Key Definitions Established in Notice of Funding Availability

The basic foundation of any program to bring ubiquitous broadband to the United States rests on the definitions of three key terms: broadband, unserved, and underserved.  The importance of the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) released July 1 could be measured by those participating in the announcement including Vice President Biden, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, and Commerce Secretary Locke. But the longterm impact of the NOFA may reside in these three key definitions that have been the subject of much debate.

“Broadband” is defined as the provision of two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps upstream to end users, or providing sufficient capacity in a Middle Mile project to support the provision of broadband service to end users. While disappointing to many broadband advocates, the low numbers are explained as being necessary to accommodate the largest number of proposals, and include options for those designed for extremely hard to reach areas. The document also stated that speed was a priority, and that the agencies ‘intend to provide additional consideration to applications exceeding the minimum speed threshold or offering superior upgradeability.”

Judging from the comments submitted in April, “Underserved” was perhaps the most difficult and controversial term to define. The decision was made to base it on several criteria depending on whether it is a Last Mile or a Middle Mile project.

“Underserved” is defined for Last Mile projects: “if at least one of the following factors is met… i) no more than 50 percent of the households in the proposed funded service area have access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband service at greater than 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps upstream; ii) no fixed or mobile broadband service provider advertises broadband transmission speeds of at least 3 mbps downstream in the proposed funded service area; or iii) the rate of broadband subscribership for the proposed funded service area is 40 percent of households or less.”

“Underserved” is defined for Middle Mile projects: “if one interconnection point terminates in a proposed funded service area that qualifies as unserved or underserved for Last Mile projects.”

“Unserved” is defined as “a proposed funded service area (i.e. one or more contiguous census blocks…) where at least 90 percent of households lack access to facilities-based, terrestrial broadband service, either fixed or mobile, at the minimum broadband transmission speed of 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps upstream.”

Of particular note is that the definitions distinguish between Last Mile and Middle Mile projects, and, as expected, do not consider an area with only satellite broadband access as a “served” area.