FCC Commissioners, Industry Seek Certainty on Broadband Programs, Spectrum Policy
FCC commissioners emphasized the need for action on spectrum policy and 5G, and more certainty on broadband affordability and deployment efforts, during Incompas’ policy summit Tuesday. Some industry experts also urged changes to sustain the USF because funding for the affordable connectivity program remains uncertain and the USF contribution factor continues to rise.
The “moral and economic case for ubiquitous high-quality access had not only become stronger” but has “transformed into a fundamental matter of civil rights and American competitiveness,” said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. There should be “sustained funding” for ACP as enrollment continues to increase, Starks said. The FCC will announce ACP outreach program grant recipients and Your Home, Your Internet pilot program participants “later this month,” he said, but “if we leave ACP's future uncertain, we're potentially reducing the impact of these appropriations.” Starks also said securing additional funding for ACP would ensure NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program dollars "go as far as possible and succeed in connecting every unserved and underserved home.”
Industry experts raised concerns about the USF's future. Expanding the contribution base to include broadband internet access service revenue is “the right way to do it,” said Incompas President Angie Kronenberg. There's "a lot of support” for addressing the contribution factor this way, Kronenberg said, “so we were a little disappointed” that the FCC “kicked it to Congress” on what to do. It’s “ridiculous that we’re having to fight this hard” to address USF reform, said Public Knowledge Director-Government Affairs Greg Guice. It’s unclear why the FCC hasn't acted, Guice said. “There’s no obligation for Congress to do something” because the commission already has the authority to act.
Starks emphasized the need to address digital discrimination and functional equivalence for communications services. Concerns about “discrimination driven by data collection and usage” warrant “careful consideration,” he said. There’s a “growing use of automated speech recognition,” but “the question to me is whether ASR can in fact do the job reliably for all people,” Starks said. The FCC also needs to “provide more clarity” on pole attachments, he said: “We don't need these disputes over rates and access” because it’s “slowing things down.” Commissioner Brendan Carr suggested the dispute resolution process could be “streamlined” and made more efficient. “You can't have the full attachment rates be the thing that slows down our work and the digital divide,” he said.
“We spent a lot of money” on broadband deployment, but “we're not carrying it sufficiently with streamlining” on the permitting and “actual infrastructure build side,” said Carr: "That's like jumping on the gas and the brakes at the same time.” Use of “mixed technology” should be supported because it’s a “matter of money at the end of the day, even when we have billions and billions of dollars,” Carr said, and the “most important thing is to make sure that we stay coordinated.”
The FCC is “committed to consumer 5G spectrum commercialization,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington: “My office is hopeful that an NPRM will come in the very near term on the receivers proceeding, and as I said in these circles before, we're big proponents of a property rights model for governing receivers.”
Tweaking spectrum policy frameworks “incrementally” may also “expedite the 5G transformation,” he said. Simington noted “many policymakers are counting on the 5G revolution to create new application frameworks and new industrial possibilities“ and “we have to ask how we get from a consumer-facing cell network and the businesses that grew up around that to the non-consumer uses that shows such potential.” The FCC must "continue to have our spectrum auction authority, which, even that basic level of authority seems to be not passing,” Carr said.