CWA: Limit Mobility Fund to $100 Million; Move Forward on Comprehensive Universal Service Reform
The FCC just announced plans to open a comprehensive rulemaking to reform the Universal Service Fund. The FCC plans to establish a Connect America Fund — as recommended by the National Broadband Plan — to transition today's almost $5 billion annual support for voice telephony in rural areas to broadband build-out.
This is long overdue. CWA and Speed Matters have long advocated for this change, and will be active players in the proceeding to ensure that changes spur investment in high-speed networks in unserved areas and foster good union jobs.
In the meantime, the FCC just completed the formal comment cycle in a related proceeding to establish a Mobility Fund. The Commission — again acting on a National Broadband Plan recommendation — proposes creating a one-time Mobility Fund to support investment in wireless networks in areas not served by the technology.
CWA urged the Commission to limit the size and scope of the Mobility Fund to a one-time, targeted subsidy of $100 million in order to reserve maximum USF support for the more comprehensive, technology-neutral Connect America Fund. Recipients would be selected through a reverse auction. Today, 98.5 percent of U.S. population is served by a 3G wireless network.
In the National Broadband Plan, the Commission tagged the cost to build broadband networks capable of 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream to unserved areas at $24 billion. Achieving world-class broadband capable of 100 Mbps or more in both directions would cost even more — an estimated $350 billion.
CWA urged the Commission to see wired and wireless as interdependent networks. Even if the Commission succeeds in reallocating unused broadcast spectrum to wireless, there will never be enough spectrum to meet the growing demand for video and data-rich applications. Moving wireless traffic onto wired networks as soon as possible will increase spectrum efficiency, while also helping to overcome technical limitations of mobile connections.
Moving forward, the Commission must focus on policies to spur investment in both wired and wireless technologies. The two are inseparable. The Commission, therefore, should limit the Mobility Fund to a one-time program, while moving forward expeditiously to create the Connect America Fund.
CWA also urged the Commission to target the limited resources of the Mobility Fund to areas in which there is currently no mobile service at all; support only one provider per service area; establish reasonable benchmarks that Mobility Fund recipients must meet for performance, service, deployment, and rates; and ensure that any Mobility Fund recipient abide by the highest standards of job creation and labor relations.
National Broadband Plan — Availability
National Broadband Plan — The FCC should create the Mobility Fund
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