Connect America Fund Webinar: Filing with the HUBB Portal. High Cost Program December 13, 2017

Transcription

1 Connect America Fund Webinar: Filing with the HUBB Portal High Cost Program December 13,

2 Housekeeping Use the Audio section of your control panel to select an audio source Turn on your computer s speaker, or Use the call-in instructions (including audio PIN) Audience Q&A Submit your questions using the Questions box in your webinar control panel We will answer questions at the end of the presentation

3 Welcome Today s Speakers: Joelle Tessler Senior Manager of User Support, High Cost Tim Weith Senior Manager of Product and Program Management, High Cost William Johnson Director of GIS, USAC

4 Connect America: Modernizing High Cost Joelle Tessler Senior Manager of User Support, High Cost

5 Agenda Connect America: Modernizing High Cost Joelle Tessler, Senior Manager of User Support, High Cost The HUBB Portal: Tracking Broadband Deployment Tim Weith, Senior Manager of Product and Program Management, High Cost Geolocation 101 and CAF Map William Johnson, Director of GIS, USAC Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

6 Connect America Program Goals Preserve and advance universal availability of voice and broadband service Ensure that rates for voice and broadband service are reasonably comparable in urban and rural areas Contain administrative costs and minimize USF contribution for ratepayers through efficient, effective program management Ensure transparency and accountability in use of funds By the Numbers Annual Budget: $4.5 billion Eight Legacy Funds and Eight Modernized Connect America Funds Carrier type Legacy Voice Maintaining Service Cost based funding Forms-based reporting requirements Beneficiary audits High Cost Modernized Voice and broadband Maintaining and expanding service Incentive-based support System-based portal validates deployment In-program verification of deployment Connect America

7 HUBB Portal: Tracking Broadband Deployment Tim Weith Senior Manager of Product and Program Management, High Cost

8 High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) Portal A system that collects the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of locations where carriers are deploying broadband using Connect America support A means for collecting location-specific service availability data from carriers across all Connect America Fund (modernized) programs millions of individual records Real-time validation of data submissions Serves as a platform for verification and compliance Provides the foundation for the mapping function targeted for 2018 Began with the 7/1/17 filing for Price Cap carriers Next filing milestone 3/1/18 for all carriers in the modernized funds Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

9 HUBB Portal Design Input Outreach for carrier feedback crucial to development of the HUBB Additional feedback from Rate of Return carriers prior to March 1 filing deadline Ongoing approach to ensure USAC systems are easier to use and reduce administrative overhead for carriers 12 Price Cap Carriers 60+ Rate of Return Carriers 6 Industry Trade Associations 20 Cost Consultants and Engineering Consultants

10 HUBB Filing Obligations for March 1, 2018 Funds That Must File Deployment Data in the HUBB Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM) Rural Broadband Experiments (RBE) Alaska Plan (other than carriers with individualized performance plans that only require them to maintain service at existing levels) Connect America Fund-Broadband Loop Support (CAF-BLS - less than 80 percent deployed) HUBB will be accepting Alaska Middle Mile and RBE Deployment Data in early 2018 Deployment Data for all other funds can be entered now Get Started Early to File and Validate Locations! Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

11 HUBB Filing Obligations for March 1, 2018 On March 1, 2018, the following funds must file their latitude and longitude coordinates for all locations deployed in the following years: CAF Phase II: locations deployed in 2017 ACAM: locations deployed in 2017 RBE: locations deployed in 2017 Alaska Plan wireline end-user locations deployed in 2017 (and 2016 on an optional basis) and Middle Mile Map CAF BLS: locations deployed from May 26, 2016 December 31, 2017 Get Started Early to File and Validate Locations! Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

12 HUBB Data Filing Process Compile Data Enter Data Validate Data Certify Data Use templates to compile location data, using Geolocation best practices Upload template with location data to the HUBB Location data validated by HUBB, address any errors or warnings Certifying Officer certifies location data in the HUBB Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

13 HUBB Data Accuracy Orders require carriers to provide accurate location data Location GPS coordinates should be 6 decimals Warning if only 5 decimals Error rejected if 4 decimals Actual Dates of Deployment Real addresses Validation will reject non-valid addresses (i.e.; NA and TBD ) Impact of Certifying Non Accurate Data Potential to be in default of obligations Payments can be withheld Get Started Early to Compile Accurate Data! Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

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17 When you are ready to upload a CSV file of Locations, click Manage Uploads on the navigation menu Universal Service Administrative Co. 17

18 Click here for the select file dialog box to select a file from your computer Download current CSV template here 2017 Universal Service Administrative Co. 18

19 The Progress Bar indicates that your data is uploading to the HUBB. You must stay on this page until the upload finishes or your data will be lost Universal Service Administrative Co. 19

20 This file is being Validated by HUBB to identify any data errors or issues Universal Service Administrative Co. 20

21 On the File Upload Details screen, you will see a summary of your Errors and Warnings, as well as a graph that breaks them down by type 2017 Universal Service Administrative Co. 21

22 Click on the Pencil icon to edit a specific location record. Scroll down the page to see a table with all of your locations with Errors and Warnings highlighted. Hovering over an Error or Warning will display a Tooltip with the data issue. Use the Filters above the table to narrow the list of locations by Type of Issue Universal Service Administrative Co.

23 A screen will appear that shows all of the Data Fields for a location. Here you can change the data that contains Errors or Warnings 2017 Universal Service Administrative Co. 23

24 When finished reviewing and updating your data, you can Save or Delete it. If you Delete your data, it will not be saved to HUBB and you will need to re-upload it Universal Service Administrative Co. 24

25 Once you have corrected and saved your data, click Deployment Year Details to begin the Certification process Universal Service Administrative Co. 25

26 Select a location record, then click on Certify to certify it. You must be a Certifying Officer to complete this step Universal Service Administrative Co. 26

27 Type your name as displayed in the bracket, then the Certify button will become active. Click it to certify the data Universal Service Administrative Co. 27

28 Success! 2017 Universal Service Administrative Co. 28

29 HUBB Tips Collect accurate location data use geo-location best practices Start filing early to identify and fix any data errors Ensure all of your users can successfully log into HUBB Check the version of your Internet browser (more being tested, check Help for currently supported versions) Google Chrome version 55 Firefox version 50 Microsoft Internet Explorer version 11 Safari version 10 Download and use the most current version of the template Found in HUBB and on HUBB resource page Make sure to Certify your data after it has been saved Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

30 HUBB Resources For more information about the HUBB, please visit the HUBB Resources Page on the High Cost Website: Resources include: Links to FCC Public Notices and Orders FAQs A Guide to Geolocation Practices Data Formatting Instructions Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

31 High Cost Support Center Universal Service Administrative Company. All rights reserved.

32 Geolocation Best Practices and Pitfalls and CAF Map Bill Johnson GIS Director, USAC

33 Sample record layout for new HUBB data (may vary by fund and with new HUBB releases) It s GIS data! 33

34 What is Geolocation? Geolocation is the process used to collect latitude and longitude (lat/long) coordinates representing a specific location on the earth. Latitude: Longitude:

35 Geolocation Data Collection Guidance FCC Public Notice defines locations to be collected Whenever possible, location coordinates should represent the structure being served Ideally at a point inside the structure footprint ( rooftop coordinate), such as: the network connection point at the structure front door At a minimum, coordinates should represent a point on the correct property or parcel of land where service is being delivered. Try to collect coordinates as close as possible to the structure being served Do not submit coordinates at the network termination node or pedestal used to serve the location For all methods, lat/long coordinates must be reported in decimal degrees format, to at least six decimal places Universal Service Administrative Co. 35

36 Three Geolocation Methods 1. Geolocation with GPS in the Field - Best results Performed in the field, with a smartphone, tablet or other GPS mobile device to collect Lat/Long Yields very high-quality results, removes any ambiguity and eliminates the need for additional data clean-up 2. Desktop Geolocation using Web-based Maps/Imagery - Very good results A manual process performed in an office, using a web application, when it is not feasible to go into the field Yields very good results, assuming that the web-based maps and imagery are good quality and that the location can be properly identified 3. Automated Address Geocoding - Good results Automates the process of converting large batches of street addresses into Lat/Long coordinates Has the most room for error. Accuracy depends on the quality of the input address data and the quality of the underlying reference data, which can be highly variable in rural areas 2017 Universal Service Administrative Co. 36

37 Automated Geocoder Potential Errors Rural addresses can be difficult to accurately geocode since reference data may be unreliable or incomplete. Rural geocoders typically use an interpolation process based on street address ranges: #1500 geocodes here In reality, uneven distribution may mean #1500 is far from the geocoded location Other potential accuracy issues include: Lat/Long result on the wrong side of the street (odd/even address polarity) Lat/Long result not offset from street centerline, greatly increasing risk that point falls outside of eligible area Geocoder may cascade to less granular geography: o No match at street level, but match at ZIP Code, so lat/long is for centroid of ZIP Code area 2017 Universal Service Administrative Co. 37

38 Examples from HUBB data submitted by carriers in July

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43 Illustrative Examples of the new Connect America Fund Broadband Map coming in 2018

44 Summary data by State

45 Filters on right side enable specific views of data

46 Zoom to CAF-supported broadband deployment locations

47 Questions? Corporate Goals and Strategy Update March