Federal Communications Commission FCC 18-10 Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) Inquiry Concerning Deployment of Advanced ) GN Docket No. 17-199 Telecommunications Capability to All Americans ) in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion ) 2018 BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT REPORT Adopted: February 2, 2018 Released: February 2, 2018 By the Commission: Chairman Pai and Commissioners O’Rielly and Carr issuing separate statements; Commissioners Clyburn and Rosenworcel dissenting and issuing separate statements. TABLE OF CONTENTS Para. I. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................1 II. BACKGROUND.....................................................................................................................................7 III. STATUTORY FRAMEWORK FOR SECTION 706 INQUIRY...........................................................9 A. Evaluating Deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability to All Americans in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion ................................................................................................9 1. Progress in Deployment ...........................................................................................................10 2. Defining Advanced Telecommunications Capability ..............................................................14 B. Demographic Information...............................................................................................................40 C. International Comparisons ..............................................................................................................41 D. Schools and Classrooms .................................................................................................................42 IV. BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT AND AVAILABILITY...................................................................43 A. Data Sources and Methodologies....................................................................................................43 B. Broadband Deployment Estimates..................................................................................................49 1. Deployment of Fixed Advanced Telecommunications Capability ..........................................50 2. Deployment of Mobile LTE .....................................................................................................52 3. Deployment of Fixed Services and Mobile LTE......................................................................53 4. Additional Deployment Estimates............................................................................................57 C. Demographic Data ..........................................................................................................................60 D. International Data............................................................................................................................64 E. Schools and Classrooms Data.........................................................................................................70 F. Adoption Data.................................................................................................................................72 V. COMMISSION EFFORTS TO CLOSE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE.......................................................79 VI. SECTION 706 FINDING......................................................................................................................94 VII.ORDERING CLAUSE..........................................................................................................................99 APPENDIX A – List of Comments and Reply Comments APPENDIX B – Table and Chart Index APPENDIX C – Additional Data Source Information and Definitions APPENDIX D – Americans (Millions) With Access to Fixed Terrestrial 25 Mbps/3 Mbps Service and Mobile LTE by State and District of Columbia APPENDIX E – Americans (Thousands) With Access to Fixed Terrestrial 25 Mbps/3 Mbps Services Federal Communications Commission FCC 18-10 and/or Mobile LTE with a Minimum Advertised Speed of 5 Mbps/1 Mbps in the U.S. Territories APPENDIX F – Demographic Analysis of Americans With Access to Fixed Terrestrial 25 Mbps/3 Mbps Services and/or Mobile LTE with a Minimum Advertised Speed of 5 Mbps/1 Mbps by State, County or County Equivalent APPENDIX G – Americans (Thousands) Living on Tribal Lands with Access to Fixed Terrestrial 25 Mbps/3 Mbps Services and/or Mobile LTE with a Minimum Advertised Speed of 5 Mbps/1 Mbps by State APPENDIX H – Overall Adoption Rate for Fixed Terrestrial Services by State and District of Columbia (2016) I. INTRODUCTION 1. Americans turn to advanced telecommunications capability for every facet of daily life, using both fixed and mobile broadband services to communicate and to access the Internet. Fixed and mobile broadband services provide Americans, especially those in rural and remote areas of the country, access to numerous employment, education, entertainment, and health care opportunities. Moreover, American consumers today expect broadband at home, at work, and while on the go. 2. Recognizing the importance of high-speed broadband Internet access, Congress tasked the Commission with “encourag[ing] the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans.”1 To ensure the Commission took this obligation seriously, Congress required the Commission to report on our progress each year.2 3. The last time the Commission issued a broadband deployment report in 2016, it found “that advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion”3—in other words, that Commission policy was not adequately “encourag[ing]” the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability. 4. With this report we can confirm that was true: In the wake of the 2015 Title II Order,4 the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability slowed dramatically. From 2012 to 2014, the two years preceding the Title II Order, fixed terrestrial broadband Internet access was deployed to 29.9 million people who never had it before, including 1 million people on Tribal lands. In the following two years, new deployments dropped 55 percent, reaching only 13.5 million people, including only 330,000 people on Tribal lands. From 2012 to 2014, mobile LTE broadband was newly deployed to 34.2 million people, including 21.5 million rural Americans. In the following two years, new mobile deployments dropped 83 percent, reaching only 5.8 million more Americans, including only 2.3 million more rural Americans. And from 2012 to 2014, the number of Americans without access to both fixed terrestrial broadband and mobile broadband fell by more than half—from 72.1 million to 34.5 million. But the pace was nearly three times slower after the adoption of the 2015 Title II Order, with only 13.9 million Americans newly getting access to both over the next two years. 5. That’s why over the past year, the Commission has followed the congressional command and taken repeated “action[s] to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to 1 47 U.S.C. § 1302(a). Congress also trusted this responsibility to state commissions. See id. 2 47 U.S.C. § 1302(b). 3 Inquiry Concerning the Deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability to All Americans in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion, and Possible Steps to Accelerate Such Deployment Pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as Amended by the Broadband Data Improvement Act, GN Docket No. 15-191, 2016 Broadband Progress Report, 31 FCC Rcd 699, 701, para. 2 (2016) (2016 Report). 4 Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet, WC Docket No. 14-28, Report and Order on Remand, Declaratory Ruling, and Order, 30 FCC Rcd 5601 (2015) (Title II Order). 2 Federal Communications Commission FCC 18-10 infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”5 Most notably since the last report, the Commission has taken concrete actions to reduce regulatory barriers to the deployment of wireline and wireless infrastructure, constituted a Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee to assist in these efforts, reformed the legacy high-cost universal service program to ensure accountability and introduce opportunities for new entrants through reverse auctions, modernized our rules for business data services to facilitate facilities-based competition, authorized new uses of wireless spectrum both terrestrially and in the sky, and repealed the heavy-handed regulations of the Title II Order by returning to a light-touch approach to broadband Internet access. 6. With these changes in policy to accelerate deployment, we believe that the Commission is now encouraging the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans. That finding, however, does not undermine our continued commitment to closing the digital divide. Far too many Americans remain unable to access high-speed broadband Internet access, and we have much work to do if we are going to continue to encourage the deployment of broadband to all Americans, including those in rural areas, those on Tribal lands, and those in schools and classrooms. II. BACKGROUND 7. Section 706(b) requires the Commission to annually “initiate a notice of inquiry concerning the availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans (including,