Access for all to affordable, robust communications services is vital and “competition remains one of the best ways to address those challenges,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told attendees of CCA’s 2018 Mobile Carrier show in Las Vegas yesterday. Getting there means the Commission must adopt and enforce rules that give CCA members a fair shot at competing against larger carriers, she added.
How to get there involves restoring interoperability in the lower 700 MHz band, Mobility Funds that incentivize deployment of mobile broadband to rural and underserved areas, and targeted Lifeline reforms that enable low income families to have mobile broadband service, she said. Clyburn credited CCA’s help with the interoperability and Mobility Fund Phase II proceedings, both important to bringing service to unserved and underserved rural areas.
The Mobility Fund Phase II auction proceeding, referenced by CCA President/CEO Steve Berry, remains ongoing. “For many of us, going without that smartphone, tablet, or access to the internet for any length of time is a temporary inconvenience. But what many do not realize is that millions of Americans still wish they had that problem, because they lack access to any mobile broadband service,” said Clyburn.
The fund provides ongoing support to companies like CCA members who understood “well before the Commission did,” the importance of mobile broadband in areas where service would be unavailable, absent federal support, according to Clyburn. In 2017, the agency voted on a Phase II budget of $4.53 billion in support available over 10 years, to mostly rural areas that lack unsubsidized LTE service. She credited CCA’s advocacy for helping persuade the FCC to go forward with the auction.
“Your continued advocacy to ensure that there not be a disruptive flash cut of legacy support for wireless carriers and for securing a challenge process as part of the Mobility Fund II auction, should not be taken for granted, because the challenge process is important to improve the data, the FCC uses, to make critical policy decisions,” said Clyburn. She pledged to remain vigilant of claims of inaccurate data in the Commission’s broadband coverage maps.
Following her keynote speech, Berry presented Clyburn with CCA’s Hall of Fame Award for her efforts on behalf of small carriers.
March 30, 2018
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