Removing Unnecessary Barriers and Maximizing Competition in USF Auctions

In striving to bring broadband access to all unserved Americans within existing funding constraints, the FCC must stretch scarce Universal Service Fund (USF) dollars as far as possible.  Distributing funding through a reverse auction is an incredibly effective mechanism in this respect and one I have long-championed: competition, on both an intra- and inter-area basis, helps drive down the funding amount needed to entice the private sector to build out broadband to areas that wouldn’t be served in the absence of government subsidies.  In implementing our reverse auctions, we should always aim to maximize participation and, in turn, competition, rather than arbitrarily limit the number of auction competitors.  One way to do this is to eliminate the condition that auction winners be designated eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs).