FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel met in Anchorage with the president...
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel met in Anchorage with the president of Alaska Communications Systems, according to an ex parte filing by ACS (http://xrl.us/bnnmpt). ACS discussed its recent acceptance of more than $4 million in Connect America Fund Phase I support,…
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saying the cost of construction of the necessary facilities “will be far higher than can be economically justified,” and that it was told by commission staff that many of the locations ACS intended to built to “may not meet the Commission’s definition of ‘unserved,'” a requirement of accepting the funds. “This new information has increased the already prohibitive cost so dramatically that ACS doubts that there is a viable business case for utilizing all of the CAF I incremental funds given the rules set forth by the FCC” without a partial waiver, it said. ACS discussed “flaws in the current CQBAT model that cause it to substantially understate the cost of service, and therefore the level of support required, in Alaska.” Those flaws would “sharply curtail” support in Phase II, ACS said. ACS also urged expedited commission action on the ACS Wireless petition for waiver of the annual deadline to receive universal service support. “ACS Wireless missed the filing deadline for this new mandatory report by five business days and, as a result, faces a loss of some $5 million in universal service support for the period January-March 2013, it said. “This is an extremely harsh penalty for a minor violation."