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  "description": "Agency also ‘streamlines’ broadband data collection and mapping at its May open meeting.\n",
  "path": "/fcc-considers-satellite-changes-to-universal-services-high-cost-fund/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-20T18:26:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "May meeting",
    "proceeding",
    "to phase out most",
    "an order",
    "updates to its Disaster Information Reporting System",
    "a robocall enforcement proceeding"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, May 20, 2026 – The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched an inquiry into the future of its high-cost universal service programs, signaling an expanded role for low-Earth orbit satellite services.\n\nAdopted at the FCC’s May meeting, the proceeding raised questions about the future of the Universal Service Fund after SpaceX urged FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** last week to phase out most of its $4.5 billion High‑Cost program, arguing that expanding satellite broadband services have erased much of the access gaps that subsidies were designed to fix.\n\nAsked if the FCC’s proposed rulemaking incorporated changes sought by SpaceX, Wireline Competition Bureau chief **Joseph Calascione** said the item does not predetermine outcomes or adopt specific proposals from the company, but instead kicks off a substantive debate.\n\n“SpaceX did put a lot of interesting ideas into the record,” Calascione said. “However, the item tees up broad questions without making any predeterminations on specifics or binding us to any particular direction at this point. It kicks off the substantive debate that will happen in the comment cycle.”\n\nThe proposed rulemaking argues that of roughly 9 percent of broadband service locations that still lack access to terrestrial 100 * 20 Megabits per second (Mbps, upload by download) service, more than 99 percent of those locations are now covered by a LEO satellite provider advertising speeds of at least 100 * 20 Mbps.\n\nAgainst that backdrop, the FCC is seeking comment on whether carriers should lose support in areas where qualifying LEO service is available, whether some extremely expensive locations should be exempted from future terrestrial buildout requirements, and whether the FCC should weigh fiber, cable, fixed wireless, and satellite services equally when determining whether an area is adequately served.\n\n### _Gomez questions whether satellite service can match capacity and latency_\n\nDemocratic Commissioner**Anna Gomez** , while supporting the proposal, questioned whether satellite services can match the long-term capacity and latency performance of fiber networks. Still, she said the proceeding “asks the right questions about how to modernize [USF] mechanisms and support.”\n\n“Satellite is a wonderful service. It is great for where we cannot have other technological solutions, but we want to make sure that consumers everywhere get the type of capacity, the type of latency, the type of service at affordable costs – as is required under statute,” Gomez said.\n\n“Our policy decisions must rely on fact, transparent performance metrics, and a clear understanding of what next generation services demand from them,” Gomez said.\n\nChairman **Brendan Carr** said the proceeding comes at a critical moment, as several of the relevant high-cost support mechanisms are set to sunset in 2026 and 2028 absent FCC action.\n\nThe proposal considers whether to sunset or replace several high-cost support mechanisms, including multiple Alternative Connect America Cost Model, or A-CAM, programs set to expire later this decade.\n\n###  _FCC ‘streamlines’ broadband data collection_\n\nThe FCC also approved an order altering the agency’s broadband data collection and mapping processes, including changes to the challenge process used to correct the National Broadband Map.\n\nThe proposal would eliminate requirements that service providers be directly notified of Fabric challenges and have an opportunity to respond during the challenge cycle.\n\nInstead, the FCC will rely on monthly public data releases and allow providers to file follow-on challenges after updated versions of the national broadband map are published.\n\nThe FCC framed the effort as simplifying and speeding up Fabric updates to avoid delays in map production; however, critics argued it would weaken visibility and participation.\n\nDigital rights group Public Knowledge argued the proposed changes to the data collection would negatively impact the map’s effectiveness.\n\n“Today, the Commission is once again invoking the term ‘streamlining’ as justification for creating a permission structure that allows providers to evade accountability while consumers experience the consequences of distorted broadband maps,” **Alisa Valentin** , broadband policy director at Public Knowledge, said in a shared statement.\n\nThe proposal also removes requirements for providers to submit certain “grandfathered” fixed and mobile broadband availability data, proposes incorporating the use of data collected by drones, and relaxes mobile crowdsourced data requirements**.**\n\nCarr highlighted what he called “significant progress” made in version 8.0 of the National Broadband Map released earlier this week. He claimed 96 percent of U.S. locations now have access to 100 * 20 Mbps service.\n\nThe FCC considers 112 million locations to be served, while 4.4 million continue to lack access, representing a 64 percent decrease from the FCC’s inaugural map released in June 2002, Carr said.\n\nThe order was unanimously approved with no objections from Commissioners Gomez or **Olivia Trusty**.\n\nThe FCC’s broadband maps have faced longstanding criticism from states, researchers, and consumer advocates who say they can both overstate and understate coverage, raising concerns about their reliability as the basis for allocating federal broadband funding.\n\nThe FCC also unanimously approved two additional orders, including updates to its Disaster Information Reporting System and a robocall enforcement proceeding aimed at strengthening carrier traceback obligations and speeding up responses to suspected illegal call traffic",
  "title": "FCC Considers Satellite Changes to Universal Service's High Cost Fund",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-21T21:47:06.794Z"
}