Frontier’s supplemental CAF-II funding request faces protests from Comcast, Charter

Frontier’s request to the Federal Communications Commission to modify its CAF-II phase one incremental broadband deployment plans is facing a protest from Charter and Comcast, who said that the telecommunication company is asking for funds to build out broadband in areas they already serve.

Frontier initially accepted $283 million annually in CAF II support from the FCC to deploy broadband to more than 650,000 high-cost rural locations throughout its current 28-state service area. In August, Frontier submitted a list of 3,146 census blocks that it had not previously identified with its initial election. It now intends to serve those locations using Phase I incremental support. At issue are rules developed by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau. They require that any service provider who wants subsidies to provide broadband services must complete the required certifications, and the “location in question must be eligible at the time." Charter, which entered into a number of new markets to compete with Frontier and others via its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Communications, said in a response filing it already offers internet speeds that exceed 3 Mbps/768 Kbps in 126 of the census blocks designated by Frontier. The cable company said that it “believes that the census blocks in Exhibit A are already served by an unsubsidized competitor, and thus not eligible for Phase I support.” Comcast cited a similar situation. The cable company said that in 19 of the census blocks Frontier had identified, it “already provides broadband service at speeds exceeding 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream as of June 2016.”