Because the FCC has not clarified the proper...
Because the FCC has not clarified the proper usage of incremental Connect America Fund support, the Wiggins Telephone Association now faces “significant hurdles” in its project to use stimulus funds to build fiber to the premises to about 450 homes…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
and 40 businesses, it told the FCC in a letter Thursday (http://bit.ly/15twaJC). WTA got a $2.1 million Broadband Initiatives Program award and $2.2 million loan from the Rural Utilities Service in 2009. It intended to bring broadband to unserved communities in northeast Colorado, serving 264 census blocks. “The viability of this project has been jeopardized,” WTA said. The FCC needs to clarify that incremental CAF support to price cap carriers “should not be used in areas to be served by Stimulus awardees,” it said. Otherwise, CenturyLink has indicated it would use CAF Phase I support to build out in 72 of the 264 census blocks, WTA said. “Even though the CAF Phase I requires price cap carriers to certify that funds are used in unserved areas, without excluding stimulus award areas, the rules do not account for areas that are in the process of being constructed,” it said.