FCC Bureau Denies Waiver, Ends Chattanooga Utility's Bid To Fund Rural Broadband Experiment
The FCC terminated a Chattanooga utility's bid for rural broadband experiment funds. The Wireline Bureau denied the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga (EPB) a waiver and extension of a June 2, 2015, deadline to submit proof of its designation as…
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an eligible telecom carrier (ETC) in all areas covered by its experiment, which had been provisionally selected to be funded with $710,147 to serve certain rural Tennessee areas. The bureau said the EPB filed a petition for a waiver and time extension so it could submit an ETC application to the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA). "We find no good cause to grant EPB's waiver petition," the bureau said in an order Monday in docket 10-90 that appeared in the next day's FCC Daily Digest. "EPB provides no explanation for, or defense of, its failure to submit its ETC application to the TRA at any point during the 90 days between the provisional selection of its bid and the associated June 2 deadline to submit proof of ETC designation. Moreover, even though EPB commits in its petition to keeping the FCC 'fully apprised of any and all developments throughout the application process at the TRA,' EPB has not filed any additional documentation or otherwise contacted the FCC since filing its waiver petition. Indeed, to this date, EPB has submitted no evidence that it ever even filed an ETC application with the TRA." The bureau found EPB had defaulted on its ETC obligation and removed its rural broadband experiment bid from further consideration. EPB had no comment Tuesday.