BDAC OKs Delayed Low-Income Working Group Report
The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee OK'd recommendations from the Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities working group Thursday (see 2010290057). The delayed report met with mixed reactions.
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There were few changes from the original draft, and it focused more on “balancing the discussion of the correlation between income and deployment,” said WG Chair Tom Ferree, CEO of Connected Nation. “We’re seeing the affordability question certainly become something that a lot of states are trying to wrestle with.” The most significant change from the draft narrowed tailored proposals to low-income communities. "The jury is still out" on the pandemic's impact on barriers to broadband adoption, and it remains to be seen what coming data will show, Ferree said.
Debate over regulatory language occurred throughout much of the meeting. Nancy Werner, NATOA general counsel, said a National League of Cities report that her group co-authored was tailored to permitting done during COVID-19 and shouldn't be used in general for permitting at the state and local level: "I don't want that document represented in a larger context than it was intended for," she said. Werner questioned who's a “customer” for spectrum providers and what constitutes “unreasonable fees and lease payments” for broadband deployment. “I’m not supporting a statement that says any kind of fee out there discourages deployment or investment.”
Chris Nurse, AT&T assistant vice president-external affairs, said that's not a fair representation: "There is a point at which a fee or lease payment becomes unreasonable and that becomes an issue, and I think that’s neutral.” BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles, CEO of wireless ISP Aristotle, agreed. “Unreasonableness is something reasonable people can determine," she said. "It’s the best we can do because I don’t think it’s the job or appropriate for that working group to define.” The committee voted to remove the language and clarify that the FCC should identify fees that impede broadband deployment.
BDAC debated whether lease terms for public rights of way should be uniform or non-discriminatory. Bowles argued against removing the language because it's “normative.” Ferree warned it's "losing the spirit of recommendation,” but members ultimately voted to “limit the lease term provision to public rights-of-way.” Brent Skorup of George Mason University’s Mercatus Center questioned whether the commission should adopt a "use it or share it" policy for unused spectrum, warning that it "singles out wireless carriers" by having their spectrum "yanked" if they're not using it. Members approved changing the report's language to clarify that spectrum holders may not hold spectrum "unreasonably" and should return unused spectrum to the FCC for others to use.
Members contemplated whether to include legislation as a reference for examples of ideas to consider, which Werner opposed and viewed as rubber-stamped approval. The committee voted to include language clarifying this wasn't an endorsement of the bills listed. "I do not think this is a hill to die on," Ferree said.