[NNagain] [Starlink] FCC Upholds Denial of Starlink's RDOF Application

Thu Dec 14 13:51:07 EST 2023

Hi folks,

(Apologies in advance to non-Americans or anyone who doesn't care about
American home broadband policy! Please feel free to immediately delete!)

I don't want to get overly political on this mailing list, but my statement
on this topic is a matter of public record:
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-105A3.pdf. As this item is
now closed, there is no risk of any impermissible side-barring ("ex partes"
that would have to be filed on the record, in regulatory jargon) if anyone
wants to discuss this.

The FCC is funded through regulatory fees which, traditionally, fell
predominantly on broadcasters and monopoly-era AT&T. This mechanism, or at
least how we calculate it, is increasingly inapposite for a world in which
so much video and voice traffic takes place via unregulated services.
That's one reason the agency is shrinking even as the communications
industry is growing. Another is that many of our necessary functions, such
as RF emissions enforcement, are on a non-fee basis and thus short-term
painless to cut (even if that means that we're abandoning oversight of a
rising noise floor, or of a device world where post-licensure quality fade
on emissions control is normal business practice.)

I'm on the record as saying that the FCC should reallocate resources and
seek additional money with the goal of hiring 500 more engineers and field
enforcement staff. That number is probably too small, but it would be a
good start ;-) I was horrified to learn recently, while researching my
Title II statement, that the FCC essentially has no internal experts left
on peering and transit. How in blazes was this allowed to happen? (I hired
one of the handful left as my chief of staff, but that just makes her
unavailable to the career staff, so...)

On this specific issue, I think a reasonable person could look at current
federal broadband programs and see a significant bias in favor of fiber to
the home. Someone drawing that conclusion might point, in addition to
StarLink's situation, to the specific exclusion of unlicensed-frequency
fixed wireless from the BEAD program, in defiance of the current tech
trends. Anyone finding bias there might further note that the federal
government talks incessantly about line speed but never about traffic
management or router firmware and conclude that technically shallow federal
politicians have no better ideas than to resort to the same metric that
ISPs use in their advertising.

I don't always see eye to eye with TechFreedom, which is why I so
appreciated their filing on the same NOI that some in this group were
involved with filing on. Their filing noted that line speed is a misleading
and inappropriate proxy for customer experience quality, though not in the
detail of the engineering filers, and also pointed out (among other points)
that selling broadband to the public on the basis of telehealth and
education is belied by the traffic numbers, which show that entertainment
uses predominate. Not that I have anything against entertainment, but the
feds haven't been candid (and perhaps the public has allowed itself to be
deceived as well) about the reality of how its enormous fiber
infrastructure subsidy commitments will be used in practice.

If we can provide good service to people without the huge lift of a
universal fiber to the home build, then the United States is headed in the
wrong direction and will be wasting a lot of public money. And, unlike
StarLink, we still won't have connected Dave's boat :-)

All best,
Nathan

On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 12:49 PM David Bray, PhD via Nnagain <
nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:

> FCC's staff continues to shrink. 1420-or-so employees in 2022, 1755-or-so
> in 2012, 1952-or-so in 2004. So about a 25% reduction over the last twenty
> years. There are several good people there among the staff, however they
> also face an increasing number of tasks and demands with less resources.
> Public service depends on folks being willing to step up and be of service.
>
> Also, ultimately it is the decision of the Commissioners. Staff can brief
> the Commissioners and present evidence, the Commissioners are there to make
> the policy decisions. Remember Commissioners are Presidentially-appointed,
> Senate-confirmed which selects for certain things in keeping with our
> Constitution. For the staff, this means accepting that politics may
> supersede even the best technical briefing.
>
> Such is how representative governments work. And if you circle back to
> Plato's The Republic, the conclusion is such is how humanity wants it - we
> don't want a perfectly wise, benevolent, philosopher king. Each of us wants
> compromises - the difference being those specific compromises. Plato
> (through the voice of Socrates) also concludes humanity would probably kill
> a perfectly wise, benevolent, philosopher king if we were to ever have one
> - again because despite everyone saying they want this, they really only
> want such a person if that person agrees with them fully. Or as Tears for
> Fears aptly put it: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" =
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awoFZaSuko4
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 1:00 AM Frantisek Borsik via Nnagain <
> nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Robert. Exactly what I meant. Therefore I added NN list, because
>> Nathan was engaging with us there, and with Dave (me and some others, to my
>> knowledge) either directly or via his staffers and he really wanted to
>> catch up on tech things that are the culprits of Net Neutrality
>> (bufferbloat.)
>>
>> So instead of assuming that Nathan Simington and Brendan Carr are
>> “bought” as someone did, I can the FCC itself as an entity can be
>> understaffed at worse.
>>
>> But still, I appreciate efforts to learn about what’s going in here and
>> getting it right.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Frank
>> Frantisek (Frank) Borsik
>>
>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantisekborsik
>> Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp: +421919416714
>> iMessage, mobile: +420775230885
>> Skype: casioa5302ca
>> frantisek.borsik at gmail.com
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 14 Dec 2023 at 3:46 AM, Robert McMahon <rjmcmahon at rjmcmahon.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I think this common in that appointment of commissioners go through a
>>> political process. The FCC has a technology group, too. When I worked with
>>> them about 8 years ago, they had skilled researchers on staff and a highly
>>> skilled director. They asked good questions about engineering decisions,
>>> like what is limiting the number of mimo streams on devices.
>>>
>>> Their physical facility is a bit dated, and they don't get stock grants.
>>> I respect the engineers I worked with for what they did.
>>>
>>> Bob
>>> On Dec 13, 2023, at 2:38 PM, Frantisek Borsik via Nnagain <
>>> nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I would love for Nathan to be here with us, and comment on that :-) so
>>>> I will add NN list as well.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>>
>>>> Frank
>>>> Frantisek (Frank) Borsik
>>>>
>>>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantisekborsik
>>>> Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp: +421919416714
>>>> iMessage, mobile: +420775230885
>>>> Skype: casioa5302ca
>>>> frantisek.borsik at gmail.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, 13 Dec 2023 at 11:21 PM, Richard Roy <dickroy3777 at comcast.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> *From:* Starlink [mailto:starlink-bounces at lists.bufferbloat.net] *On
>>>>> Behalf Of *Frantisek Borsik via Starlink
>>>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, December 13, 2023 1:26 PM
>>>>> *To:* Dave Taht via Starlink
>>>>> *Subject:* [Starlink] FCC Upholds Denial of Starlink’s RDOF
>>>>> Application
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> “*Elon Musk*’s Starlink was not the only major company to inflate its
>>>>> capabilities
>>>>> <https://broadbandbreakfast.com/2021/04/rdof-reverse-auction-criticized-google-makes-pandemic-gains-california-broadband-access-for-k-12/> in
>>>>> RDOF bids. Nearly 100 bidders have defaulted since the auction, leaving in
>>>>> limbo an estimated $2.8 billion
>>>>> <https://broadbandbreakfast.com/2023/06/what-happens-to-the-estimated-2-8-billion-in-rdof-defaults/> of
>>>>> the $9.2 billion originally awarded.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The FCC upheld another denial
>>>>> <https://broadbandbreakfast.com/2023/12/fcc-proposes-22-million-fine-against-ltd-over-rdof/>
>>>>>  on Monday in the case of LTD Broadband, which appealed the
>>>>> commission’s finding that it could not reasonably serve the more than
>>>>> 500,000 locations to which it had committed. The commission also hit LTD
>>>>> with a $21.7 million fine for its default.
>>>>>
>>>>> The commission’s two Republicans dissented to Starlink’s denial,
>>>>> claiming they saw a path for the company to improve its speeds before the
>>>>> first deployment deadline in 2025.”
>>>>>
>>>>> *[RR] The reason two lawyers “saw a path” is because they were
>>>>> bribed/conned into to see it. In my nearly 50years of experience dealing
>>>>> with the FCC, extremely rarely are the people at the top in the commission
>>>>> tech savvy.  In general, they have NO CLUE when it comes to technology …
>>>>> period! **JJ*
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> https://broadbandbreakfast.com/2023/12/fcc-upholds-denial-of-starlinks-rdof-application/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> All the best,
>>>>>
>>>>> Frank
>>>>> Frantisek (Frank) Borsik
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantisekborsik
>>>>> Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp: +421919416714
>>>>> iMessage, mobile: +420775230885
>>>>> Skype: casioa5302ca
>>>>> frantisek.borsik at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> Nnagain mailing list
>>>> Nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net
>>>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/nnagain
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>> Nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net
>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/nnagain
>>
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>

-- 
Nathan Simington
cell: 305-793-6899
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