Alaska Communications Systems seeks a waiver of FCC Connect America...
Alaska Communications Systems seeks a waiver of FCC Connect America Fund Phase I incremental support rules, to let it use all of the $4 million it accepted for broadband buildout. The rules require deployment of broadband to one household for…
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every $775 accepted. When ACS accepted the commission’s offer, it thought it could fulfill that requirement. But a “more detailed analysis” showed that given the high cost of deployment, “the business case for broadband was untenable in many areas where ACS had originally intended to deploy broadband,” the company said. Wireline Bureau staff also informed ACS that hundreds of census blocks ACS had initially targeted for deployment were “ineligible as a result of the presence of fixed wireless broadband providers,” the firm said. The telco is now able to deploy broadband to only 2,100 qualifying locations, using $1.7 million of the funding, it said. To enable it to use the rest, ACS is seeking a waiver of either the $775 per location rule; a waiver of the definition of “broadband”; or a waiver of the definition of “unserved” to ignore the presence of fixed wireless broadband providers, it said.