NCTA Backs FCC Inquiry on Broadband in MTE Buildings, Suggests Further Questions
NCTA supported an FCC effort to explore ways to promote broadband deployment in multi-tenant environments, but it proposed some additions to a draft notice of inquiry on the agenda for next Thursday's FCC meeting, which is aimed at "improving competitive…
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broadband access" to MTEs. NCTA encouraged the FCC to expand some draft questions, including on: the state of MTE market competition, the extent to which restricting building practices "may adversely affect" broadband deployment and pricing, and the agency's statutory authority to regulate building-provider contracts. For example, the NOI should ask if there's "any evidence of a market failure" in MTE broadband, and under what circumstances, if any, should the government have a role in dictating contract terms, said an NCTA filing posted in docket 17-142 Thursday on meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly. The cable group also said the FCC should seek comment on "technical and operational challenges" to multiple providers using a single facility and "potential consumer harm" of such sharing.