Connecting America: An Analysis of the FCC's Connect America Fund Phase II Auction
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The FCC’s Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction is the largest broadband expansion program to date, awarding $1.5 billion in subsidies over the next 10 years. The FCC set two policy objectives for this program: (1) achieve universal internet service access; and (2) maximize the value Americans receive, balanced with cost efficiencies. This thesis analyzes the extent to which the CAF auction achieved the FCC’s second policy objective by estimating the effects of reserve price per household on predicting which census block groups received bids in the CAF auction. Internet service providers placed more bids in areas with a higher reserve price per household, not in areas with higher expected demand. While cost efficient, this bidding behavior does not maximize the total value Americans will receive from the auction. To better align future internet expansion programs’ results with the FCC policy objectives, I make the following recommendations: (1) encourage more satellite-based providers to participate in future auctions; (2) re-evaluate reserve prices to align providers’ and the FCC’s estimates of costs; and (3) limit the total amount of support a provider may bid for in the auction.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 20, 2020 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Millard, Alex |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Broadband Expansion |
|---|---|
| Subject | Connect America Fund |
| Subject | Universal Coverage |
| Subject | Maximizing Benefits |
| Subject | Cost Efficiency |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Millard, Alex. (2020). Connecting America: An Analysis of the FCC's Connect America Fund Phase II Auction. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/hq362rp4779
Collection
Stanford University, Public Policy Program, Undergraduate Honors Theses and Practicum Projects
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- Contact
- amillard@stanford.edu
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