CTIA Concerned About Pending FCC Broadband Progress Report

CTIA President Meredith Baker met with FCC officials to express concerns about the agency’s pending 11th broadband progress report and on USF issues. “CTIA highlighted the significant role that mobile wireless broadband services have cemented in the lives of Americans, and expressed disappointment that the Commission’s forthcoming … report may not affirmatively conclude that mobile wireless broadband deployment is occurring on a reasonable and timely basis,” the filing said. Currently, 99 percent of Americas have access to LTE, compared with 35 percent of consumers worldwide, Baker said. Wireless carriers invested a record $32 billion in their networks last year, she said. “American consumers use more than 11.1 billion MB of data every day,” the filing said. “As a result, mobile data usage increased more than 25 percent in 2014 alone, and more than ten times the volume from 2010.” The filing was in docket 15-191. The draft Telecom Act Section 706 report that has been on circulation would find that broadband wasn't being deployed in a timely and reasonable manner to all consumers (see 1601070059).