Federal Communications Commission	DA 18-799


DA 18-799
Released:  August 1, 2018

 UPDATED VERSION OF MAP OF AREAS PRESUMPTIVELY ELIGIBLE FOR 
MOBILITY FUND PHASE II NOW AVAILABLE 

WC Docket No. 10-90
WT Docket No. 10-208
The Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force (Task Force), in conjunction with the Wireline Competition Bureau and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (the Bureaus), today releases an updated version of the map of areas presumptively eligible for Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) support. See Mobility Fund Phase II Initial Eligible Areas Map Available; Challenge Window Will Open March 29, 2018, Public Notice, DA 18-187 (WCB/WTB Feb. 27, 2018).
  The updated map is available on the Commission’s website at www.fcc.gov/maps/mobility-fund-ii-initial-eligible-areas-map/. The updated map is labeled with today’s date to distinguish it from the previous version.  This version of the map also shows an update to the areas presumptively ineligible for MF-II support due to qualifying, unsubsidized coverage reported by a single mobile provider.  USAC will update – by 6:00 a.m. EDT on August 2, 2018 – the presumptively eligible areas map and provider-specific confidential coverage data available through the challenge process portal, so that challengers can access the most accurate data possible to conduct speed tests.  See Procedures for the Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge Process, Public Notice, DA 18-186 at 9, para. 16 (WCB/WTB Feb. 27, 2018) (MF-II Challenge Process Procedures Public Notice); id., Appx. D at 44-48 (describing the geographic data that are accessible to a challenger on the USAC portal).  USAC also will notify parties with a login to the challenge process portal by email that the updated map and data have been made available for download through the portal. 
  The updates to the map only increase the area presumptively eligible for support and do not alter the eligibility status of 99.99 percent of the total area (both eligible and ineligible areas) shown on the previous version of the map. See Updated Version of Map of Areas Presumptively Eligible for Mobility Fund Phase II Now Available, Public Notice, DA 18-540 (WCB/WTB May 22, 2018) (May 2018 Updated Map PN).
  

The updated version of the map reflects revisions to the underlying coverage and subsidy data.  Implementing these changes will reduce the burden on challengers in affected areas.  These revisions are due to two factors.  First, the Universal Service Administrator Company (USAC) corrected certain subsidy assignments and staff reprocessed the map data for the affected states. Legacy competitive eligible telecommunications carrier (CETC) support for one study area in Arizona and for one study area in Kentucky did not include the entire set of wire centers for which a provider in each state should have been designated.  Consistent with the policies and rationales set forth in the MF-II Challenge Process Order, the Bureaus have made no changes to areas already deemed presumptively eligible.  See Connect America Fund; Universal Service Reform – Mobility Fund, Order on Reconsideration and Second Report and Order, 32 FCC Rcd 6282, 6305, para. 45 (2017) (permitting challenges only to areas deemed presumptively ineligible).  This avoids affording participants in those areas less time to conduct speed tests.  See also May 2018 Updated Map PN at para. 2 n.4.
  Second, staff incorporated corrected 4G LTE coverage data submitted by one mobile provider for the Oklahoma Panhandle area. A provider that filed 4G LTE coverage data as part of the one-time collection indicated that it had made an inadvertent error and therefore the provider submitted corrected data.
  

For further information concerning the MF-II challenge process, please email mf2challengeprocess@fcc.gov or contact Jonathan McCormack, Auctions and Spectrum Access Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, at (202) 418-0660. 

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