CAF Monthly Data Allowance Could Be Challenge for Satellite Broadband

The FCC Connect America Fund Phase II requirement of monthly broadband allowances of 100 GB could be a hurdle satellite broadband can't clear. "There is simply a physical limit to the amount of capacity that satellite broadband providers can make available," Hughes Network Systems said in a filing posted Monday in docket 10-90 in which it asked that a minimum use allowance be "a more achievable" monthly data allowance requirement of 50 GB. A universal requirement of 100 GB per month everywhere "is likely unattainable at this time" and could keep satellite broadband providers from being able to take part in the bidding, Hughes said.

"It's a huge issue," said satellite communications consultant Tim Farrar. "The cost of delivery of that bandwidth is not dissimilar to the cost of delivery across an LTE network," he said, saying if mobile companies face requirements of having to deliver 100 GB a month, "They would have a fit about it, too. It is just not affordable" without heavy subsidization. The satellite broadband companies had no comment for this story.

The FCC spelled out its 100 GB requirement in 2013 with its CAF service obligations order, indicating it wouldn't approve lower caps. "Over 30 percent of current fiber and cable subscribers consumed in excess of 60 GB of data per month, and consumers are likely to consume more, not less, over time," the agency said. That 100 GB bar is a minimum, and broadband providers "are free to offer plans with additional usage and indeed we encourage [them] to offer a variety of plans in rural areas as they do in urban areas," the FCC said. The FCC received pushback then from a variety of terrestrial and satellite broadband companies looking for smaller monthly allowances. The agency declined to comment Wednesday.

Satellite broadband customers don't see monthly data allowances of 100 GB "unless they pay hundreds of dollars a month," Farrar said. A typical satellite broadband user consumes 5 GB to 15 GB a month, and 100 GB "would be an extraordinarily large increase," he said. Even though satellite technology and broadband capacity is growing rapidly and satellite companies are increasing their constellations, that rate still falls short of the many multiples in bandwidth needed for 100 GB monthly data allowances, Farrar said. Hughes' Jupiter 1 satellite has a total capacity of 100 Gbps, while its Jupiter 2 -- expected to be operational in 2016 -- will have a 150 Gbps capacity, but "simple arithmetic reveals there is a numerical limit on the number of customers to whom Hughes [or any satellite broadband provider] could provision 100 GB per month," it said.

The satellite universe also has been pushing the FCC on CAF latency requirements, with Hughes and Adtran disagreeing in numerous docket 10-90 filings over such issues as R-Factor latency tests -- R-Factor being a measure of VoIP call quality (see 1506150019). "What you do not want to do is turn off rural America on broadband," said Gary Bolton, Adtran vice president-marketing. "All the things that close that digital divide are about being able to have a decent-enough quality experience so rural America can benefit from broadband capability."