Rural Cellular Companies File Recon Petiton Against Application Procedures PN
Several cellular carriers filed a petition for reconsideration against the incentive auction application procedure public notice because of its limitations on which applicants are eligible for Rural Service Provider Bidding Credits, said a document posted online in docket 14-252 Tuesday.…
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The credits, designed to make auction participation easier for rural companies, are limited to “providers of commercial communications services,” excluding carriers wholly owned by rural service providers, said Bulloch Cellular, Pineland Cellular and Planters Rural Cellular, member companies of PBP Group, which is also listed as a petitioner. “Limiting Rural Service Provider Bidding Credit eligibility in this manner could have a chilling effect on the use of innovative business relationships between rural service providers and dampen Incentive Auction competition,” said the petition. The PN “prevents an LLC comprised of rural service providers” from being eligible for a Rural Service Provider Bidding Credit, “on its face,” the petition said. The FCC should change the rules so that an entity wholly owned by rural service providers could receive the credit, the petition said.