Welcome to the home page for the Wireline Competition Bureau's (WCB) cost model virtual workshop, through which the Bureau is soliciting input from the public on Connect America Fund (Connect America) Phase II cost model design and inputs. A notice announcing this virtual workshop was released on September 12, 2012.

The virtual workshop will take place over a period of weeks sufficient to allow public input on all material issues. Discussion on multiple related topics will be facilitated through the various subject matter-specific discussion forums listed below. The Bureau will announce which topics will be discussed in which timeframes by Public Notice and on this page.

If you would like to make longer posts, we encourage you to place them in the Commission’s public comment site (ECFS) as an ex parte and place a summary of the post with the relevant URL in the forum. Similarly, if you would like to include an attachment to a post, include the URL for the attachment in your post. To ensure security, the forums will not support live links or attachments. ECFS can be reached here.

At the close of the virtual workshop, an electronic copy of all posts will be placed in the official record of the relevant dockets, much as a transcript of a hearing would be placed in the record.

If you have any questions about the format or operation of the virtual workshop or have any difficulties accessing any of the subject matter forums, please contact Katie King at 202-418-1500, katie.king@fcc.gov.

Comment Guidelines

Comments are moderated for conformity to the following guidelines:

• Comments will be part of the official rulemaking record.
• Commenters must identify themselves by name. Anonymous comments will not be included in the rulemaking record.
• Comments must directly address the specific topics identified in the virtual workshop forum and the particular issue raised. We reserve the right to move comments that do not deal with the particular issue being addressed in one discussion forum to other discussion forums as appropriate.
• Commenters should follow the same decorum they would in a face to face workshop.
• Comments containing personal attacks or abusive language will not be included.

Issues for Comments

Please visit each of the following posts to provide comments on specific issues.

• Determining Customer Locations
• Clustering
• Routing
• Capturing Variation by Geography
• Inter-Office Transport Cost
• Voice Capability
• Wire Center Facilities
• Sizing of Network Facilities
• The Use of Company-Specific Values
• Calculating Opex
• Determining the Annualized Cost of Capital Investments
• Determining the Sharing Factor for Outside Plant
• Plant Mix
• Labor-Cost Adjustment Based on Location
• Connect America Cost Model Platform
• Calculating Average Per-Unit Costs/Take Rate
• Assigning Shared Costs
• Connect America Cost Model (Version 2)
• Income and Property Tax
• FTTP Capital Cost Inputs
• Determining the Fraction of Supported Locations that will Receive Speeds of 6 Mbps/1.5 Mbps or Greater
• Rate of Return for Connect America Cost Model

Please see each of the following Public Notices for additional detail on the specific issues raised in the Virtual Workshop.

• CA Phase II Virtual Workshop Announcement Public Notice (9/12/12)
• CA Phase II Virtual Workshop Commencement Public Notice (10/9/12)
• CA Phase II Virtual Workshop - Discussion Topics Public Notice (10/19/12)
• CA Phase II Virtual Workshop - Additional Discussion Topics Public Notice (10/19/12)
• Connect America Cost Model, Version One (12/10/12)
• CA Phase II Virtual Workshop - Further Discussion Topics Public Notice (12/20/12)
• Connect America Cost Model, Version Two (1/17/13)
• CA Phase II Virtual Workshop - Further Questions for Comment (2/5/13)