Neb. PSC Taps New FCC Data for State USF, Still Concerned With Service Quality

The Nebraska Public Service Commission unanimously adopted state USF and telecom service quality orders Tuesday. The PSC will use the FCC's broadband data collection (BDC) as the replacement for Form 477 data that the state commission previously used to determine broadband availability in each census block, said the Nebraska USF order in docket NUSF-139. Previously, some rural telcos raised concerns about relying on BDC data for NUSF high-cost distributions (see 2310020062). The PSC understands "concerns that, as a newer data source, the BDC data and challenge process may still need corrections," but it expects that many past issues were corrected in the Nov. 17 broadband fabric update, it said. The PSC will provide its own challenge mechanism to "allow carriers to correct any missing broadband serviceable locations or correct any other misidentified information appearing in the FCC’s updated broadband availability data,” it said. Relying on the FCC challenge process wouldn’t be as quick, it said. The PSC decided to retain a 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds benchmark for determining which census blocks are eligible for broadband deployment support in 2024. However, the agency noted it still considers speeds between 25/3Mbps and 100/20 Mbps as underserved, and that NUSF support recipients must provide at least 100/100 Mbps. Also, the PSC adopted a payment structure for NUSF broadband buildout support that aligns with its National Broadband Bridge Program and Capital Projects Fund programs. Commissioners also agreed 5-0 to adopt a service quality order requiring price cap carriers Lumen, Windstream and Frontier Communications to refresh the record by Jan. 5 on repair and replacement timelines, dispatch procedures and how many technicians they have on staff (docket C-5303). The companies’ previous answers to those questions -- first asked in an August 2021 order -- failed to alleviate the PSC’s concerns, and the commission keeps getting consumer complaints, it said. The PSC scheduled a hearing on the matter for Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m. CST.