[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 6, 2019)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 8003-8006]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-03635]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 54
[WC Docket No. 10-90, WT Docket No. 10-208; FCC 18-183]
Connect America Fund; Universal Service Reform--Mobility Fund
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Final action.
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SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission extends the timeframe for the
collection of speed test data for Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II)
challenges and for the collection of data by respondents to MF-II
challenges by 90 days. Speed test data in support of a challenge will
be accepted if collected on or after February 27, 2018, and through
November 26, 2018. Respondents may submit information that was
collected any time on or after April 29, 2018, through the close of the
response window.
DATES: The Order is effective March 6, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Office of Economics and Analytics,
Auctions Division, Audra Hale-Maddox, at (202) 418-0660.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Third
Report and Order in WC Docket No. 10-90 and WT Docket No. 10-208; FCC
18-183, adopted on December 13, 2018, and released on January 03, 2019.
The complete text of this document is available for public inspection
and copying from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) Monday through
Thursday or from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET on Fridays in the FCC
Reference Information Center, 445 12th Street SW, Room CY-A257,
Washington, DC 20554. The complete text is also available on the
Commission's website at http://wireless.fcc.gov, or by using the search
function on the EDOCS web page at https://www.fcc.gov/edocs.
Alternative formats are available to persons with disabilities by
sending an email to [email protected] or by calling the Consumer &
Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432
(TTY).
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis: As required by the Regulatory
Flexibility
[[Page 8004]]
Act of 1980, the Commission has prepared a Final Regulatory Flexibility
Analysis (FRFA) of the possible significant economic impact on small
entities of the policies and rules adopted in this document. The FRFA
is set forth in the Third Report and Order and is summarized below. The
Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Reference
Information Center, will send a copy of this Third Report and Order,
including the FRFA, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small
Business Administration (SBA).
Paperwork Reduction Act: This Third Report and Order implements the
information collection requirements adopted in the MF-II Challenge
Process Order, 82 FR 42473, September 8, 2017, (PRA approval published
83 FR 6562 (Feb. 14, 2018)), and does not contain any additional
information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. On February 7, 2018, the
Commission received PRA approval from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for the information collection requirements related to the
challenge process, as adopted in the MF-II Challenge Process Order.
Because this Third Report and Order does not adopt any additional
information collection requirements beyond those adopted in the MF-II
Challenge Process Order and approved by OMB, it does not implicate the
procedural requirements of the PRA or the Small Business Paperwork
Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198.
Congressional Review Act: The Commission will send a copy of this
Third Report and Order to Congress and the Government Accountability
Office pursuant to the Congressional Review Act.
Synposis: On December 13, 2018, the Commission adopted a Third
Report and Order in WC Docket No. 10-90 and WT Docket No. 10-208
extending the data collection periods for MF-II challenges and
responses by 90 days. Previously, the Commission extended the deadline
for the close of the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge window by 90
days. Challengers had until November 26, 2018, to submit speed test
data in support of a challenge. At the time that the Commission
extended the challenge window, it also proposed to extend by 90 days
the periods during which challengers and respondents could collect
data.
I. Background
1. In 2017, the Commission adopted rules to move forward on a
reverse auction that will direct up to $4.53 billion of MF-II support
over ten years to providers in geographic areas lacking unsubsidized 4G
Long Term Evolution (LTE) services. The Commission also determined that
it would establish standards for mobile providers to make a one-time
submission of current 4G LTE coverage data, compile a list of areas
that were presumptively eligible for MF-II support, and provide a
timeframe before the auction during which interested parties could
challenge areas that were not listed as presumptively eligible (i.e.,
``presumptively ineligible'' areas). Mobile providers had to file their
coverage data with certifications by a qualified engineer, under
penalty of perjury. The Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, in
conjunction with the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the
Wireline Competition Bureau, compiled the one-time collection of 4G LTE
coverage data and subsidy data from the Universal Service
Administrative Company (USAC) to create the resulting map of areas
presumptively eligible for MF-II support.
2. The MF-II Challenge Process Order established the framework for
a robust challenge process that will refine the map of areas
presumptively eligible to receive MF-II support. This challenge process
is designed to efficiently resolve disputes about the eligibility of
presumptively ineligible areas using mobile network speed test data.
During the challenge window, interested parties could contest the
initial determination of areas deemed presumptively ineligible for MF-
II support. An eligible challenger could access USAC's web data portal
and download the provider-specific confidential coverage data necessary
to begin conducting speed tests to challenge assertions of coverage.
After the close of the challenge window, a respondent would have the
opportunity to respond to challenges by submitting its own speed test
data or certain technical information that is probative of the validity
of the challenger's speed tests. Challenged parties will have 30 days
to review challenges and supporting data in the USAC portal before the
opening of the response window. Once opened, the response window will
close 30 days later.
3. The Commission initially established a challenge window of 150
days, which began on March 29, 2018, and it was scheduled to close on
August 27, 2018. After the Commission adopted the timeframe for the
challenge window, the Rural Wireless Association (RWA) submitted ex
parte data regarding estimated burdens of the challenge process,
including specific estimates of the amount of time required to conduct
speed tests in certain areas. Taking this ex parte burden data into
account, the Commission extended the challenge window in its August
2018 MF-II Challenge Process Extension Order, 83 FR 44241, August 30,
2018, for an additional 90 days, to November 26, 2018.
4. Under the standards adopted in the MF-II Challenge Process
Order, speed test data for a challenge would only be accepted if such
data were collected within the six months preceding the scheduled close
of the challenge window. The Commission adopted the six-month
collection period for speed test data because ongoing deployment of new
4G LTE service raised concerns ``that speed measurements taken before
the submission of updated coverage maps may not reflect the current
consumer experience.'' That six-month period commenced on February 27,
2018, upon the publication of the map of presumptively eligible areas.
Similarly, the standard for data to be submitted by a respondent
required that such data be collected within six months before the close
of the response window.
5. When extending the challenge window in the MF-II Challenge
Process Extension Order, the Commission proposed in the MF-II Challenge
Process Extension Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 83 FR 44254, August
30, 2018, to extend the periods during which both challengers and
challenged parties could collect information from six months to at
least nine months. The Commission offered these proposals in
recognition that challengers could have already collected speed test
data before the challenge window was extended, in which case data
collected between February 27, 2018, and May 28, 2018, would not be
acceptable absent an expansion of the initially adopted six-month data
collection period. The Commission tentatively concluded that this
modification to the data timeframe requirements would serve the public
interest by preventing challengers from having to repeat speed tests
and would more effectively implement MF-II policy. Three parties
submitted comments in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(NPRM). No commenters opposed the proposed modification to the data
timeframe requirements.
II. Order Extending the Challenge Data Collection Window
6. The Commission adopts the proposal to accept speed test data for
[[Page 8005]]
MF-II challenges collected on or after February 27, 2018, through the
new close of the challenge window, November 26, 2018. All commenters
support the proposal. RWA stated that some of its member companies
spent significant amounts of money performing testing before May 28 and
that those expenses would be wasted if the timeframe for acceptable
testing were not also extended. U.S. Cellular and Competitive Carriers
Association (CCA) agreed with the Commission's stated rationale that
extending the timeframe would avoid unnecessary retesting while
collecting accurate data. To relieve challengers of the needless
repetition of speed tests conducted before May 28 and to more
effectively implement the MF-II challenge process, the Commission
modifies the initially adopted requirement that challenger speed test
data be collected within six months before the scheduled close of the
challenge window. This modification allows challengers to submit the
results of speed tests taken during the entire nine-month challenge
process data collection window. When setting the original challenge
process data collection window, the Commission stated that it was
concerned that challenge data collected before deployments made in
conjunction with the submission of updated coverage maps from current
providers might not reflect the current consumer experience. The
Commission therefore required that challenge data be collected after
the publication of the initial eligibility map and within six months of
the scheduled close of the challenge window (which at the time were
exactly contiguous periods). But given the Commission's extension of
the challenge window by three months, extending the data collection
period by a similar period does not permit submission of data collected
prior to the submission of the updated coverage maps.
7. Likewise, the Commission adopts the proposal to afford
respondents the same additional amount of time as challengers to
collect information for the MF-II challenge process. Hence, during the
response window, respondents may submit information that was collected
any time on or after April 29, 2018, through the close of the response
window. This change is consistent with the MF-II Challenge Process
Order's generally parallel standards for challengers and respondents.
CCA supports an extension to provide respondents with a similar timing
requirement as challengers. As CCA observes, providing respondents with
a similar data collection time period appropriately balances the
interests of respondents with the Commission's interest in receiving
data collected recently. As stated above for challengers, this
extension of the data collection period for respondents would not
permit submission of any data collected before the publication of the
presumptively eligible areas map, and therefore the permitted data
would not create data recency concerns. Accordingly, a respondent would
have at least nine months to collect speed test data for its own
network or certain technical information probative of the validity of
the challenger's speed tests. Respondents' speed tests collected on or
after April 29, 2018, will be considered valid.
III. Procedural Matters
A. Paperwork Reduction Act Analysis
8. The Third Report and Order implements the information collection
requirements adopted in the MF-II Challenge Process Order and does not
contain any additional information collection requirements subject to
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. On
February 7, 2018, the Commission received PRA approval from the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection
requirements related to the challenge process, as adopted in the MF-II
Challenge Process Order. Because this Order does not adopt any
additional information collection requirements beyond those adopted in
the MF-II Challenge Process Order and approved by OMB, this Order does
not implicate the procedural requirements of the PRA or the Small
Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198.
B. Congressional Review Act
9. The Commission will send a copy of the Third Report and Order to
Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to the
Congressional Review Act.
C. Final Regulatory Flexibility Certification
10. The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended (RFA),
requires that a regulatory flexibility analysis be prepared for a
notice-and-comment rulemaking proceeding, unless the agency certifies
that ``the rule will not, if promulgated, have a significant economic
impact on a substantial number of small entities.'' The RFA generally
defines the term ``small entity'' as having the same meaning as the
terms ``small business,'' ``small organization,'' and ``small
governmental jurisdiction.'' In addition, the term ``small business''
has the same meaning as the term ``small business concern'' under the
Small Business Act. A small business concern is one which: (1) Is
independently owned and operated; (2) is not dominant in its field of
operation; and (3) satisfies any additional criteria established by the
Small Business Administration (SBA).
11. As required by the RFA, the Commission prepared Initial
Regulatory Flexibility Analyses (IRFAs) in connection with the USF/ICC
Transformation FNPRM, 76 FR 78384, December 16, 2011, the 2014 CAF
FNPRM, 79 FR 39195, July 9, 2014, and the MF-II FNPRM, 82 FR 13413,
March 13, 2017 (collectively, MF-II FNPRMs). The Commission sought
written public comment on the proposals in MF-II FNPRMs including
comments on the IRFAs and Supplemental IRFA. The Commission included
Final Regulatory Flexibility Analyses (FRFAs) in connection with the
CAF Report & Order, 79 FR 39163, July 9, 2014, and Further Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM), 79 FR 39196, July 9, 2014, the MF-II
Report & Order, 82 FR 15422, March 28, 2017, the MF-II Challenge
Process Order, and the MF-II Second Order on Reconsideration, 83 FR
17934, April 25, 2018 (collectively, the MF-II Orders).
12. The new requirements adopted in this Order provide additional
time for valid data collection for both challengers and respondents. In
so doing, this change will align the challenge process data
requirements with the procedural rule change, adopted in the MF-II
Challenge Process Extension Order, extending the challenge window
deadline by 90 days. Due to the minor effect of these changes, the
Commission anticipates that there will be no significant economic
impact on any of the small entities identified in the MF-II FNPRMs and
MF-II Orders. Therefore, the Commission certifies that the requirements
of the Order will not have a significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities.
IV. Ordering Clauses
13. Accordingly, it is ordered that pursuant to the authority
contained in sections 1, 4(i) and (j), 254, 303(r), and 332 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), (j),
254, 303(r), 332, and Sec. Sec. 1.1 and 1.425 of the Commission's
rules, 47 CFR 1.1, 1.425, this Order is adopted.
14. It is further ordered that, pursuant to the authority contained
in sections 1, 4(i) and (j), 254, 303(r), and 332 of the Communications
Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), (j), 254,
[[Page 8006]]
303(r), 332, and Sec. Sec. 1.1 and 1.425 of the Commission's rules, 47
CFR 1.1, 1.425, the windows for challengers and respondents to collect
information in connection with the MF-II challenge process are
extended, to the extent described herein.
15. It is further ordered that, pursuant to Sec. 1.427(b) of the
Commission's rules, 47 CFR 1.427(b), this Order shall be effective upon
its publication in the Federal Register.
16. It is further ordered that the Commission's Consumer and
Governmental Affairs Bureau, Reference Information Center, shall send a
copy of this Order, including the Final Regulatory Flexibility
Certification, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the SBA.
Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-03635 Filed 3-5-19; 8:45 am]
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