Hughes Proposes CAF Latency Test Standards

Hughes Network Systems is pitching its own specifications for the latency tests to check the ability of the rural broadband network build-out envisioned by Connect America Fund Phase II to be used for such purposes as VoIP. Those specifications include a Web page loading time standard of five seconds, ensuring “all technologies providing speeds at or above CAF Phase II requirements are able to meet the requirement,” Hughes said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. Hughes’ proposed specifications also include an R-Factor score of at least 52. R-Factor is a measure of VoIP call quality. Going with 52 “will allow competition by providers using the current terrestrial technologies (such as fiber, cable, and high speed DSL) as well as other technologies (such as LTE or fixed satellite services),” Hughes said. Hughes’ filing comes just days after a telecom networking equipment company proposed an R-Factor score of 80 as a threshold and questioned the methodology Hughes previously had discussed (see 1505290037).