Hughes Urges 'Competitively and Technologically Neutral' CAF II Auction
Hughes Network Systems sought a "competitively and technologically neutral bidding process" in the FCC's planned Connect America Fund reverse auction of broadband-oriented support. Hughes also said the commission should include a Remote Areas Fund framework in a CAF Phase II…
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auction order on the tentative agenda for its May 25 meeting (see 1605050036). A Hughes filing Wednesday in docket 10-90 summarized its meetings with FCC officials, including aides to all five commissioners. Hughes talking points said "satellite broadband covers America successfully" and decreases the number of Americans without broadband access to less than 1.5 million, but "satellite capacity limits will impose constraints on actual bidding." Hughes said a competitively and technologically neutral CAF auction would maximize participation and promote market efficiency. Any FCC fiber preferences would violate such principles and result in higher costs and fewer households served, it said. If the commission doesn't hold a "completely open auction," it should set "reasonable criteria for evaluating competing bids from different types of providers," recognizing factors such as data speed, latency, capacity and economic efficiency, said Hughes, and it proposed a bidding credit or point system to balance the factors. On satellite buildout duties, it said: "Satellite providers will always be able to serve very rural customers more quickly than terrestrial providers. How much more quickly depends on the extent to which funding allows for the reservation of capacity for customers that do not currently take service.”