FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 
WASHINGTON 
OFFICE OF 
THE CHAIRMAN 
The Honorable Jeff Merkley 
United States Senate 
107 Russell Senate Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20510 
Dear Senator Merkley: 
October 24, 2014 
Thank you for your letter regarding the implementation of certain aspects of Phase II of 
the Connect America Fund (CAF II). In your letter, you express concerns that the goals of the 
CAF II program may not be met if the Commission increases the current broadband speed 
benchmark for program recipients to 10 Mbps downstream 11 Mbps upstream without allowing 
flexibility in other elements of program, particularly with respect to the length of the term of 
support. Your views are very important and will be included in the record of the proceeding and 
considered as part of the Commission1S review. 
The universal service program is one of the most important tools at our disposal to ensure 
that consumers and businesses in rural America have the same opportunities as their urban and 
suburban counterparts to be active participants in the United States of the 21 st century. We are 
focused on updating the universal service high-cost program to ensure that we are delivering the 
best possible voice and broadband experiences to rural areas of states such as Oregon, within the 
confmes of our Connect America budget, all while providing increased certainty and 
predictability for all carriers and a climate for increased broadband expansion. 
In April of this year, the Commission adopted a Connect America Fund Phase II Report 
and Order to move forward with Phase II of the Connect America Fund for price-cap carriers. In 
addition, in an associated Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) , the Commission 
sought comment on a number of the issues you raise, including revising the current broadband 
performance obligations to require minimum speeds of 10 Mbps downstream, and applying the 
same performance obligations to all recipients of Phase II support and to rate-of-return carriers. 
In addition, the FNPRM seeks comment on the approaches that you raise in your letter, including 
lengthening the term of support, using the new speed standard to determine whether an area is 
served, and permitting recipients to substitute locations in partially served census blocks for 
locations in the unserved census block for which they receive support. We have received a 
robust record on these issues, and they are under consideration by Commission staff. As you 
suggest, these proposals would allow CAF II recipients more flexibility in meeting their 
performance obligations. We must consider these proposals in the contexts of our other policy 
goals, such as encouraging competition and private investment, to ensure that we are fulfilling 
our universal service mandate. 
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You have also expressed your concern that the Commission ensure that eligible 
households not be excluded from CAF II funding. We take this concern very seriously. We are 
currently fmalizing the list of census blocks that are eligible for support. To ensure that this list 
is as accurate as possible, we have a challenge process in place where parties can identify alleged 
problems with the broadband map. As part of that process, the Commission has received a total 
of 178,335 challenges from parties on the served/unserved status of census blocks. Commission 
staff is currently reviewing these challenges and seeking public comment on the challenges. We 
intend to make sure that a fair challenge process is conducted so that all eligible unserved areas 
qualify for funding. 
I welcome a dialogue with stakeholders as to how best to accomplish our shared 
objectives. I look forward to working with you as we continue reforming and modernizing the 
Universal Service Fund high-cost program - as well as other components of the Universal 
Service Fund - to ensure that all Americans have access to robust voice and broadband services. 
Please let me know if 1 can be of any further assistance. 
Tom Wheeler