NY Broadband Auction Not Fair to Satellite Industry, Hughes Says

New York state’s broadband subsidy auction may be “inconsistent with FCC requirements,” Hughes warned Monday in docket 10-90. In an ex-parte letter to the FCC posted Tuesday, Hughes urged the FCC to ask New York to modify the plan the state outlined last week for the auction that's receiving up to $170.4 million in federal Connect America Fund support (see 1703230027). The proposal advantages high-speed, low-latency bids, and discredits the high speeds that can be provided by high-latency providers like satellite companies, Hughes said. “This inflexibility against recognizing satellite providers’ actual offered speeds creates an unfair disadvantage against them by effectively denying them access to the 50% bidding credit available to bidders in the Baseline speed tier in which they otherwise could bid.”