Mobility Fund Phase II: Challenge Process
The Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge Process is designed to ensure the success of the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) Auction, which will determine how the FCC will direct up to $4.53 billion in support over 10 years to bring advanced wireless services to unserved areas primarily in rural America.
MF-II is critically important to preserving and advancing 4G LTE service in areas of the country that lack unsubsidized service with minimum download speeds of at least 5 megabits per second. MF-II will use a reverse auction to award ongoing support to winning bidders that commit to offer service in eligible areas. The Challenge Process provides stakeholders with an opportunity to submit evidence that an area should be deemed eligible for support. To access the Challenge Process portal, please click here.
HOW IT WORKS
INITIAL ELIGIBILTY: To determine which areas should be eligible for MF-II support, the FCC collected standardized, up-to-date 4G LTE coverage data from mobile providers and supplemented that data with existing USAC subsidy information. The initial eligible areas map can be found on the FCC website.
THE CHALLENGE PROCESS: The MF-II Challenge Process gives mobile providers, as well as state and local government entities, the opportunity to contest the coverage data used to determine initial eligibility. Using a new USAC portal, challengers can submit speed test measurements taken in areas initially deemed ineligible to demonstrate that existing coverage is below the 5 megabits per second minimum speed benchmark.
THE RESPONSE: Mobile providers that serve a challenged area will have the opportunity to respond to a challenge by submitting their own speed test data and speed reduction reports through the USAC portal.
FINAL ELIGIBILITY: When the challenge process is complete, the FCC will determine and publish the final list of areas eligible for the MF-II Auction.
The portal opens on March 29, 2018, and will remain open through November 26, 2018. To request access, please fill out the portal access form on the FCC website.The FCC user access policy permits up to three users per entity. To request access for additional users, please file a separate portal access form.
For more information about the Mobility Fund Phase II and the Challenge Process, including links to relevant FCC orders and an FCC webinar, check out the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase II website.