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09/18/2018

NCTA: FCC Shouldn't Fixate on Fixed

The FCC got an earful Monday (Sept. 17), the deadline for comments on whether the state of the market for fixed broadband, including that it needed to look beyond fixed to other modes (intermodal) of competition, such as mobile wireless, and what might be christened "interspecies" competition (edge providers like search and social media).

The FCC sought input for a report to Congress it must make on communications market competitiveness per the Ray Baum's Act to reauthorize the FCC.

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association argued the marketplace is wildly competitive, and that the FCC should include mobile broadband in that assessment as well as the edge provider giants currently in a regulation-free zone.

"[I]n this report the Commission should acknowledge that millions of Americans have concluded that mobile service meets all their needs and that many more are likely to do so in the future," NCTA said. Wireless speeds are not yet on par with fixed, but NCTA suggested that the FCC needed to look below the 25 Mbps downstream definition, particularly given that it has itself provided billions in broadband subsidies under
the theory that 10 Mbps also provides needed broadband to the unserved.

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