California Seeks Comments on How to Apportion Funds for the Federal Funding Account Grant Program, First Phase of FCC Auction 110 Complete

California Seeks Comments on How to Apportion Funds for the Federal Funding Account Grant Program 

Comments are due 11/30 with replies due by 12/10/21. 

California code directs the CPUC to spend $2 billion on broadband internet infrastructure projects. $1 billion to urban county projects and $1 billion to rural counties. The CPUC must allocate $5 million for projects in each county. The remaining money is to be allocated based on the urban or rural allocation on each counties proportionate share of households without Internet access of at least 100 megabits per second download speeds. 

The CPUC is asking for comment on the following questions: 

  • Is it reasonable to use the OMB definitions of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan for identifying urban and rural counties? Should the Commission use a modified version of this method? 
  • Should the Commission instead use a methodology that relies on the U.S. Census Bureau’s definitions of urban and rural? Should the Commission modify the thresholds used by the U.S. Census Bureau to include additional counties? 
  • Should the Commission instead use the Rural County Representative of California membership to define rural and urban counties? 
  • Are there alternative analyses or methodologies that the Commission should consider? 

 

First Phase of FCC Auction 110 Complete  

The FCC announced the conclusion of bidding in the first phase of Auction 110. The auction was for licenses in the 3.45 to 3.55 GHz band. Bidders won 4,041 of the 4,060 available blocks. Proceeds in this phase reached over $21.8 billion, placing Auction 110 among the highest grossing auctions in FCC history. License winners will operate within a cooperative sharing framework that permits commercial use by a number of providers. This helps ensure coexistence with incumbents. Winning bidders now have the opportunity to bid for frequency-specific licenses in the assignment phase of Auction 110. The FCC will release a public notice soon announcing further details regarding the assignment phase, including the date and time when bidding in this phase. 

 

Recent Inteserra Briefings:

The Regulatory Mix will be on hiatus 11/22/21 through 11/26/21 for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We will resume publishing on 11/29/21.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.