One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the difference that mobility makes to a workday. I’m on a road trip with my dad and my kids. We’re going to NY from St Paul via Canada. So I listened to this webinar as we cruised through Michigan. I wrote up the notes as we drove through Canada. (Because I didn’t want to open myself up to roaming wireless data charges with kids in the car. Nothing says download now to a 13 year old than a mom saying – don’t download it’s expensive!)  Anyways, the Connect Minnesota webinar was an update on federal policy. Here are my notes…

E-Rate

The Universal Service Fund ($8.7B in 2012) oversees funding for:

• E-Rate
• Rural Health Care
• High Cost
• Low Income

Here is what that funding has meant to Minnesota:

I want to note that without E-Rare funding Minnesota schools and libraries would be in worse shape – but clearly this isn’t impressive! Even less impressive in the data of which libraries are least likely to have adequate bandwidth…

Highlights of E-Rate Reform?

• Launched by FCC in 2013 http://www.fcc.gov/e-rate-update
• Ensure that schools and libraries have affordable access to 21^st century broadband that supports digital learning
• Increase the fund cap beyond $2.5B per year
• 100 Mbps per 1000 students – increasing to a 1 Gig per 1000

Connect America Fund – Update

Next the Connected Nation folks spoke about Connect America Fund(CAF). Apparently the government shutdown has slowed down the process – and folks aren’t sure how the FCC will bounce back once the government is up and running again. But…

The CAF has come in Phase One has come in two waves. In Phase One, the FCC has allocated $485M in one-time subsidies available to price cap carriers to fund network upgrades over 3 years. Here’s a nice chart on what that means…

We are currently riding the second wave. Points of interest:

• Providers were not required to apply for any funding
• Price cap providers applied for $386M of funding

What has happened so far?

• May 22 – FCC announced $485M funding
• Aug 20 – price cap providers proposed 87,000 – some census blocks showing areas in which they would accept the Phase One one-time subsidies
• Verizon did not apply for any subsidy
• AT&T, PRTC and WIndstream significantly oversubscribed to their allocation
• FCC published comprehensive list and started challenge process
• In Minnesota the funding involved 6,602 locations and almost $4M. Apparently that is a pretty average answer – not a ton of funding, not an insignificant amount.

So what does this mean?

• Not much. There are almost 20M locations in price cap service areas that do not have access to 3Mbps/768kbps fixed service. Phase One proposed commitments (in 2013) of 600,000 locations solves 3 percent of the broadband access gap

Now what about Phase Two?

• CAF Two program ($1.75B/yr) likely to fund upgrades to 4.5M locations – one-quarter of the broadband access gap in price cap areas and 7x the size of CAF Phase One
• FCC close to completing process the Fall/Winter
• At that time, there will be another Map challenge process
• Provider to make statewide commitments in 2014
• If provider rejects, subsidy to those areas will be auctioned

Questions:

School connectivity data – Might data on  MN Schools be wrong?

Data is collected randomly – not inclusively – so yes the actual numbers could vary. We are looking to get more schools participate in the survey so maybe the low numbers will motivate more people to take surveys.

Why did you measure schools at such speeds?

We collected connectivity data on whatever speed is reported. The 100 Mbps is the goal identified by FCC and President.

Do we think the carriers have the capital budget to make the statewide commitment in each of their states?

Each provider has a different personality. Verizon hasn’t participated at all. It’s not in their corporate plans. AT&T didn’t participate in the first round but because the largest participant in the second round.