Rural Wireless Association Raises Broadband Map, 5G Fund Concerns
The Rural Wireless Association urged the FCC to explore “potential alternatives” to a 5G Fund for rural areas, in a meeting with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economic and Analytics staff. “RWA described how its members have deployed and are…
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operating mobile networks in areas not served by the nationwide providers, providing needed connectivity to their customers and the public generally,” RWA said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-32. “In many cases, this could not have been done without the Universal Service Fund support the carriers receive through the Mobility Fund, and now those carriers are using their USF support to upgrade to 5G coverage,” the filing said: “RWA explained that the current 5G Fund framework risks undermining this progress, stranding those networks, and wasting current USF support because it lacks a reasonable transition between the legacy support mechanism and a future 5G Fund.” Broadband data collection maps “appear to contain significant overstatement of coverage in rural areas, as was the case with prior mapping efforts,” the group said.