AT&T Meets With FCC on Potential ACAM Fixes

AT&T representatives met with staff from the FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics about USF, including the future of the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) program. “Specifically, we stressed how broken and in need of reform the current” USF “contributions mechanism and factor are,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-476: “Indeed, the perilous state of the contribution factor and how to modernize the funding mechanism was ‘one of the most intensively discussed topics’ in the Future of USF proceeding’s record.” Among AT&T’s recommendations are that the FCC consider making some ACAM locations eligible for broadband, equity, access and deployment program or other federal/state broadband funding programs, and whether “other technologies like fixed wireless already exist in ACAM-eligible areas and/or would be more cost-effective to reach certain high-cost locations.”