FCC Kicks Off Rulemaking on Alaska's Unique Connectivity Challenges

The Federal Communications Commission kicked off a rulemaking to explore how the universal service high-cost support program can continue funding fixed and mobile broadband services in Alaska—one of the hardest-to-serve areas in the country. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on a number of issues to help the FCC determine the most effective methodologies and uses for future universal service funding for high-cost fixed and mobile services in Alaska. As part of the rulemaking, the FCC will leverage data from the agency’s new and improved broadband coverage map and broadband funding map, which provide a more accurate picture of where service is and is not, and where deployment has already been funded, in Alaska. The FCC also seeks comment to better understand the changes, including technology and the broadband funding landscape, that have occurred in Alaska since 2016. In addition to the rulemaking, the Report and Order makes several administrative modifications to, and clarifications of, FCC rules to improve the administration of the high-cost program. The Report and Order changes provider annual reporting and certification obligations, streamlines processes governing mergers between rate-of-return local exchange carriers, and makes several rule modifications to improve FCC oversight, including increased performance testing reporting, elimination of waiver exceptions for study area boundary changes, and a new notice requirement for carriers relinquishing their Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designations before state authorities.