RLECs Seek FCC Broadband Testing Delay, Changes for Small Carriers; Others Seek Tweaks
Rural telco groups asked the FCC to postpone and redo broadband testing duties for RLECs and other smaller providers of fixed service receiving high-cost Connect America Fund support. WTA and NTCA made the requests in applications for review by commissioners of a July 6 staff order (see 1807060031). Petitions for reconsideration (and in some cases clarification) were filed jointly by USTelecom, ITTA and the Wireless ISP Association, and individually by ViaSat, Hughes Network Systems and Micronesian Telecommunications. Filings were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 10-90.
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The order covers large carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, and small telcos and wireless ISPs, USTelecom Vice President Kevin Rupy told us. "They all have to do the same testing, across technologies. ... You want to make sure the framework works for everybody. You don’t want it to be disproportionately burdensome for some." It has to work for the FCC to ensure it's "getting accurate results" from stakeholders who share the goal of accelerating fixed broadband through CAF support, he said.
The FCC should delay the scheduled Q3 and Q4 2019 initiation of testing, at least for RLECs, said WTA's AFR. "A reasonable postponement (e.g., for two years or so) should permit RLEC-compatible testing equipment to become more available and affordable." It would provide time "to develop a new or revised performance testing framework ... better adapted to rural customer needs," it said. "Given the limited resources and small broadband customer bases of RLECs, the amount of performance testing required by the Order’s framework (which was developed primarily for much larger price cap carriers) can and should be greatly reduced." WTA understands the need for testing, but it "needs to be reasonable," Senior Vice President Derrick Owens told us, citing cost issues and lack of RLEC control beyond local connections. "We’d rather spend our dollars to build out broadband than try to comply with tests we can’t control."
NTCA said testing relief is needed by "small carriers" with fewer than 250,000 broadband subscribers. The FCC should "defer the effective date of the new rules until at least 12 months after devices with built-in testing are determined to be widely available in the market and meet rigorous testing requirements," said the group's AFR. It said providers shouldn't be required to test the performance of network components beyond "the next-tier ISP from which USF recipients procure capacity directly." Smaller providers shouldn't have to test as many locations as larger providers, NTCA added. It sought clarification including on which rural telcos are covered. "This is not easy stuff, so I think there might be a better way," said Senior Vice President Mike Romano. "We really do share their interest in accountability, but it must be workable.”
The FCC must ensure CAF "delivers the service promised so that rural consumers can get the connectivity they need and ratepayer funds are put to the best possible use," emailed an agency spokesman. "The Commission is always mindful of smaller carriers, and we look forward to working with them to ensure accountability.”
Reconsider "misaligned" speed and latency testing, petitioned USTelecom, ITTA and WISPA. They said there wasn't adequate notice on frequency of latency testing, a much higher requirement than for speed testing. "Providers are required to collect and submit for a single subscriber 2,520 latency tests per quarter as compared to 42 separate speed test results," they said, urging the FCC to combine the two frameworks into a single approach. The groups sought changes to a compliance framework that's "too stringent" and "oddly" penalizes non-compliance with broadband speed and latency duties more severely than buildout non-compliance in other rules.
ViaSat asked the FCC to reconsider requiring "satellite broadband providers that receive CAF [Phase] II support to retain third parties to conduct performance testing." The requirement applies "to a single winning bidder in the CAF II auction, contrary to the principles of competitive and technological neutrality," it petitioned, also citing lack of qualified testers. It sought changes to satellite provider "real world" latency tests.
Hughes asked to clarify a "'conversational-opinion test' for demonstrating compliance with the requirement that high-latency bidders show a voice-quality Mean Opinion Score ('MOS') of four or higher, as required in the Metrics Order, does not apply to CAF support distributed through" a New York state broadband program. Alternatively, it petitioned for "reconsideration of the application of the conversational-opinion test requirement to recipients of support through the NY Program."
The FCC should reconsider a requirement to test at least five subscriber locations per CAF service tier offering, because some small providers don't have enough customers in each tier, petitioned Micronesian Telecom.