FCC Announces All Of Puerto Rico To Have Access To High-Speed Broadband Service As A Result Of Uniendo A Puerto Rico Fund
Nearly a Third of Locations Will Get Speeds of At Least 1 Gbps with All Other Locations Getting Speeds of At Least 100 Mbps
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-usf-support-high-speed-broadband-puerto-rico
WASHINGTON, November 2, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau today announced that funding through Stage 2 of the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund will result in all locations in Puerto Rico having access to fixed broadband service
with speeds of at least 100 Mbps. And nearly one-third of those locations will have access to fixed broadband service with speeds of at least 1 Gbps.
Two winning applicants in the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Stage 2 Competitive Process submitted bids for $127.1 million in funding over 10 years covering more than 1.2 million locations through a competitive process that awarded support for fixed voice and broadband services based on the weighting of price and network performance, including speed, latency, usage allowance, and resiliency. Liberty Communications has committed to offering service to over 914,000 locations, and Puerto Rico Telephone Company will offer service to over 308,000 locations.
This seems like very good news. I am quite skeptical this can be accomplished per the provided numbers though.
Seems you could do something with Wireless much easier, guaranteeing access to speed of +/- 300mbits by using the CBAND spectrum that is coming available. Why run wires to the home at all?
Skeptical about the timing and scoping of the project.
Maybe it is for wireless. That would be more likely with those numbers, but still quite unbelievable.
My company does low voltage cabling. We charge more than $100 per drop to provide CAT6 in a newly constructed office building. It would be impossible to provide wires to 1.2 million locations across PR for $100/each.
Brandon
I would guess the dollar numbers represent the amount that they are receiving in incentives and not the total cost of construction.
Shane
No WISP’s just the local CLEC and cable company. Given the terrain in PR a wireless delivery application might suit best.
The press release doesn’t reference at all, but Aeronet (the largest WISP in Puerto Rico, and an operator of gigabit class service in MDUs) has been testing Facebook/Terragraph 802.11ay 60 GHz based, point to multipoint last mile stuff for a while now. Very short range, high speed, high capacity.
They use it in addition to a number of licensed band and 71-86 GHz PTP links.
https://www.peeringdb.com/net/20459
Various 802.11ay based PtMP solutions are about to hit the market from 4 or 5 different competing vendors.
WISPs really are best to accommodate these kinds of needs, but Washington has a hard time understanding bang for the buck.