February 11, 2025
Annual HUBB Filing Due March 3, 2025
The annual HUBB filing deadline is less than a month away. Carriers participating in modernized Connect America Fund (CAF) programs with defined fixed broadband buildout obligations have until March 3, 2025, to file and certify deployment data with USAC’s High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal showing where they built out mass-market, high-speed Internet service in calendar year 2024 or certify that they have “no locations to upload.”
This includes carriers participating in the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced ACAM) program, which will be filing in the HUBB for the first time and will be reporting deployment data using the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric), a single, standardized dataset of all locations in the U.S. where fixed broadband access service is available or could be installed.
Read the full announcement here.
February 6, 2025
USAC Encourages RDOF Carriers to Obtain Samples for Network Pre-Testing ASAP
USAC strongly encourages carriers participating in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to obtain their random samples of active subscriber locations for quarterly network speed and latency pre-testing starting this year as soon as possible so that they have enough time to complete a full week of pre-testing at these locations before the end of the first quarter in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Performance Measures testing framework.
RDOF carriers that have not already done so should begin this process now – starting by updating their broadband deployment data in the High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal to be as complete and accurate as possible – and then uploading their subscriber location data into the PMM and generating their random samples for pre-testing. Read the full announcement here.
February 6, 2025
USAC Encourages Carriers to Obtain New Samples for Network Testing ASAP
USAC strongly encourages all carriers that must obtain new random samples of active subscriber locations for ongoing quarterly network speed and latency testing in 2025 to begin this process as soon as possible so that they have enough time to complete a full week of testing at the new locations before the end of the first quarter in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Performance Measures testing framework.
Carriers participating in the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Original ACAM), Revised Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Revised ACAM), Rural Broadband Experiments (RBE) and Alaska Plan funds just finished their fourth full year of network performance measures testing mandated by the FCC – and their eighth and final quarter of testing with their previous random samples of CAF-supported broadband locations with active subscribers – and must therefore obtain new samples for quarterly testing that starts in the first quarter of 2025. The FCC requires carriers to obtain new random samples of subscriber locations after two years of network testing.
USAC strongly encourages carriers that have not already done so to begin this process now – starting by updating their broadband deployment data in the High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal to be as complete and accurate as possible – and then uploading their subscriber location data into the PMM and generating new samples. Read the full announcement here.
January 28, 2025
Compliance Reports For 2023 Testing Now Available for CAF BLS Carriers
Carriers participating in the Connect America Fund Broadband Loop Support (CAF BLS) program can now access annual compliance reports displaying results from network performance measures testing conducted in 2023 through the USAC Performance Measures Module (PMM). These compliance reports include details at the Study Area Code (SAC) level about the percent of upload and download speed tests and latency tests aggregated across all four quarters of 2023 that met the network performance standards mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) performance measures compliance framework. Please see PMM Compliance Calculations for a detailed explanation of how the PMM calculates compliance.
CAF BLS carriers that were out of compliance for 2023 testing have the option to request a new and statistically valid random sample of CAF BLS locations with active subscribers to continue testing for an additional four quarters – starting in the second quarter of 2025 – in order to get back into compliance with FCC network performance requirements and avoid recovery of support.
This option is available to carriers that are still participating in the CAF BLS program, which is subject to ongoing quarterly network testing requirements in 2025. It is also available to carriers that transitioned to Enhanced ACAM from CAF BLS in 2024. These carriers would need to resume CAF BLS quarterly testing with a new and statistically valid random sample. (See FCC DA 23-1131). Read the full announcement here.
January 2, 2025
USAC Encourages Carriers to Submit and Certify Fourth Quarter Network Testing Results by Jan. 7
USAC encourages carriers to submit and certify results from network speed and latency testing conducted in the fourth quarter of 2024 at a random sample of broadband subscriber locations supported by the Connect America Fund (CAF) in the USAC Performance Measures Module (PMM) by Tues., Jan. 7, 2025, so that USAC can produce fourth quarter compliance reports to help carriers track their progress in meeting the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Performance Measures compliance framework.
USAC provides quarterly compliance reports to carriers that certify their test results within one week of the end of the quarter – no later than Tues., Jan. 7, 2025, for results from the fourth quarter of 2024 – to help them track their progress in meeting FCC speed and latency metrics, address any shortfalls and submit any missing data. Read the full announcement here.
