The FCC Wireline Bureau will relegate Puerto Ricans...
The FCC Wireline Bureau will relegate Puerto Ricans to “second-class digital citizenship” if it reduces support to Puerto Rico Telephone Co. (PRT) in Phase II of the Connect America Fund, the telco said in a letter to commissioners Wednesday (http://bit.ly/15puMDB).…
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“Common sense” dictates that the bureau should allocate a “meaningful portion” of the $1.8 billion fund to Puerto Ricans, but “recent bureau actions” indicate the bureau might “slash” PRT’s support by close to 90 percent, the company said. PRT submitted a white paper to “respectfully remind the Bureau of the Commission’s directive to accommodate the ‘unique circumstances’ of insular areas, which include significantly higher costs as well as significant lower ’take rates.'” That precludes the insular providers from recovering the costs of broadband over a high percentage of households, PRT said. Reducing support by such a great amount would be “flawed” both legally and as a matter of broadband policy, PRT said.