Joan Engebretson

There’s a lot more behind the news that the Federal Communications Commission plans to increase the minimum broadband speed target in rural areas that wasn’t detailed in FCC Chairman Pai’s recent blog post about current commission initiatives. The plan to increase the minimum broadband speed is just one aspect of a 125-page order that the FCC will consider next month. Also detailed in the order: a plan to make new offers of model-based A-CAM broadband support to rural rate-of-return (ROR) carriers.

Benton Ridge Telephone Company can trace its roots back over 100 years to when it started out as a rural telephone company serving the OH community with the same name. The largest part of the company’s business now, however, is its wireless internet service provider unit known as Watch Communications, which offers service in parts of rural OH, IN and IL. When the company decided to bid – and ultimately won over $52 million – in the Connect America Fund II auction, its plan was to use fixed wireless for the project area.

Secretary Sonny Perdue didn’t have many new details to share about the upcoming $600 million US Department of Agriculture rural broadband pilot when he addressed stakeholders at a USTelecom event. But his comments suggested that could change soon. “I’ve challenged my people to have a solid plan in place by the end of the year,” said Sec Perdue. He also noted that “we are close to determining the rules but we’re not there just yet.” He noted that USDA received more than 250 comments from stakeholders in response to the agency’s request for input on the pilot program.

The Competitive Carriers Association report “Assessment of the Economic Impact of The Airwaves Act" estimates that at least $1.5 billion could be raised for rural wireless in upcoming auctions of spectrum in the 24 GHz and 28 GHz bands, with additional funding to come from other auctions. The bill, sponsored by Sen Cory Gardner (R-CO), would require the Federal Communications Commission to complete auctions during each of the next three calendar years and to dedicate 10% of auction proceeds toward rural wireless. According to them, the issue is that the 28 GHz spectrum auction will not cove

Three of the nation’s four largest wireless carriers are poised to bid in the upcoming Federal Communications Commission auctions of millimeter wave spectrum, according to a new FCC public notice. Millimeter wave spectrum is expected to support 5G wireless services offering speeds as high as a gigabit per second or more. And although some people have argued that millimeter wave 5G is unlikely to be deployed in rural areas, several small rural carriers also are on the list of potential millimeter wave auction bidders released by the commission.

The average fixed wireless speed used in the US and Canada is 3.5 Mbps downstream, according to new research conducted by Preseem, a company that focuses on quality of experience monitoring and optimization for wireless internet service providers (WISPs). It’s important to note that 3.5 Mbps is not the average download speed offered by the WISPs, which is probably higher. Average fixed wireless speed was only slightly higher at peak times than it was overall, according to Preseem.

One of the most interesting aspects of the recently-completed Connect America Fund (CAF) II auction is the strong showing by smaller, non-traditional service providers. The second biggest winner, for example, was Wisper — a company little known outside southern Illinois and parts of neighboring states, where the company offers fixed wireless broadband, primarily in rural areas, including some areas the company has served for more than a decade.

The Federal Communications Commission will vote later in Oct on rule changes for the upcoming auction of spectrum in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. According to a draft order released Oct 2, the proposed CBRS auction rules call for licenses to be awarded by county for a period of 10 years with the option to renew. The FCC is proposing lengthening license terms in the CBRS (3.5 GHz) band, "modestly" increasing the size of those geographic licenses--the plan is to auction the licenses sometime in 2019-and allowing them to be renewed.

Four telecommunication groups have come together to urge the Federal Communications Commission to increase the Universal Service Fund (USF) budget to at least $2.4 billion for 2018 for the high-cost portion of the program. The request took the form of a letter from ITTA – The Voice of America’s Broadband Providers, USTelecom – The Broadband Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and WTA – Advocates for Rural Broadband.

With the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction completed, the Federal Communications Commission’s next CAF responsibility will be to establish plans for the CAF remote area auction, which aims to help bring broadband to remote areas not currently addressed through the CAF program. And FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly is questioning whether there is sufficient funding for that auction. He said at the Sept 26 FCC meeting that the CAF II auction results suggest that $5-7 billion dollars would be needed to bring broadband to locations that will remain unserved after the CAF II auction.