offices “that much harder,” he said.