White House, FCC Unveil 5G Push and $20B Fund For Rural Broadband (cnet.com)

The White House on Friday will unveil a new 5G push to position the US ahead of global rivals in the race to deploy the next-generation wireless technology. President Donald Trump and Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai will announce new airwaves auctions and plans to spend $20.4 billion over 10 years on rural broadband. From a report: The FCC will auction off three segments of millimeter-wave spectrum -- which can offer insane data speeds but has limited range -- for commercial use. The auction is scheduled for December, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on a conference call with reporters ahead of the White House event. He said the FCC plans to auction off 3,400 MHz of spectrum in three different high-frequency bands. "This will be the largest spectrum auction in American history," he said. Pai went onto say that this auction, along with others planned for the future, are putting the US on a good path. "The US is well-positioned to take a lead in 5G," he said.

The FCC is also announcing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The agency plans to reallocate $20.4 billion from its Universal Service Fund over the next 10 years to subsidize eligible companies to build out broadband infrastructure in underserved areas. The money will be allocated to internet service providers that can provide a minimum of 25 megabit per second downloads in areas that are currently in need of connectivity, Pai said. He added that the new infrastructure will also help bring 5G to these rural areas. "There are a number of startups that are working on millimeter wave technology to bring 5G to rural America," he said on the call.

Comments

Re:Fiscal responsibility?

[flippy]

While I'm no supporter of a lot of Republican policies, I'm actually with them on this one. According to the original article, they're planning on reallocating those funds from the Universal Service Fund - and this sort of thing (getting telecom services to underserved / rural areas) is exactly what the USF was intended to help with.

Re:Sounds like a waste of scarce tax dollars

[wierd_w]

worse--

The telecom industries were paid handsomely in the 90s to roll out a next generation fiber optic backbone infrastructure.

They laid a very small amount of fiber, and pocketed the rest of the money, then shrugged when asked where the money went.

https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

I see this all over again. Especially with Pai at the helm of the FCC.

Free Money to the network providers

[ripvlan]

Something like this was provided in my home state. Fraud allegations are flying. Smart business or poor management of funds? you decide.

A local phone/internet provider VTEL received $116 million in state money to provide Wireless Internet to all the undeserved (aka the last mile). They built the Wireless towers but only 1200 people have service. Why? Just because there's a tower doesn't mean the signal reaches a house. The home may be 'round the edge of a mountain ridge or in a forest. Of those 1200 with service, many report okay quality until it rains or snows which causes quality to be more like dial-up.

A federal program to do the same will line the pockets of the smart corps. The incentive needs to be paid for each customer signed up. In the VTEL case they were awarded money to build the infrastructure, and around here $116 million is a lot of $$ per person. There's just barely 600k people in the whole state and this corner of state in question has very very low population. I can see needing investment money to build the infrastructure because it is expensive. However, the goal of the program is to get people online. And I think that needs to be a large part of the stick/carrot.

https://www.vnews.com/Money-Is...