WTA Member Companies Meet with FCC about CAF-BLS and ACAM Modernization

Last week, WTA staff and representatives from WTA member companies met with all four commissioner offices at the FCC to express their support for adoption of the ACAM Broadband Coalition’s plan to modernize ACAM with higher speeds and additional support as well express concerns about the impact of the budget control mechanism on carriers receiving CAF-BLS support.

WTA’s representatives urged the FCC to resolve the outstanding questions regarding ACAM and issue an order as expeditiously as possible so that ACAM companies can move forward rapidly to make their voluntary Enhanced ACAM participation decisions, obtain the requisite equipment and construction services, and deploy the urgently needed 100/20 Mbps and higher broadband services.  They also stated that expedited action is also necessary to waive the BCM for CAF-BLS recipients for at least the rapidly approaching support year, which begins July 1. Without such a waiver, the impact upon CAF-BLS recipients during the coming year will be an approximate 18% reduction of their support.

A representative notice of ex parte for all four meetings can be found here.