The American Cable Association wrote to “commend” the...

The American Cable Association wrote to “commend” the FCC and its Wireline Bureau “for the recent decision establishing ‘eligible’ areas” for the use of Connect America Fund Phase I support. A “key principle” of the CAF program is to ensure support is “not provided in areas served by unsubsidized providers that compete” with ILECs, it said. “ACA believes that in addressing the many thousands of challenges” received during Phase I, the bureau “held true” to that principle. The Phase II challenge process will be “much more complex,” and it will again be important to ensure “CAF support is not provided where cable operators and others have already expended private capital to build broadband plant,” ACA said.