The Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Wireline Competition Bureau (together, Bureaus) have released an Order on Reconsideration that will increase the maximum distance between Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge Process speed test measurements from 500 to 800 meters and the associated buffer radius from 250 to 400 meters.
The Order, adopted on the Bureaus’ own motion, was prompted by new evidence in the record submitted by the Rural Wireless Association, Inc. (RWA) last month. RWA had expressed concern that use of a ¼ kilometer buffer radius would leave the vast majority of square kilometer grid cells in several different service areas unmeasurable using drive tests – and therefore tremendously difficult to challenge.
