Telecom Group Raises Concern About Middle-Mile Services, Alaska Plan

The Alaska Telecom Association raised concerns about low earth orbit services' impact on middle-mile services in a meeting with FCC Wireline and Wireless Bureau staff, per an ex parte posted Friday in docket 16-271. The group said its member OneWeb's constellation in Alaska's northern region doesn't have additional capacity and its service is "unlikely to meet the performance testing requirements applicable to the Alaska Plan." ATA noted Starlink's service in the state is "offered exclusively as a retail consumer service and is not available to carriers as middle mile transport." The group's members are adopting LEO services "where capacity, performance, and cost allow" and are pursuing opportunities to "construct and access terrestrial middle mile wherever economically possible."