Rural Telcos Petition FCC To Reconsider Parts of Rate-of-Return USF Overhaul
Rural telcos asked the FCC to reconsider parts of its rate-of-return USF order aimed at helping small carriers maintain and expand broadband service in high-cost areas (see 1603300065). The FCC should address issues of "sufficiency and reasonable comparability," a "cost…
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recovery "black hole" and broadband cost "model election budget issues," among other things, said NTCA in its petition Wednesday in docket 10-90. A WTA email said its petition seeks reconsideration in four areas: "the Commission should reconsider and strengthen its requirements for qualifications as 'unsubsidized competitors' to ensure that customers in affected 'competitive' areas do not suffer loss or degradation of service; the Commission should clarify and expand its rules regarding the treatment of transactions after the ACAM [cost model] and Rate of Return paths are implemented; the Order’s build-out obligations do not consider virtually certain price increases and delays regarding fiber optic cable and construction contractors; and the Order’s benchmark and budgetary controls render it unlikely that retail broadband rates can comply with reasonably comparability ceilings." A Madison Telephone Co. petition asked the FCC to eliminate a “parent trap” rule, which governs high-cost USF support when rural exchanges are sold or transferred.