The FCC voted Thursday to seek public input on a proposal to provide extra universal service support to certain rural carriers who receive support in the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) program. In exchange, the carriers would need to achieve 100/20 Mbps broadband speeds throughout the areas they serve instead of the current 25/3 Mbps standard.
The agency developed A-CAM for rate-of-return carriers serving high-cost and hard-to-reach areas. The ACAM Broadband Coalition submitted a proposal to create an enhanced program, which is the impetus for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted yesterday. As proposed, Enhanced A-CAM would raise the broadband speeds required by the A-CAM programs to those generally required by the Infrastructure Law, while minimizing duplicative support across different federal broadband programs. The Notice also proposes targeted modifications to the high-cost program rules to improve efficiency and efficacy in the program, including further streamlining of the annual reporting rules.
The ACAM Broadband Coalition, which includes some member companies of the WTA– Advocates for Rural Broadband, submitted its proposal to the FCC in October 2020. Companies that choose to participate in the plan would receive six years of additional support and the budgetary impact would be to increase ACAM support by $389.5 million per year from approximately $1.1 billion per year to nearly $1.5 billion per year, according to the coalition.
During the vote, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr described a visit to Canistota, SD, in which he saw Golden West “push aside old copper line and pull fiber” needed to deliver broadband speeds to the town as part of A-CAM. He called the new speeds a game-changer. “Increased bandwidth has opened up opportunities for telehealth and precision agriculture. It would be impossible for many ISPs to find the capital necessary to construct high-speed networks.”
His colleague, Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, said it’s a good time to discuss the future of A-CAM since NTIA recently opened its doors to applications for the $42 billion dollar Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD). “These A-CAM networks must stand shoulder to shoulder with the BEAD buildout,” he said, cautioning that both must avoid overbuilding.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
Reader Interactions