[LibreQoS] Fwd: [New post] Rural Cellular Coverage

Mon May 8 11:04:26 EDT 2023

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From: POTs and PANs <donotreply at wordpress.com>
Date: Mon, May 8, 2023 at 4:35 AM
Subject: [New post] Rural Cellular Coverage
To: <dave.taht at gmail.com>

[image: Site logo image] Doug Dawson, CCG Consulting posted: "When working
in rural areas, I find invariably that any county that has poor rural
broadband also has poor cellular coverage. If you plot a 2 or 3-mile circle
around the existing cell towers in many counties, it becomes quickly
obvious that cell coverage " POTs and PANs <https://potsandpansbyccg.com> Rural
Cellular Coverage
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Doug Dawson, CCG Consulting

May 8

<https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2014/02/18/cellular-is-not-the-rural-broadband-solution/cell-tower/#main>When
working in rural areas, I find invariably that any county that has poor
rural broadband also has poor cellular coverage. If you plot a 2 or 3-mile
circle around the existing cell towers in many counties, it becomes quickly
obvious that cell coverage is non-existent in many places. The real
cellular coverage in rural areas is drastically different than the national
coverage maps that cellular carriers have been advertising for years.

The FCC announced a process to address this issue in October 2020 when it
announced the creation of a 5G Fund for Rural America. This will be a $9
billion fund that comes from the Universal Service Fund and that will
provide subsidies for wireless carriers to build and equip new rural cell
towers. This fund would work through a reverse auction in the same manner
as RDOF, with the only bidders in the auction being licensed cellular
carriers. The first reverse auction will be for $8 billion, with the rest
specifically set aside for tribal areas.

The FCC tried this a few years earlier and abandoned the process when it
became obvious that the cellular coverage maps created by the big cellular
companies had little to do with reality. As part of that effort the FCC
required cellular carriers to submit maps of cellular coverage as a prelude
to launching this fund. The smaller cellular companies all complained that
the big cellular company maps were wrong and were aimed at locking them out
of the reverse auction. The FCC agreed and canceled plans for the fund
until the 2020 announcement.

I haven’t been following this issue closely enough at the FCC to understand
why it’s taking so long to launch the endeavor, but I have to think that
mapping is still a primary issue. Then FCC has now included cellular
coverage in the same BDC mapping process used for broadband. When the new
maps were released there were a lot of public complaints that the new FCC
cellular maps still overstate rural coverage.

There is a map challenge process for the public to provide feedback to try
to fix the cellular maps by taking speed tests from rural locations – but
the process is cumbersome, and it’s likely that few people know about it or
are providing the speed tests in the specified way. The speed tests must be
logged through an FCC app
<https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/fcc-speed-test-app-tip-sheet>.

There is no question that something like this funding is badly needed. It’s
hard to justify building rural cell towers and installing radios at a tower
will only see a handful of homes. Remote rural cell sites can’t possibly
generate enough money to justify the cost of the radios and backhaul, let
alone the towers. One of the issues that the FCC is going to have to face
is that any subsidy for this issue might need to be permanent if the goal
is to keep cell towers operating where few people live.

Poor cell coverage is devastating to an area. There are huge swaths of the
country where folks can't reach 911 by cellphone. We can't get serious
about smart agriculture without the bare minimum network to provide
connectivity. No cell coverage makes it hard to do tasks that the rest of
us take for granted.

One of the interesting things about the timing of this effort is how the
rural cellular industry will benefit from the BEAD grants. There is no
fiber near many of the best spots for rural towers, and the BEAD grants
will fund the construction of a lot of fiber in rural areas that could be
used to provide backhaul to new cell sites.

Interestingly, one of the things that was missed in creating the BEAD rules
was any requirement for BEAD grant winners to provide fiber connectivity to
rural cell towers at a fair price. That would have been a good opportunity
for these different federal programs to mesh together for the benefit of
both wireless and wireline rural broadband. One of the legitimate
complaints made by cellular companies is that they are often quoted
extremely high prices for broadband connectivity at cell towers – a lot of
ISPs look at cell towers as a chance to make a lot of money.

Communities with poor cellular coverage need to keep an eye on this FCC
program to make sure that some cellular carrier seeks the funding for
building in their county. Just like with the BEAD grants, I have no idea of
$9 billion is enough to get cellular coverage everywhere – but it is a good
start.
Comment
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