§ 54.309 - Connect America Fund Phase II Public Interest Obligations.

§ 54.309 Connect America Fund Phase II Public Interest Obligations.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 83 FR 23380, May 21, 2018.

(a) Recipients of Connect America Phase II support are required to offer broadband service with latency suitable for real-time applications, including Voice over Internet Protocol, and usage capacity that is reasonably comparable to comparable offerings in urban areas, at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates for comparable offerings in urban areas. For purposes of determining reasonable comparable usage capacity, recipients are presumed to meet this requirement if they meet or exceed the usage level announced by public notice issued by the Wireline Competition Bureau. For purposes of determining reasonable comparability of rates, recipients are presumed to meet this requirement if they offer rates at or below the applicable benchmark to be announced annually by public notice issued by the Wireline Competition Bureau, or no more than the non-promotional prices charged for a comparable fixed wireline service in urban areas in the state or U.S. Territory where the eligible telecommunications carrier receives support.

(1) Recipients of Connect America Phase II model-based support are required to offer broadband service at actual speeds of at least 10 Mbps downstream/1 Mbps upstream.

(2) Recipients of Connect America Phase II support awarded through a competitive bidding process are required to offer broadband service meeting the performance standards required in bid tiers based on performance standards.

(i) Winning bidders meeting the minimum performance tier standards are required to offer broadband service at actual speeds of 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream and to offer at least 150 gigabytes of monthly usage.

(ii) Winning bidders meeting the baseline performance tier standards are required to offer broadband service at actual speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream and offer a minimum usage allowance of 150 GB per month, or that reflects the average usage of a majority of fixed broadband customers, using Measuring Broadband America data or a similar data source, whichever is higher, and announced annually by public notice issued by the Wireline Competition Bureau over the 10-year term.

(iii) Winning bidders meeting the above-baseline performance tier standards are required to offer broadband service at actual speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream and offer an unlimited at least 2 terabytes of monthly usage allowance.

(iv) Winning bidders meeting the Gigabit performance tier standards are required to offer broadband service at actual speeds of at least 1 Gigabit per second downstream and 500 Mbps upstream and offer an unlimited at least 2 terabytes of monthly usage allowance.

(v) For each of the tiers in paragraphs (a)(2)(i) through (iv) of this section, bidders are required to meet one of two latency performance levels:

(A) Low latency bidders will be required to meet 95 percent or more of all peak period measurements of network round trip latency at or below 100 milliseconds; and

(B) High latency bidders will be required to meet 95 percent or more of all peak period measurements of network round trip latency at or below 750 ms and, with respect to voice performance, demonstrate a score of four or higher using the Mean Opinion Score (MOS).

(b) Recipients of Connect America Phase II model-based support, recipients of Phase II Connect America support awarded through a competitive bidding process, and non-contiguous price cap carriers receiving Phase II frozen support in lieu of model-based support are required to bid on category one telecommunications and Internet access services in response to a posted FCC Form 470 seeking broadband service that meets the connectivity targets for the schools and libraries universal service support program for eligible schools and libraries (as described in § 54.501) located within any area in a census block where the carrier is receiving Phase II model-based support. Such bids must be at rates reasonably comparable to rates charged to eligible schools and libraries in urban areas for comparable offerings.

[80 FR 4477, Jan. 27, 2015, as amended at 80 FR 5987, Feb. 4, 2015; 81 FR 44448, July 7, 2016; 83 FR 23380, May 21, 2018]