FCC Opens Annual Inquiry on Broadband Deployment

The Federal Communications Commission initiates its annual review and solicits comments and information to help guide the analysis. The FCC encourages individual consumers, broadband providers, consumer advocates, policy institutes, governmental entities, and other interested parties to provide comments. The information will help ensure that FCC broadband policies are well-informed and backed by sound data analysis as the agency strives to close the digital divide and encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. The FCC proposes to continue to use data taken from our Form 477.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, "[O]ur policies must be based on facts—not assertions that fall apart when subjected to even a bit of scrutiny. Take, for example, one of my dissenting colleague’s assertion that “Internet inequality is deepening.” This is as catchy as it is divorced from reality. The fact of the matter is that fewer Americans than ever before lack access to high-speed broadband networks. And the gap between urban and rural access dropped from 29.9% to 24.7%, according to our most recent Broadband Deployment Report. Additionally, both of my dissenting colleagues are critical of our proposal to continue to use data taken from our Form 477 in our next Broadband Deployment Report. I agree that this data has shortcomings; that’s why the Commission two months ago voted, over their partial dissents, to adopt the new Digital Opportunity Data Collection, which will collect more precise and granular data from broadband service providers and incorporate public feedback on the accuracy of that data."

"I fully support this Notice of Inquiry, which we undertake pursuant to the Commission’s obligation under Section 706 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. While I similarly voted to approve the previous two years’ Broadband Deployment Reports, my statements expressed some disappointment over the Commission’s reluctance to acknowledge the substitutability of mobile and fixed broadband among increasing numbers of consumers, and our continued reliance on a technologically anachronistic evaluation framework. I expressed hope that future inquiries would recognize marketplace and technological reality and examine broadband markets in a more neutral and comprehensive manner," said FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly. "Therefore, I thank Chairman Pai for agreeing to modify the circulated version of this item to address some of my concerns. While the draft still maintains an agnostic position with respect to the substitutability of fixed and mobile broadband, it appropriately opens the door to a more forward-thinking evaluative approach and has my support."

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented from the Notice of Inquiry. Commissioner Rosenworcel said that earlier in 2019 the FCC "concluded that broadband was being deployed nationwide in a reasonable and timely way. In other words, the agency clapped its hands and pronounced our broadband job done. I believe the FCC got this wrong." She continued, "This inquiry was an opportunity to fix what we got wrong in our last assessment. It was an opportunity to get it right—and reexamine whether or not broadband is available to all Americans. We need an honest accounting. This inquiry was the perfect place to do it. But what we adopt here comes up short."

Commissioner Starks said, "Instead of conducting an inquiry to determine whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, the majority has, for the past two years, conducted an inquiry that compares broadband provider’s deployment in one year against their deployments in prior year to measure 'progress' in broadband deployment. Today’s Notice of Inquiry tees up the same test, and I don’t agree. This method of measuring progress tells us nothing about broadband deployment in areas where carriers haven’t deployed and have no plans to do so. It does little to help us to understand the deepening state of internet inequality in the U.S. and it does nothing to prepare us to address the problem."

GN Docket No. 19-285 Comments due November 22; Replies due Dececember 9