In a recent letter to the FCC, NTCA- The Rural Broadband Association requested a second consecutive annual freeze in the Connect America Fund Broadband Loop Support and/or High Cost Support scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2022.
The scheduled reduction would be 14.3%. NTCA pointed to the Commission’s grant of similar relief in 2021, and said the reasons this year were the same.
NTCA also “expressed an eagerness to work with the Commission to develop longer term solutions that would put these critical support programs on a more stable foundation going forward.”
ICORE totally agrees, and finds the so-called Resurgent Budget Control Mechanism to be more regressive than progressive, and of very little value to the small carriers trying to bring broadband to rural areas of America.
We hope that NTCA, with help from other industry organizations, can persuade the FCC to develop a much better, and more fair, small carrier broadband budgeting mechanism.
