USF High-Cost Program: Best and Realistic Timelines

[Commentary] According to the Federal Communications Commission's most recent report, nearly 14 million Americans lack any access to fixed broadband. In an effort to remedy this, in 2011, the FCC established the Connect America Fund (CAF) within the USF high-cost program to provide federal universal service support to private carriers serving high-cost parts of the nation. While progress has been made to implement various parts, thanks to the great work of staff, there hasn't been a sense of urgency at the FCC due to a lack of energy and commitment to complete the hard tasks that remain. Sadly, unless something significant changes, unserved Americans will have to wait even longer to get access to broadband.

Like many, I was pleased that, at recent Congressional hearings, FCC Chairman Wheeler provided additional insight on the timeline for CAF reforms to Members of the House and Senate who want to see faster progress, as I have advocated for over a year. It's especially good news to hear the Chairman promise to complete a CAF not just for the larger rate-of-return (ROR) carriers but also for the smaller ROR carriers by the end of this year and to hold a CAF Phase II auction for price cap areas next year. I take him at his word that he intends to try to meet his commitments. The problem is that, when I mapped out the steps that would need to occur to meet these promises, it became obvious that it's extremely unlikely that the Commission will be able to adhere to that schedule. Many of the individual actions and program steps are interconnected. For instance, it seems unlikely that the Commission would set up a CAF for very small ROR carriers without knowing which carriers will opt-in to a CAF ROR model.