§ 54.309   Connect America Fund Phase II Public Interest Obligations.

   (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 at least 2
   terabytes of monthly usage.

   (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 at least
   2 terabytes of monthly usage.

   (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]

   return arrow Back to Top